EasyStrap helps customers maintain the health of their employees through a back-friendly and ergonomic strapping process. This means more satisfied employees and fewer sick days. The company helps companies to secure their products of consistent quality as well as quickly and easily on pallets. This matching charging unit fuse gives them security, saves nerves and reduces costs.
Interview with Michael Holzgethan, Co-founder & CEO of EasyStrap Packaging GmbH.
What are the primary performance characteristics that distinguish your product/solution from competing offerings in your segment?
Michael Holzgethan: EasyStrap Packaging offers ergonomic, flexible and mobile pallet strapping machines for securing products on pallets. Our machines help retain the operator’s health and well-being and significantly reduce sick days and absenteeism. Manual load unit securing of goods on a pallet with plastic strap requires the operator to bend down twice and walk around the pallet once for every strapping. 100 strapped pallets per day mean that he needs to bend down 50.000 times per year and walk around the pallet 25.000 times per year. With EasyStrap, bending down and walking around the pallet can be eliminated.
Which technological innovations or features provide your solution with a competitive advantage in industrial applications?
M.H: In addition to maintaining and supporting the health of operators, strapping pallets with EasyStrap reduces the time required by up to 50% as compared to manual equipment. Our machines come equipped with two motors that drive two chains, resulting in a higher speed when guiding the plastic strap underneath and around the pallet back to the operator.
We can secure goods with various shapes, formats and weight and a height of up to 2,70m and a width of up to 2,30m. Our machines are highly flexible and do not need to be modified or reconfigured when the goods to be strapped change.
Furthermore, our strapping machines are designed for easy and ergonomic movement and can be used in constricted spaces too. They come equipped with a lithium-ion battery, making them fully mobile and deployable in various locations.
How does your product address reliability, durability, and lifecycle performance compared to industry standards?
M.H: At EasyStrap, providing excellent service is part of our core DNA. We convince our customers not only with an innovative and long-lasting product, but also with fast, reliable and personal service. We do not work with a digital ticket system. Our customers can choose between quick and simple support via phone or video chat, having one of our service technicians come on-site or send the machine in to our service center. In addition, we offer video manuals and step-by-step guides in our EasyStrap Service Solutions Cloud.
The tensioning and sealing of the plastic strap work automatically with our machine, which allows for consistent quality and repeatability, no matter if it is Monday morning or Friday night.
Lastly, a lower rate of absenteeism and sick days increase logistics resilience and uptime.
What role do efficiency metrics (e.g., energy consumption, throughput, precision) play in differentiating your solution?
M.H: Using a semi-automatic pallet strapping machine can decrease time required by up to 50% as compared to conventional methods. Also, only one operator is required, while manual strapping often requires two employees working together. Lastly, we observe a decrease of absenteeism and sick days, as the knees and back are no longer under strain. Based on our experience, sick days related to back and knee issues among strapping operators decrease by approximately 60% after deployment of our strapping machine.
What customization or scalability options do you offer to meet diverse customer requirements across industries?
M.H: Our strapping machines are designed to cover about 95% of applications as well as shapes, sizes and formats of packaged goods without having to be modified (see www.easystrap.de/cases for examples). They work with all common types of PET and PP strap. And maybe even more important, our customers can integrate their own available battery sealing tools with the machine, saving cost and allowing operators to continue with the equipment they know well.
All this eliminates setup and changeover times, makes our machines very easy to use and creates full flexibility for customers.
When it comes to customization, we deliberately decided to keep it simple and not offer any. This cuts down complexity and makes our pricing transparent for customers.
How do safety, compliance, and certification standards influence your product design and market positioning?
M.H: We observe increasing legislation and requirements especially when it comes to work safety and environmental sustainability. Our machines help prevent damage to back and knees of operators and also reduce workplace accidents. Operators can now work in an upright position instead of having to crouch down behind the pallet, significantly improving their visibility to for example forklift drivers.
When it comes to material used for load unit securing, companies can significantly reduce plastic waste and their carbon footprint by switching from wrapping pallets with plastic film to using strap.
And of course, all our products are CE compliant and UL certified.
How do total cost of ownership (TCO) and return on investment (ROI) compare with alternative solutions on the market?
M.H: The strapping machine is low-maintenance and does not need oiling or lubricating, creating high uptime and freeing up internal capacities. It comes at a competitive price and high strapping speed due to the two motors. Additionally, if there is already a battery sealing tool available, the customer does not need to buy a new one, but can integrate the existing tool with the machine.
What feedback from customers or industry use cases best demonstrates the unique strengths of your product/solution?
M.H: Our pallet strapping machines are used by companies across all industries and for a wide range of different products and applications. Customer feedbacks range from “I never though it would be that easy to use” to “Finally I don’t need pain killers after work anymore” or “I wouldn’t have started working for this company without having an ergonomic tool like EasyStrap available”.
