«How innovation occurs»

There she is, the most recent development to leave Ferrum’s production lines: The FC03 can seamer. «So simple», commented one visitor who inspected the prototypes at the trade fair stand at the Pack Expo International in Chicago in autumn 2016. He bent over the infeed table, looked into the interior,
examined the crimping station, looked up again and concluded: «Small is beautiful.»

Simple, small and excellently designed: This describes the FC03 to a “t”. All that should be added is that it is cost-effective and, with an output of 80 to 320 per minute, on the slow side. And that – as paradoxical as it may sound – is the innovative thing about this machine.

The craft beer boom

Innovations exist which are better described as revolutions: The car, or the smartphone, for instance.
These products were so revolutionary that they caused all predecessors to scatter in disarray, forcing them out of the market. However, innovations are usually «replacements», as the Latin «innovare», «renew» implies. They are adjustments of existing products to changing market needs.

The impetus for the development of the FC03 can seamer also came from the market – the beer market. For years, the latter had been dominated by consolidation, market concentration and rationalization. The size of the breweries caused the bottling plants, for which Ferrum as a technological leader continually developed faster can seamers, to expand in size. The decisive parameter in this segment was cans per minute (cpm), i.e. how many cans a machine could seam per minute. One record followed hot on the heels of the last; today, Ferrum’s top model, the F18-2, seams the covers of up to 2,500 cans per minute, or 3.6 million cans a day. And then? A counter-trend appeared. While global beer consumption declined slightly, the expensive craft beers became increasingly popular, and remain so today. In the USA, their market share has doubled from 6 to 12 percent since 2011, and small breweries are booming in Europe and Switzerland, too. The American Brewers Association predicted only recently, that: «The market share for craft beer will rise to 20 percent over the next five years.»

Entering the market at full throttle

In 2015, therefore, the first small-scale can seamer appeared at beverage industry trade fairs. Although these fell far short of the technical and qualitative standards offered by Ferrum machines, they nevertheless caused the Development Department at Ferrum to prick up its ears. This is because a gap in Ferrum’s machinery portfolio had been identified in this league and for this market – even Ferrum’s smallest can seamer was too fast and expensive for a small brewery. A worrying situation, thought Christian Beer, Ferrum AG’s extremely well-networked Board of Directors member who is always on the go. He warned his Board of Director colleagues: «The longer we wait now, and the later we launch a small-scale seamer on the market, the more it will cost us to force our competitors off the market again.» The very next day, a project group called «FCX» was formed at Ferrum, with the X standing for one of the many variables to which the group had to find answers: The number of crimping stations the machine would need one day. Many open questions and an ambitious goal: The presentation of a prototype in less than a year at the major trade fairs in Shanghai, Chicago and Nuremberg in autumn 2016.

Old and new combined

«Impossible», some engineers would have moaned, but Ferrumians, as Ferrum employees call themselves, do things a little bit differently. Their profession is their calling. Where others see
problems, they’re already seeking solutions. Nevertheless, one thing was clear to them: They wouldn’t be able to reinvent the wheel within such a short timespan. So they took a look back into the past. In the warehouse, they found an old F303 with just three crimping stations, which had been removed from the
range in the 1990s. The project team analyzed the machine, the technology, and the present-day costs. As expected, the machine was somewhat out of date, but above all, it was simply not competitive in terms of price in its current state.

However, the technical foundations were clear: A machine with three seaming heads and proven crimping tools. But where should the new one come from? As Christian Beer, who sits on the Boards of Directors at several high-tech firms, says: «Those seeking to be innovative shouldn’t just look in their own back yards». He thought friction was required – an idea contest. Beer recommended a collaboration with the prestigious engineering firm HAT Engineering in Arbon.

And, as a matter of fact, this cooperation led to completely new approaches, particularly because the external engineers and technicians specialized in textile machines and gearbox construction. For example, they devised the larger, alternately positioned wire bearing, which provided the crimping stations with increased rigidity – a decisive benefit, because the crimping process is subject to strong radial forces, and the process should not lose tolerance even after 100 million crimped cans.

The innovative results

For days, and, during the decisive construction phases, even weeks, two of Ferrum AG’s development
designers lived at the Park Hotel in Arbon. As one might expect, the collaboration didn’t always go smoothly. «Even though we all want to work together to create something new, each individual carries his or her pack of knowledge and experience – and decisions can take on a type of religious importance», recalls a Ferrumian. One of these «questions of faith» was related to the type of seal: A tried-andtested V-ring or a labyrinth seal? After lengthy discussions, it was decided to use a labyrinth seal – which promptly leaked oil. Once again, valuable time had been lost to making too many experiments. But that’s the way of the world: Trial – and sometimes also error. And, ultimately, there were some moments when third parties had to decide on the specifications: Christian Beer or Andreas Kunzmann, Head of the Canning Division at Ferrum.

An innovation process is cyclical – and yet can also prove very abrupt. Ideas accumulate until one prevails, a breakthrough occurs – and the next hurdle has to be faced. The FCX team successfully
tested a space-saving infeed table which worked via horizontal chain guidance for the first time in the history of Ferrum can seamers – cheaper in production and ideal for the limited space available in small breweries. A further advantage: The new chain guidance system meant that the base trough could be slanted, which resulted in easier cleaning and improved hygiene – another benefit in the light of the increasingly strict hygiene regulations. Unplanned, but most welcome outcomes like these are characteristic of innovation processes. One innovation often paves the way for further innovations. The only aspect which didn’t change was the three seaming heads, so the project’s name was changed from «FCX» to «FC03» accordingly.

The benefits of in-house production

However, the machine couldn’t measure up as far as one killer criterion was concerned: It was still too expensive. Andreas Kunzmann continued to encourage his team: «If we want to manufacture the machine here in Switzerland, we need even better ideas.» It was time to involve the in-house production. Where could parts be axed, and how could production be economized? The seamless collaboration between the design and production departments gave the innovation process fresh impetus. Each screw was recalculated, haggling with external suppliers became the norm, electronics were replaced with mechanics, and, where possible, stainless steel parts were substituted for their cast equivalents – until the entire development team, the external engineers and the production employees were at their wits’ end. Just at that moment, the figures added up! The FC03 was born: Simple to operate, high-quality in terms of material and manufacture, adaptable to can formats, easy to handle and cheap to maintain. Two weeks later, the ferruCraft FC03 made its global debut at the China Brew & Beverage Trade Fair in Shanghai.