Made-in-China.com Interview in June 2021

"I went to work for a company that made food packaging equipment after graduation. I like machinery from a young age just like most of the boys. I have done the workshop, assembly, installation, and debugging technical and after-sales service. Later, I went abroad for several years and also covering all parts of China. After years of accumulation, I saw the market trend for automated packaging and saw the potential in this area, so I decided to start my own business in my late 20s." Said Wu Zhen, founder of Foshan Upper Machinery Co., Ltd.

Provide Automation Solutions

Nowadays, the food industry is about more than taste, raw materials, and processing techniques. Packaging is an essential part of attracting consumers. To meet the requirements of high efficiency, individualization, and safety guarantee, China's food packaging machinery industry is developing rapidly in the direction of intelligence. The automatic production line can avoid the secondary contamination of food, improve production efficiency and reduce the cost of enterprises, which is the future trend of industry development.

 

Upper Machinery is one of the best manufacturers of Automatic material handling lines in Foshan.

 

Wu Zhen said that compared with selling a single machine, the fully automatic production line has a high demand for technology and experience, and Upper Machinery needs to develop personalized solutions for different products, combined with factors such as the factory's site area and output." Some engineers may be able to draw pictures, but it is not certain whether the product they design is useful or practical. If you want to do a good job in this industry, you must have strong technology and sufficient experience. There are not many such manufacturers.

 

Take a recent Upper Machinery order for fresh tofu as an example. The customer required that the tofu should be divided into two sides with the same weight, and it was strictly stipulated that the tofu should not be stacked. Wu's team thought hard before finally using a robotic hand to accomplish the task. Similarly, for their nutrition bar packaging orders, from inner packaging to secondary packaging, Upper Machinery has designed the entire production line for customers, which is truly automatic and unmanned.

 

As a provider of customized solutions, Upper Machinery has a long order cycle. They started working with an Indonesian customer in 2019 and finally "took down" their entire workshop in early 2021. The client's proposal has been adjusted nearly 50 times, and if the client wants to find a new supplier, it will have to start all over again, and the cost will be very high. Therefore, Upper Machinery’s customer loyalty is relatively high.

Crisis and Opportunity Coexist

During the epidemic, Upper Machinery's mask packing machines were in short supply. “Sometimes suppliers increase their prices a little bit, Upper Machinery add that part of the cost but didn't raise their prices.”Mr. Wu said. And Upper Machinery’s workers have been working overtime production, which is also contributed to the country.

 

In a crisis, there is danger but also organic. Wu Zhen said that Upper Machinery can grasp this opportunity is inseparable from their usual accumulation. At that time, their shipments doubled from 30 to 100 units a month. If their capacity was not enough and their production capacity could not keep up, even if there were a large number of orders for mask sealing machines, they could not fulfill them. If they don't have close relationships with suppliers, they won't be able to get parts in time. The usual accumulation is now of great importance.

 

Not only that, Upper Machinery’s main business has not been affected by the epidemic. "Food is the life of the people", no matter how the epidemic situation, people always need food, so the demand for food packaging did not decrease, Upper Machinery’s exports last year did not decrease but increased. Although they can't go abroad to participate in exhibitions, Wu Zhen believes that online exhibitions can almost make up for the problem. Upper Machinery has bought a complete set of live broadcasting tools and participated in several online exhibitions, all of which have good effects on getting new customers.

 

Talking about the future, Wu Zhen said that Upper Machinery has been in business for ten years, and he has been in this industry for more than 20 years. The company has been developing steadily. He firmly believes that automation is the future trend of the food industry, and Upper Machinery will also devote itself to building a fully automatic factory. After mixing, molding, entering the oven to bake, cooling, packaging, etc., the whole process will be fully automatic. Shortly, Upper Machinery will be able to provide customers with a complete set of product line solutions, directly applied to the factory.