Sometimes it takes a while to come up with the right solution. The kiwi way is to just keep chipping away at an idea and eventually things take shape and all of a sudden, the solution is complete, and the result is a pretty simple and clever idea.
With the recent anniversary of man landing on the moon I don’t expect that this project we have been working on is going to change things for mankind - but it may help some of my customers, especially growers of brassicas and other green vegetables that have been after an automated way of putting the ElastiTags® onto bunched produce.
Personally, I had the easy part. Listening to my customers allowed me to see how we could help solve some of the issues and problems that were concerning them about tagging produce. Speed and efficiency was one part of the conversation, but staff welfare and overcoming repetitive strain type issues have played a huge part in the motivation to come up with a solution also. I am very fortunate at Jenkins to have the backing of a management and technical innovation team who take me seriously when I return from yet another road trip with an idea to solve a problem for my customers.
The launching of our first version of the Freshtech Elastibuncher will be on display at the 2019 Hort NZ conference in Hamilton next week. The brains behind the buncher is our very own Brett Lloyd, who has literally spent hours adapting the machine to suit our New Zealand produce and apply the band with just the right amount of pressure ensuring the ElastiTag® is applied efficiently and without causing damage or bruising to the bunched product.
On the scale of projects that the Jenkins Freshtech division gets involved in the Elastibuncher is on the smaller scale of innovate genius. However, I’m a firm believer that good things come in small packages and the Elastibuncher is going to provide a good solution for a group of my customers. If I don’t see you at Hort NZ you can be sure I will keep you updated of the progress of this little gem.