Stretch Wrapper OEE: Film Breaks, Wrap Recipes and the Pallet Queue

Key takeaways

• A stretch wrapper's typical losses are film breaks, film roll changes, wrong wrap recipes after a product change and pallet conveyor jams.
• It is usually faster than the palletizer, so it waits for pallets by design; measure it per pallet cycle.
• Pallets rewrapped for loose or torn film are its Quality loss.
• Its stops block the palletizer only when they outlast the pallet buffer between them.
• The wrap recipe per pallet type is the most overlooked setting.

Stretch wrapper OEE measures the last machine on most packaging lines, the one that wraps finished pallets in film: how long it is down on its own faults, how close each wrap cycle is to its standard time, and how many pallets leave properly wrapped. Its usual losses are film breaks, roll changes, wrong recipes and pallet conveyor jams.

Fabrico, an OEE and light MES platform, logs each stop with its reason and keeps own stops apart from starved and blocked time. This guide covers where the stretch wrapper's time goes, how to measure a machine that waits for pallets by design, and a worked shift at the end of a line.

Where does the stretch wrapper's time go?

Waits for a forklift at the outfeed are the same problem the palletizer has; our palletizer OEE guide covers the stretch wrapper and pallet outfeed from that side.

How do you measure OEE on a machine that waits by design?

A stretch wrapper is usually built to wrap a pallet faster than the palletizer can build one. It spends much of the shift waiting for the next pallet. Counting that waiting as a loss would make the wrapper look poor when it is doing exactly what it should.

• Availability (own causes) = (planned production time minus own stops) / planned production time. Waiting for pallets is not an own stop.
• Performance = standard wrap cycle / actual wrap cycle, per pallet. A slower cycle than standard is a real loss.
• Quality = pallets wrapped right first time / pallets wrapped. Pallets rewrapped for loose, torn or badly placed film count against it.

The same logic applies to other machines around the bottleneck that have spare speed. Keep starved time visible in the full view, but judge the wrapper on its own stops and its cycle.

How do stretch wrapper stops reach the rest of the line?

Between the palletizer and the wrapper there is usually room for one or two pallets. When the wrapper stops longer than that buffer, the palletizer is blocked, and from there the stop can travel back through the case packer toward the filler. Our guide to starvation and blocking shows how to follow it.

What happens when the product changes?

A new product can mean a new pallet pattern, height or load weight, and so a new wrap recipe: number of turns, film tension, top and bottom wraps. A wrong recipe either wastes film or leaves a loose load. Make the recipe part of the changeover checklist, and check the first wrapped pallet of each new product. Our guide to first off approval after changeover shows a simple routine.

A worked shift on a stretch wrapper

Sample line (illustrative numbers, not a customer): a palletizer that finishes a pallet every 4 minutes, feeding a stretch wrapper with a standard wrap cycle of 2.5 minutes. There is room for one pallet between them, so 4 minutes of buffer. The shift has 450 minutes of planned production time and 112 pallets arrive.

• Availability, own causes = (450 minus 47) / 450 = 403 / 450 = 89.6%.
• Performance: the average wrap took 2.8 minutes against a 2.5 minute standard: 2.5 / 2.8 = 89.3%.
• Quality: 112 pallets, 2 rewrapped for loose film: 110 / 112 = 98.2%.
• Which stops blocked the palletizer: only those over the 4 minute buffer. Each conveyor jam blocked it for 1 minute, and the recipe error for 2: 5 minutes in total. None of them reached the filler.
• The six film breaks are the most frequent stop and the main reason the average cycle is slower than standard. Film quality and pre-stretch settings are the first place to look.

Which mistakes do plants make with stretch wrapper OEE?

• Counting waiting for pallets as a loss, so a machine with spare speed looks poor.
• Not tracking the wrap cycle per pallet, so slow cycles hide.
• No check of the wrap recipe at product changes.
• Ignoring rewrapped pallets, so Quality looks perfect.
• One code for "wrapper stopped", so film breaks and conveyor jams look the same. See our guide to micro stops.

Where Fabrico fits

Fabrico is a computer vision enabled Manufacturing Performance Platform. OEE and light MES come first: automatic downtime logging that keeps own stops, starved and blocked time apart, and OEE live by line and shift.

• The operator confirms the reason in one tap, so a film break and a recipe error get different codes.
• A camera clip as evidence for a stop, where a camera watches the wrapper or the pallet conveyor.
• Losses priced in money and ranked, so the end of line stops that block the line come first.
• One view across plants for end of line machines on different sites.

You start with a pilot on one line, with a baseline and a decision date agreed in advance. There is no free plan and there are no tiers: each plant gets a quote. See how stops are captured on our computer vision OEE page.

Frequently asked questions

How do you calculate stretch wrapper OEE?

Availability from its own stops over planned production time, Performance as the standard wrap cycle over the actual cycle, and Quality as pallets wrapped right first time over pallets wrapped. Multiply the three.

Should waiting for pallets count against the stretch wrapper?

No. A wrapper faster than the palletizer waits by design. Keep the waiting visible, but judge the wrapper on its own stops and its cycle.

What causes stretch film breaks?

Film quality, pre-stretch settings, film tension and sharp pallet corners or load edges.

Why does the wrap recipe matter?

The recipe sets turns, tension and top and bottom wraps for each pallet type. A wrong one wastes film or leaves a loose load that has to be rewrapped.

When does a stretch wrapper stop the palletizer?

When a stop lasts longer than the pallet buffer between them, usually one or two pallets.

See your end of line in a demo

Bring one line and its current downtime log. We will show the wrapper's own stops, its cycle and what reached the palletizer.

Request a demo · Contact us