Folding and Bagging... Manually

[Maff]

We are about to get started on our largest order yet, 3,500 pieces and the customer required folding and bagging. The extra kicker is most of the order is Long Sleeve Shirts and the rest are regular T-shirts.
 I'm not very excited about this... nor my guys, but this whole order will be a bit of an experiment and trial for us.  We usually have a handful of orders each year that are folded and bagged, but usually much smaller quantities, like 100 pieces or so. 

We do not have the budget right now to buy an automated machine, or the time frame.
If this all goes well and becomes a repeat than we will consider automating in the future, but we can't do that now.

So, what's the best way to go about this?
We have plenty of space and tables.
We have 1 FlipFold and I'm thinking about getting a second.
Should we fold and bag at the same time or fold a bunch then bag a bunch?
What size bags do you recommend? and where do you get them?   (we had been using 10x16 for shirts, but I think it's too tight)
Uline has bags with perforated holes, are these worth it? they are twice the price...
How many shirts can we manually bag and fold realistically in one day?

Any Tips on making this as efficient as possible would be greatly appreciated!!!

Thanks!!

[Sbrem]

flip and fold helps a lot. Or, this....     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz6rjbw0ZA0

Steve

[ericheartsu]

1. Check in with shops in your area, and see who has an automated folder. You can save a lot of headache by sending them out.
2. Get a couple of flip n folds. They are cheap, and wear out over time.
3. Make sure you stage your operation correctly.

[mimosatexas]

Slightly off topic, but how much are the auto folder/baggers, new or used?

[Maff]

1. Check in with shops in your area, and see who has an automated folder. You can save a lot of headache by sending them out.
2. Get a couple of flip n folds. They are cheap, and wear out over time.
3. Make sure you stage your operation correctly.

Yeah there is a contract shop not too far away from us and I'll see what he's prices are and availability. But I'd probably have to rent a truck to get all the boxes to and from him... may still be worth it.

[ericheartsu]

a shop down the road for us, charges $.50 a shirt to fold/bag. That is a little high, but if we have a huge run, and are on a time crunch, it's a no-brainer.

[Maff]

Slightly off topic, but how much are the auto folder/baggers, new or used?

I took a quick look and seem to range from 40-80k new and 20-50k used, but they don't all bag, usually that's an extra machine that attaches to the folder I think.
There is an auto flipfold table for 11k that Ryonet sells.

[ericheartsu]

Slightly off topic, but how much are the auto folder/baggers, new or used?

I took a quick look and seem to range from 40-80k new and 20-50k used, but they don't all bag, usually that's an extra machine that attaches to the folder I think.
There is an auto flipfold table for 11k that Ryonet sells.

That auto flip n fold isn't really worth it IMO.

[Zelko-4-EVA]

Slightly off topic, but how much are the auto folder/baggers, new or used?

I took a quick look and seem to range from 40-80k new and 20-50k used, but they don't all bag, usually that's an extra machine that attaches to the folder I think.
There is an auto flipfold table for 11k that Ryonet sells.

the extra machine from amscomatic costs between 10k and 27k. 

we have been pricing out a folder/bagger/bag labeler - requirements were that it had to fold/bag/and label the bag - - and the garments were long sleeve hoodies. 

[zanegun08]

We have a folder (Amscomatic), but it doesn't do long sleeves or hoodies as the attachment doesn't fit our folding room.  The version of folder we have still needs to have someone push the shirt into the bag, so two operators.

When we fold and bag sweatshirts, just have an assembly line going, one person folding, another bagging, but have that person folding start earlier so nobody is waiting on the other person.

If I were to upgrade our machine I would get this - http://dekkenusa.com/dekken-folding-bagging/ which can basically do it all, and with 1 operator.  Allegedly M&R is working on a similar machine as well.

[ZooCity]

We have a folder (Amscomatic), but it doesn't do long sleeves or hoodies as the attachment doesn't fit our folding room.  The version of folder we have still needs to have someone push the shirt into the bag, so two operators.

When we fold and bag sweatshirts, just have an assembly line going, one person folding, another bagging, but have that person folding start earlier so nobody is waiting on the other person.

If I were to upgrade our machine I would get this - http://dekkenusa.com/dekken-folding-bagging/ which can basically do it all, and with 1 operator.  Allegedly M&R is working on a similar machine as well.

Well that looks dope.  I like this in theory better than the s.roque one due to the compact size alone.   The s.roque one looks like a magical Rube Goldberg device but hungry on the footprint.  What is rough cost on the dekken unit with the bagging attachment?

We manually fold here.  Most of the staff that does it can fold the shirts on the belt and keep up with production much of the time.  I'm slow, can't keep up with the belt and have to use a flip fold to get any consistency so it varies depending on who's catching. 

For us, the perceived need for the folding unit has been more of a creature comfort so we never have a folding backlog for any reason.  We do a lot of folds here annually but the per order size is very manageable, never had to fold the 3k+ pcs orders, at least not yet.  If I was in your shoes Maff I would definitely farm this out.  Try your local textile/laundry service if not another print shop.  I imagine a larger one would have a folder that could be adjusted for longsleeves and Ts.

[ericheartsu]

woah that Dekken model is great! For us our folding always comes at once. Either nothing or 5k pcs due NOW.

[zanegun08]

I think it is $80k, but don't quote me on that.  Hirsche would know better.

It was at ISS Long Beach last year, and totally would make sense for us as it would reduce labor so with Portland on track to $15 dollar minimum wage if could reduce a person and have better throughput (with applying labels to bags / shirts), it would have like a 3 year ROI on just wages alone, not considering that we still fold long sleeves, and hoodies manually.  And size sticker all bags manually as well.