One Machine. One Operator. Four Times the Output.
There's a cost hiding in plain sight on many Australian production floors. It doesn't show up clearly on a balance sheet, and it rarely gets its own line item in a budget review. But for production managers, engineers, and purchasing teams, it's a daily frustration: packaging.
Specifically, manual packaging — the kind that ties up multiple operators, creates a bottleneck between production and dispatch, and scales badly the moment order volumes spike or staff call in sick. It's slow, it's labour-intensive, and in an environment where every dollar of operational efficiency counts, it's increasingly hard to justify.
The good news is that the solution doesn't have to be complex, expensive, or disruptive to implement.
The Numbers Don't Lie
Consider what Flymo, the well-known lawn mower manufacturer, was dealing with in their spare parts operation. Packaging components for retail sale required seven operators stationed around a table, working to fill just 20 packages per minute into PVC blister packs. That's a significant labour commitment for a single step in the supply chain — one that adds cost without adding product value. Not to mention the environmental cost of PVC packaging, or the cost to move to alternate carboard boxes.
After switching to an Autobag® automated bagging system, Flymo achieved four times the packaging output, with each machine requiring just one operator. The same task. A fraction of the people. Dramatically more throughput.
That kind of step-change improvement isn't an outlier — it's a pattern that repeats itself across industries wherever manual packaging is replaced with the right automated solution.
Why Packaging Is the Productivity Bottleneck Most Teams Overlook
In manufacturing and industrial environments, enormous energy goes into optimising production processes — lean methodologies, automation, continuous improvement programs. But packaging often gets treated as an afterthought, a "manual task" that sits at the end of the line and is staffed accordingly. The problem is that packaging sits at the critical junction between production and the customer. A slow or unreliable packaging process doesn't just cost money in labour — it delays dispatch, inflates lead times, creates dependency on available staff, and can become the constraint that limits the entire operation's capacity to grow.
When you're reliant on a team of operators to manually fill and seal bags, you're also reliant on those operators being available, consistent, and error-free. In the current Australian labour market, that's a significant operational risk.
Enter the Autobag® PS 125... Simplicity That Scales
The Autobag® PS 125 and PS 125 OneStep tabletop bagging systems from Automated Packaging Systems (a Sealed Air brand) are purpose-built to solve exactly this problem — without requiring a major capital investment or a complex integration project.
These are compact, tabletop machines designed for hand-load applications in low- to mid-volume production environments. At first glance, they look almost deceptively simple. That's precisely the point.
The PS 125 switches things up. Bags-on-a-roll are loaded onto the machine's locking turntable, the AutoThreadTM feature handles ergonomic bag changeover, and bags are automatically indexed and presented open, ready for the operator to load the product. A Push-to-SealTM function — activated by footswitch or automatic cycle control — seals each bag cleanly and advances the next one. The operator's job becomes straightforward: load the product, seal, repeat.
There's no compressed air required. The all-electric design is quiet, clean, and adaptable to virtually any production environment.
The PS 125 OneStep adds an integrated Carl Valentin Drucksysteme thermal imprinter, enabling high-resolution graphics, text, barcodes, and variable data to be printed directly onto each bag as part of the same single operation — eliminating the separate labelling step entirely.
Plug In and Get Packaging — Minimal Training Required
One of the most practical advantages of the PS 125 system is how quickly a production floor can be up and running with it. This is not a machine that demands specialist training, lengthy commissioning, or a steep learning curve.
The user-friendly control display gives operators straightforward access to operating parameters, job setup, job storage, and onboard diagnostics. Jobs can be saved and recalled, meaning once a bag size or product run is configured, it takes seconds to get back to it. For production environments running multiple SKUs or shifting between product lines, this is a genuine time-saver.
In practice, the PS 125 is about as close to plug-and-play as industrial packaging equipment gets. A competent operator can be productive within a very short familiarisation period — which means less time lost to training, less dependency on specialist knowledge, and greater flexibility in how you deploy your workforce across the floor.
This simplicity also translates to reliability. Fewer complex mechanisms mean fewer points of failure. And when a machine is reliable, it stops being a risk and starts being a genuine production asset.
Freeing Your People for More Valuable Work
Automation in packaging doesn't have to mean redundancies. In most cases, it means redeployment — moving capable people away from repetitive, low-value tasks and into roles where their skills, judgement, and experience actually matter.
Gripple, the Sheffield-based engineering manufacturer, made exactly this point when they implemented Autobag® bagging machines across their production operation. The labour savings generated — over $100,000 per year — were redeployed into growing the business, not eliminated. Their production manager was explicit: the people weren't let go; they were put to better use.
For Australian manufacturers facing persistent skills shortages and rising wage costs, this is a compelling model. Automating the packaging step doesn't just improve throughput — it makes your existing workforce more productive and reduces your vulnerability to absenteeism, turnover, and the unpredictability of casual labour.
A single PS 125, operated by one person, can comfortably replace the output of multiple manual packers. That frees up hands for quality checking, kitting, order management, customer service — activities where human attention genuinely adds value.
System-Matched Bags: More Than Just a Consumable
The Autobag® PS 125 system is designed to work with Genuine Autobag® Pre- opened Bags-on-a-Roll — and this is worth paying attention to, because the bags are far more than a commodity consumable.
Autobag® bags are system-matched to the machine, meaning consistent performance, reliable indexing, and clean seals run after run. But the range of what's available goes well beyond standard poly bags.
For manufacturers with specific requirements, Autobag® bags can be produced in anti-static and static dissipative materials — essential for electronics, electrical components, and sensitive assemblies. Military-specification materials are also available for defence contractors and aerospace suppliers. Custom branding can be incorporated, with full-colour printing and corporate livery pre-applied to the roll, so every bag that leaves your facility looks professional and on-brand — without a separate print run.
Beyond the material options, bags can be configured with practical retail and handling features: Euroslot hanger holes for pegboard display at point-of-sale, EzyOpen tear features for easy customer access and air-release holes to reduce bulk in transit and storage.
For businesses supplying into trade retail, hardware, or industrial distribution channels, these features aren't cosmetic — they directly affect shelf presentation, customer experience, and return rates.
Is the PS 125 Right for Your Operation?
The Autobag® PS 125 is particularly well-suited to manufacturers and distributors who are currently packing by hand and recognise that their packaging process is either a bottleneck, a cost problem, or both. It's also an ideal first step for operations beginning their automation journey — a low-risk, high-return entry point that delivers measurable results quickly and can sit alongside existing manual processes while the team builds confidence.
If your operation involves any of the following, it's worth a closer look:
• Spare parts, components, or hardware packaged in poly bags for trade or retail
• Fitting kits, fasteners, connectors, or other small-to-medium industrial items
• High SKU variety requiring flexible bag sizes and on-bag identification
• A need to print barcodes, part numbers, or batch data as part of the pack process
• Labour costs in packaging that feel disproportionate to the value the step adds
The Flymo story — seven operators replaced by one, output quadrupled — is a striking example. But the underlying principle applies across industries: when packaging becomes a system rather than a manual process, the results speak for themselves.
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