When buying a filling line, it is natural to compare quotations by price. One supplier is cheaper, another is more expensive, and the difference can be large. But the purchase price is only part of what a machine will cost you over its life. Energy, spare parts, downtime, product waste and support all add up. Thinking in terms of total cost of ownership often changes which quotation looks like the best deal.
What Total Cost of Ownership Includes
Total cost of ownership, or TCO, is the full cost of owning and operating a machine over its useful life. For a filling line, it typically includes:
- Purchase price, freight and installation
- Civil and utility work needed to support the line
- Energy and compressed air consumption
- Spare parts and consumables
- Routine maintenance labour
- Downtime and its effect on output
- Product giveaway and rejects
- Changeover time
- Training and technical support
- Resale or residual value at the end of life
Energy and Utilities
Two machines with the same speed can use very different amounts of power and compressed air. Pneumatic-heavy designs may need a larger compressor, which itself consumes power. Ask suppliers for consumption figures under real operating conditions and calculate annual costs based on your electricity tariff.
Accuracy and Product Giveaway
A filler that overfills by 1 percent on every bottle silently gives away product. On high-volume or high-value products, the cost of giveaway can exceed the price difference between machines within a short time. Accurate fillers pay for themselves through savings that never appear on a purchase order.
Reliability and Downtime
Every hour a line stands idle is an hour of lost production, idle labour and possibly missed deliveries. Machines built with quality components, sensible designs and good accessibility break down less and recover faster. Ask suppliers about typical availability on installed lines and speak with their customers.
Spare Parts and Support
Check spare part prices and availability before buying. Proprietary parts imported from abroad can take weeks and cost much more than locally available equivalents. Local service engineers who can reach your plant quickly are worth a lot when something goes wrong.
Changeover Time
If you run several products, changeover time has a direct cost. A line that takes two hours to change over instead of twenty minutes loses significant capacity every week. Tool-free change parts and recipe-based settings shorten changeovers.
A Simple Way to Compare
Build a basic spreadsheet for each quotation over five or seven years. Include purchase price, energy, estimated maintenance, spare parts and an estimate of downtime and giveaway. The machine with the lowest TCO is often not the cheapest one on day one.
Residual Value
A well-built machine from a reputable supplier usually holds its resale value better. When you eventually upgrade, that value offsets part of the next investment.
Questions to Ask Suppliers
- What is the power and air consumption at rated speed?
- What spare parts do you recommend for the first two years, and what do they cost?
- How long does a changeover take?
- Where is your nearest service engineer?
- Can we visit a customer running this machine?
Hilden encourages buyers to look at the full picture. The team can provide realistic consumption data, spare part recommendations and changeover times to help you compare lines on total cost rather than price alone.
