Customized fast moving consumer goods production system

Abstract

A manufacturing method for customized fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) comprising the production of the customized goods in a main production process stream or a side stream. The method further comprises temporarily storing the customized goods in a side stream process and subsequently re-inserting said goods into the main production process stream. The customized goods may be finally packaged in a dedicated pack or in a pack that also contains non-customized goods. The method is suitable for, but not limited to, articles such as diapers, absorbent products, tissues and other hygienic products.

Claims

1. A process for a manufacture of Fast Moving Consumer Good products comprising: producing a continuous series of a first plurality of products in a continuous main stream production process prior to a packing; producing a series of between 2 to 10,000 of at least a second plurality of products differing in predetermined customizing features from said first plurality of products in a particular process step within said continuous main stream production process or a side stream production process; storing and pausing a sub-set or all of said second plurality of products in an interim storage device in a side stream of said continuous main stream production process for between 1 millisecond and 10 years; re-feeding products of said second plurality of products from said interim storage device back into the continuous main stream production process towards the packing; and packing a predetermined number of said first plurality of products and a predetermined number of said second plurality of products into a same pack.

2. The process according to claim 1, further comprising: conveying a portion of said second plurality of products in a machine or cross machine direction to an in-feed of a moving stacker, said moving stacker comprising a plurality of product receiving means adapted to receive at least one product of said portion of said second plurality of products; sequentially inserting at least one product of said portion of said second plurality of products into at least one of said plurality of product receiving means at the in-feed of the moving stacker such that the portion of said second plurality of products is provided within said plurality of product receiving means; transporting the portion of said second plurality of products in said plurality of product receiving means towards an extraction station comprising an extraction device; removing at least one of the portion of said second plurality of products from said plurality of product receiving means of said moving stacker by said extraction device into a temporary storage device; and re-feeding said at least one of the plurality of said second plurality of products stored in said temporary storage device back into the continuous main stream production process or towards a secondary stacker system.

3. The process according to claim 2, wherein the plurality of product receiving means includes at least one of fingers, cassettes, and auger flights.

4. The process according to claim 1, further comprising a “pick & place” process step for customizing at least one of said first plurality of products and said second plurality of products.

5. The process according to claim 4, wherein the “pick & place” process step includes applying an RFID tag to at least one of the first plurality of products and the second plurality of products, a bag having customized products, and a box having customized products.

6. The process according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the first plurality of products and the second plurality of products is a hygienic product, the hygienic product including a top sheet and a back sheet and the process further comprising a step of adding an add-on to the hygienic product, whereby said add-on is located between the top sheet and the back sheet and which has a capability to be removed through either the top sheet or the back sheet or between the top sheet or the back sheet without rendering the hygienic product unusable.

7. The process according to claim 6, wherein the add-on includes at least one of a dry tissue, a wet tissue, and a wipe.

8. The process according to claim 1, wherein the interim storage device includes a plurality of chambers, each of the chambers configured to hold a sub-set or all of said second plurality of products.

9. The process according to claim 1, wherein the interim storage device includes a sealing device configured to selectively fully close and seal the interim storage device to militate against contamination risks.

10. A method for producing customized Fast Moving Consumer Good products concurrently with manufacturing standard products in a main production process stream, the method comprising: receiving an order from a customizer, said order comprising shipment related data, design related data, and order counts for specific customized products; converting said design related data into a format compatible with a production process control system; preparing customized raw materials or product components or product sub-assemblies according to said order in a side stream of said main production process stream; modifying the main production process stream such that customized products are produced or said customized raw materials or product components or product sub-assemblies are introduced to the main production process stream; temporarily storing and pausing a sub-set or all of said customized products in an interim storage device in the side stream of said main production process stream for between 1 millisecond and 10 years; feeding the customized products stored in the interim storage device into the main production process stream, according to one of the order counts for the specific customized products; packing said customized products into a dedicated customized order pack, according to one of the order counts for the specific customized products or adding said customized products into a pack that comprises non-customized products, according to one of the order counts for the specific customized products; connecting the customized products with the shipment related data; and dispatching said customized products to said customizer.

11. The method according to claim 10, further comprising a “pick & place” process step for customizing said customized products.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the “pick & place” process step includes applying an RFID tag to at least one of said customized products, a bag having customized products, and a box having customized products.

13. The method according to claim 10, wherein at least one of the customized products is a hygienic product, the hygienic product including a top sheet and a back sheet, and wherein the method further comprising a step of adding an add-on to the hygienic product, whereby said add-on is located between the top sheet and the back sheet and which has a capability to be removed through either the top sheet or the back sheet or between the top sheet or the back sheet without rendering the hygienic product unusable.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the addon includes at least one of a dry tissue, a wet tissue, and a wipe.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) FIG. 1A is an outline of a feminine product showing customized artwork and coloration surfaces on various parts or portions of the product.

(2) FIG. 1B to F outline various shape configurations of feminine hygiene products.

(3) FIGS. 2A and B show an example of the customized surface of a baby diaper.

(4) FIG. 3 shows an example of the customized surface of a tissue product.

(5) FIG. 4 shows an example of the customized surface of a toiletry product.

(6) FIG. 5 shows a further example of customized surfaces of a baby diaper.

(7) FIG. 6A shows an example of the customized surface of a face mask/beauty product.

(8) FIG. 6B shows an example of the customized surface of a breathing mask.

(9) FIG. 6C shows an example of the customized surface of a back warmer—healthcare.

(10) FIG. 7 shows an example of the customized surface of a baby diaper—artwork competition.

(11) FIG. 8 shows an example of the customized surface of a baby diaper outer bag that has been sized according to the actual wearers body dimensions.

(12) FIG. 9 shows an example of the customized surface of a baby diaper upon which a wet wipe has been attached.

(13) FIG. 10 is a flow chart of the customization process.

(14) FIG. 11 is an outline of the website interface.

(15) FIG. 12 depicts a standard raw material unwind stand in use with most web based FMCG production systems today.

(16) FIG. 13 depicts a customized raw material unwind stand which has additional web delivery systems attached particularly suitable for the present invention.

(17) FIG. 14 depicts a stacker set-up suitable for the present invention.

(18) FIG. 15 depicts a customized rolled product such as kitchen or toilet paper.

(19) FIG. 16 depicts a customized folder product, such as tissues or wet wipes.

(20) Same numerals indicate same or equivalent features.

DESCRIPTION

(21) It is an object of the present invention to provide a new production methodology and respective systems which enable customized products to be made on a high-speed production process either as a dedicated process or in conjunction with on-going standard SKU production at a lower production speed and later fed into the original production system at standard production speeds or at a speed faster than the customization production process. As the percentage of customized production is expected to be a relatively small percentage of overall production volume, in most instances, it is preferred that the customized production is be carried out on existing high-speed production process in parallel to standard production rather than operating a dedicated production asset solely for customized production. Furthermore, having dedicated large scale customized production system in a fixed location may often not be the best logistical approach as this would typically mean that the shipment distance between production process and consumer would be considerable. Having a larger number of lower capacity lower cost customized production systems located closer to the end-consumer would reduce environmental impact as transportation and respective emissions related to the transportation effort would be reduced.

(22) In order to achieve a direct interface with the customer, hereinafter referred to as the “customizer”, the existing product or brand's associated website could be upgraded respectively with the addition of a new website feature offering a new interface with the customizer, where individually customized products can be defined e.g. with the physical design, the physical interfaces of the customizer typically being either a desktop PC, or a laptop, or a mobile device such as a “smartphone” or “tablet”. The associated website could offer a 2D interface where users can design their specific artwork image and insert personal items such as digital photos and other digital images or text or artwork, the website could also display a 3D rendered image, or partially rendered image showing the user how their finished customized product will look. As part of this customization process, specific user details such as body measures like weight, height or waist diameter could also be added to enhance the overall benefit and value of the customization process. The website could also have the capability to interface with a database of clothing and respective clothing sizes and other items related to the consumer. If for instance a lady wished to purchase a feminine protection product where the surface in contact with her body remained white and where any surfaces of the product visible to the outside of her undergarment could be coloured to the exact colour of her undergarment, by selecting the respective undergarment make and/or model and/or colour and/or product code would allow the ink to be printed in the exact colour in the exact locations required which would ultimately reduce ink usage and environmental impact. Via the connection of this system to a laser cutter or similar, the actual final shape of the product could also be shaped to fit her undergarment, and/or, the actual production line could be chosen to closest match here desired products size/shape/design. To achieve the overall customization capability throughout the supply chain, the manufacturing equipment requires additional systems, features and process steps to be installed and/or the modification of existing systems which includes but is not limited to the following:

(23) (1) The modification of existing production processes to allow that the shape and/or size of the product can be customized via the defined metering of individual product components within the final product that would be produced according to the customizer's design and would require the linking of material metering systems (such as servo drives) to follow the customized design parameters (such as the tape length on a diaper);

(24) (2) The modification of CD tracking and respective CD tracking of in-feed components;

(25) (3) The addition of temporary storage systems to allow the temporary storage of incomplete orders until any missing products can be added to fulfil the order;

(26) (4) The re-ordering capability to re-order missing products, merge newly ordered products with incomplete orders and send back into the production (bagging) process to complete the customizer's order;

(27) (5) the addition of temporary storage systems to the hold customized products which can later be re-fed back into non-customized product streams to give the capability to produce partially customized shipments;

(28) (6) the addition of new systems to achieve customization functionality such as on-line printing systems and pick & place systems to place and/or insert and/or attach additional products or components into the product(s).

(29) The concept of “pick & place” systems could be a specifically designed pick and place system consisting of 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 or 7 or 8 or 9 or 10 axis system or a commercial system such as a 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 or 7 or 8 or 9 or 10 axis robot or similar. The pick & place process would have the capability to add additional items into or onto the FMCG products that could be either a single item or multiple items, and could include, but not limited to items such as an RFID tags and/or credit cards and/or items used for promotion purposes, or could be a consumable item such as a baby wet wipe or other product where the consumer could order say a 40 pack of diapers of which say 5 diapers in the total package would be travel diapers where an integrated wipe would be included within the product and where the travel diapers could also display the contact details of the family just in-case the baby would become departed from their family whilst away from home. During the ordering process, the customizer could not only—if desired—specify how many diapers in the bag would require an integrated wipe they could also for instance specify the type of lotion within the wipe (say scentless, aloe-vera, lavender, lemon grass etc.) and their specific artwork design if desired. As many of these pick & place systems available today are not capable to run at today's production speeds, with baby diaper systems for instance running between 200-3000 products per minute, the present invention provides a process to re-feed secondary assemblies produced at slower speeds back into the main stream production process at full line speed (or at a speed faster than the customization speed) once they have been assembled. Additional embodiments described herein relate to new systems to solve other technical challenges that exist once the customized products have been produced as the overall production system is required to manage the products after they have been produced to ensure they are correctly sorted, packaged, and the total customizer's order fulfilled which presents huge operational problems considering that the majority of today's high speed FMCG production lines also have automated product reject systems meaning there is a high chance that a customizer's order is not 100% fulfilled during the first production run. Assuming for instance that a batch of 20 diapers with customizer's specific artwork were successfully printed however during the automated assembly process, a splice existed on one of the raw material streams and e.g. 3 diapers were rejected, this would not only mean that the customizers would not receive their fulfilled order, but furthermore, the entire manufacturing system risks becoming out of synchronisation if the overall process is not managed correctly. Solutions to solve these problems are described herein that ultimately allow a high-speed manufacturing system to run at normal production speed without any significant change in the existing manual operational efforts. Once the customized product has been produced, the product is then packaged and labelled with the customizer's shipment address (or another body assigned by the customizer) as the product would most likely be shipped directly to the customizer or a body chosen by the customizer and as such, the respective shipment address would be added to the customized product for direct shipment.

(30) In addition to the benefits of the customization as such are secondary benefits such as of enhanced consumer brand awareness that would significantly enhance sales of the standard non-customized FMCG products of the same brand through (i) the customization process itself, and/or (ii) dedicated marketing and branding campaigns that make dedicated use of the customization feature and/or (iii) enhanced customer awareness of the brand as a direct result of the customized products. Whilst some products such as liquid hair care and detergent products would most likely have limited customization use or benefit, other product categories such as absorption articles would have a higher benefit to the consumer and respective FMCG companies and brands selling such customized products. Feminine protection pads could for example be ordered according to the actual colour of the customizer's underwear and would give enhanced consumer satisfaction as today only a very small range of colours are available, (normal whitish, pink, black or blue) and typically with such products available today, the entire product is coloured where a customized product could to only the areas on the outer surface of the feminine pad where colour such as ink is required.

(31) Such an example is shown in FIG. 1, with (1A) outlining a possible customization artwork colour surface on a feminine hygiene product (10) such as on the fold over tabs (1), customizing the perimeter around the product (2) which could be visible from outside of the garment to which the product would be attached with, or customizing the entire surface of the product which comes into contact with the garment (3). The possibility also exists to customize the shape of the final product via a flexible cutting system such as a laser, or plasma cutter or hot air cutter, hot surface, ultrasonic device or similar. In this scenario, the customizer would either customize the product themself or select the garment from an available database to which the customizer intends to attach the product once produced, with the database including such items as product shape, size, colour etc. Artwork surfaces are defined onto which the customizer can add their artwork should this be required. Once this stage in the ordering process is complete, it is very easy to assign this order to a specifically chosen production system that already is producing product of a similar shape and design to the customizer's desired design thereby reducing the amount of change processes required, and/or, the amount of raw material wastage as in such instances, a laser would cut the exact shape of the product according to the customizer's exact design requirements. FIG. 1B to 1F depict schematically examples of various shape profiles, with a standard non-customized product shape (solid line—6), a crimp and/or glued area (dashed region—5) which could in some instances be wider than standard products, and which may be determined by customizer's requirements directly or by pre-selection in the production process, and with an example of where the customized cut line (dash dotted line—4) could replace the standard cut line (6). Such a process would be able to produce the perfectly sized and shaped product for the actual garment to which it would be attached, with the fold-over tabs and other product features also being perfectly sized, which ultimately means that there would be an environmental benefit as plastic trim being removed from the original production process can easily be collected and recycled at the production site versus ending up as potential land fill.

(32) In relation to artwork design, essentially the entire FMCG product surface has the potential for customized artwork and/or coloration, however for some products, dedicated customized artwork surfaces could be defined. Whilst it can be applied to various products, the products discussed currently are shown in FIGS. 2A and B as customized diaper (10) with a customization surface (7), here shown in the front region of the article, though such a surface could be expanded to the rear and sides of the product and also could include other areas of the diaper including tapes, stretch zones and frontal tape. Exemplary uses for the customization may be as follows: In case of baby diapers: “My name is Max and I have lost my parents, please call my parents Mr. & Ms. Smith on +1234567 and tell them that you have found me”; “My name is Peter and I have lost my parents. We are on vacation and we are staying at the Beach Hotel, . . . ”; In case of adult incontinence care products for people of adult care homes: “Dear Finder, my name is Joyce Williams, I am a patient at the xy Care Home and I am suffering from dementia and as such I am afraid I sometimes cannot remember my name and where I live. If you find me, and I am unable to find my way home, please call the xy Care Home on 123446, or call a Taxi to deliver me at the address . . . Sincerely yours Joyce”; Products could also be customized under the “fun” aspect, such as the following examples “To my dearest husband Luke: If you are close enough to the diaper to read this message and you also experience a bad smell, THEN IT'S YOUR TURN TO CHANGE THE DIAPER! Your dearest wife Jane.” “Made with tender loving care”; “My name is Max, 1.2 kg and still growing”, “Dear grandson, you took three years to be conceived . . . Your parents finally succeeded!!” “Does this diaper make my butt look big??”

(33) Also tissue packs could for instance have artwork related to the users specific fashion design preferences as shown in FIG. 3 depicting tissues (12) with a customized print region (7) inside a pack (11), such that if for instance the consumer is wearing a particularly styled and coloured outfit, the tissue design could match the design and colour of the wearer's outfit and in some instances, could be combined with a variety of brand marketing campaigns and/or in conjunction with a clothing manufacturer's brand marketing campaign or promotional event. Similarly, FIG. 16 depicts a customized folded product (702), such as tissues or wet wipes as may be made from be tissue or non-woven, in an outer containment material (701) which could be a wrapper material such as film/plastic or a cardboard material or similar. A customized identifier (703) may be attached to the folded product as well as to the outer containment material (704).

(34) Even products such as toilet rolls could for instance also have customizer's artwork as shown in FIG. 4, which could be of use to hotels. Similarly, as depicted in FIG. 15, a customized rolled product (601) such as kitchen or toilet paper as wound onto a core (605), comprising a glued section (602) that glues the leading edge back to the rolled material itself to prevent the roll from unwinding and a customized identifier (603) attached to the rolled product (601) as well as to the core (604).

(35) Having this new low cost customization capability also opens up new branding campaign options, not only for the original FMCG brand but also co-working with other brands operating in other completely different market segments. Hotels or any vacation of leisure venue could for instance offer a hotel branded product for guests for instance that require an unexpected diaper as shown in FIG. 5, with a first customization region (7), as may refer to the respective provider of the article, and a further customization region (8), as may refer to the manufacturer of the article. Also, certain events such as outdoor event of a company selling luxury off-road cars, could for instance as part of their annual outdoor marketing event offer a branded diaper as part of the overall event marketing materials and presents. Football clubs could easily make customized products for a particular venue, event or location. Luxury spas could for instance customize a facemask with their corporate branding, see FIG. 6A, and similar concepts could be used with breathable face-masks, see e.g. FIG. 6B. Health/medical organisations, could for instance brand a thermal care product with their corporate branding, see e.g. FIG. 6C. The system also opens up a platform for artwork competitions for schools and other events such as shown in FIG. 7, showing a customized region (7) on an absorbent article. Through the creation of joint marketing campaigns FMCGs can increase brand awareness and adopt dedicated marketing campaigns.

(36) Customization would not only be limited to the products within the box or bag, customization can also be applied to the outer surface of the box/bag as shown in FIG. 8, with articles (10) such as diapers in a packing bag (16) with a customization region (7), where the customization of the article is based on users actual body weight and dimensions from which the correct product size is determined for the user. As a further part of the customization process, the outer packaging is printed accordingly to show that the products are of appropriate size for the user showing the users name and/or a digital image of the user that was also used in the artwork design of the customized products inside.

(37) FIG. 9 depicts schematically an example of the customized surface of an article (10), such as a baby diaper, upon which a wet wipe inside a package (17) is attached, though this could also be placed inside the diaper. The customizer could for instance choose to have wet wipes or other products combined with the diaper, for instance in case the customizer requires travel diapers or similar where having combined wet wipes could be advantageous to the user. The customization area (7) could be chosen as part of the customization process, or the desired type of wipe. For travel diapers for instance, if the customizer were traveling away from home and were aware that a requirement of say 5 travel diapers were required, a total of 40 diapers could be ordered of which 5 could be travel diapers consisting of in integrated wipe and respective artwork. Also, the combined packaging may comprise diapers with varying absorbency, such as a night diaper with an increased absorbency, such as by having a higher amount of superabsorbent material, compared to diapers for daytime use. A customizer may also wish to have differently scented diapers, such as having sleep promoting smells, such as lavender, for night diapers and refreshing smells like eucalyptus or grapefruit for day diapers. Similarly, articles may be adapted in a reaction to certain skin conditions, such as certain customized articles comprising selected skin creams or lotion, and other articles comprise different or no lotion or cream. Certain diapers in a pack may also comprise test strips, patches or QR codes that could signal bodily disorders, or may include electronic patches that may transmit signals wirelessly to a caretaker.

(38) Thus, in one aspect, the present invention is a manufacturing process as a combination of multiple steps combined so as to allow the automatic or semi-automatic manufacture of customized products and is outlined as follows.

(39) The Customization Processes and Respective Equipment

(40) Without any intended limitation, the principle for a process of customization and the respective equipment elements are now explained first in an overview followed by a more detailed description by referring to the process flow chart of FIG. 10. Thus a process (1000) according to the present invention may comprise the following steps: 1005—A customer as a potential customizer connects to the website or a similar interface of the manufacturer using electronic devices. 1010—The customizer provides the name, delivery address, payment details to the manufacturer's system and makes desired product selection(s), such as desired size, colour but also particular feature options and/or artwork, optionally providing self-designed artwork elements. 1015—The manufacturer's system performs an analysis of acquired data, rejecting and cancelling (“NO”—1020) any orders that do not conform to manufacturer's criteria such as brand/company/website's code of practise. The “good” orders (“YES”) are further processed, for the “bad ones (“NO”), a rejection note may be sent out. 1025—The customizer's data, especially address, sizing as well as particular features are compared to most compatible production system as well as production facility. 1030—These data are converted into a suitable format required for the manufacturing process.

(41) Based on these data, preferably by the automated system or with an interaction of the operator, it will be decided, if the customization will be execution in course of side stream production process (see steps 1035, 1040, 1045) or in a mainstream production process (see steps 1040, 1050, respectively), or a hybrid option, with all options continuing with step 1055.

(42) Side Stream Option 1035—The specific raw materials and/or sub-assemblies are provided adequately according to customizer's requirements, whilst “standard” materials are delivered and used in the main stream production for “standard” product. 1040—Whilst the main stream production process manufactures “standard” product, the assembly process for the customized products is put on hold until all raw materials and sub-assemblies are ready to use. 1045—Then, the customization process step puts the “standard” materials or sub-assemblies on hold, and uses the dedicated materials or subassemblies to manufacture the customized product.

(43) Main Stream Option 1040—At a predetermined time, the main stream production process is modified by a change in an process step or an additional process step, such as by changing the printing design, or adding a printing . . . . 1050— . . . thereby producing the customized product

(44) The hybrid option comprised both options, namely the use of particular raw materials and/or sub-assemblies combined with further customization in the main stream. 1055—For all options, the products undergo a quality control check, counting on-target customized products, deciding if the predetermined number of customized products has not yet been completed, e.g. by rejects, (“NO” towards process step 1060) or “YES” to process step 1070. 1060—In case that the predetermined number of customized products has not yet been completed (e.g. by rejects), the system . . . . 1065— . . . loops back information and production requests, e.g to step 1030. 1070—In case the correct number of OK products has been produced it is established, if this has been established in an interrupted series (“YES” 4 process step 1075) or in single continuous series (“NO” 4 process step 1090). 1075—If the predetermined number for the order is not satisfied, the incomplete order is placed into a temporary storage system, which is further filled as appropriate products arrive. 1080—Depending on the predetermined pattern, a suitable point in time, e.g. a production interruption, is awaited . . . . 1085— . . . until these can be pulled from the temporary storage system. 1090—In either case, a full set of predetermined numbers of customized products is forwarded to the packing station. 1095—The full set of customized products is packed, optionally further customized such as by printing on the package, and connected to the customizer, such as by applying the address. 1099—The package may then be dispatched to the customizer.

(45) Within this general set up, options and shortcuts may arise, such as, but without limitation selected from the groups of process steps consisting of: Feeding material(s) and/or assemblies outlined in step (1035) to the production process at a higher speed than the process speed outlined in step (1030). Storing customized products that would feed in at a later date to non-customized products. Combining of partially filled orders with re-ordered products/items and the subsequent re-feed back into the manufacturing process for packaging and secondary packaging if applicable.

(46) In the following, the individual process steps and/or options are described in more detail, also referring to FIG. 10.

(47) 1005—Potential Customizer Connecting to Customizing Website

(48) As the first step in the process (1005), the customizer would typically log onto a website, which could be part of an existing brands or company's website or a dedicated website such as www.designyourowndiaperss.com or www.colourmypad.com and could be accessed using any present or future electronic device or any current electronic device such as desktop PC, laptop, mobile device such as smartphone, or tablet device.

(49) 1010—Data Input of Customizer

(50) Once on the website, consumers would typically enter their client specific information, such as their name, shipment address, payment details and then specify the product and quantity they require (1010). Product size could be selected as per the standard sizes descriptions such as small, medium, larger, however for products such as diapers, a more intelligent interface could be provided where the customizer enters waist diameter and body weight and the software makes the best size selection based on this data. Additional optional extras can be selected such as the addition of RFID devices and medical or sensing devices and even items such as credit cards or similar object(s) could be attached or combined. Specific product sizes could be ordered as are available in the supermarket, however features on the product could also be customized such as fastening tape length specified according to customizer's requests. The customizer could also select a variety of colour options for either a single or multiple materials and also select options to design specific artwork on these materials. For a baby diaper for instance, artwork design surfaces could be on the back sheet area however artwork design surfaces could also be selected to be applied to additional such as elastic features, frontal tapes and fastening feature materials. As schematically indicated in FIG. 11, the associated website could offer a 2D interface (1120) where customizers can design their specific artwork image and insert dedicated items such as photos and other digital images, and/or a 3D rendered image (1130) showing the customizer how their finished customized product will look. The 3D image could be a fully rendered image, or a partial or low definition rendered image to reduce respective processing requirements data transfer requirements across the Internet. The rendered image could be automatically upgraded on a real time basis according to changes made in the 2D design area, or, the rendered image could be updated after a set time period, say every 30 seconds, or, the rendered image could be updated on demand when a refresh button is pressed.

(51) 1015—Initial Analysis of Acquired Data.

(52) To avoid misuse of the system and potential negative effects to the product brand, and/or the company producing the products, all customized data received may be scanned and any customized orders containing items such undesired orders, including pornography, political reference, swear words or slang or any items detrimental to company or brand would not be produced with the respective order being cancelled with the customizer being respectively informed (1120).

(53) 1025—Comparing customization data with most compatible production system and/or closest manufacturing site.

(54) 1030—Converting customizer's design and feature options into format ready for manufacture.

(55) In some instances, the customization design could be sent to a single production system dedicated to customized production, however, in most cases, a central system would assign a suitable manufacturing asset/system on which the customized products would be produced. The data for these decision(s) is based on a variety of data including but not limited to (i) production asset/system capability in consideration to the customizer's product design, (ii) production site location and customizer's desired shipment location, (iii) availability of the production asset/system.

(56) All screened data would then be electronically modified and converted into the format required by the manufacturing system which would in most cases include the addition of markers which are discussed herein below and aid the operational staff to track and re-thread materials should any problems occur during the manufacture of the customized product(s). Product pitches for artwork would be set up to correspond to the actual manufacturing process. For items where multiple data streams are required, such as artwork requests on multiple components, for instance a diaper having customized artwork design on back-sheet, landing zone stretch ears and tapes, the production data would be managed accordingly within the production system so the printing systems printing the specific components remained in phase with each other during the complex production process.

(57) 1035—Raw Material and Sub Assembly Production

(58) In some instances, production would be carried out directly as part of the main production processes (see process step 1050 herein below). In such cases, printing processes such as inkjet printing would run at full production speed and items being applied to the product such as via a pick & place robot would also run at full production speed.

(59) However, in the majority of cases, flexible processes capable of customization are not capable to run at production speeds typically associated with the high speed production of FMCGs. Furthermore, equipment such as high speed inkjet production process are very expensive and secondary high speed drying processes are required to dry the inks and in many cases, the inks required in such high speed processes are significantly more expensive then inks capable to run in slower speed processes and are more environmentally damaging. In such cases, such customization production work would be carried out in parallel to the main manufacturing process at a slower speed and later fed into the production system at full line speed at time of final product assembly/manufacture. In many instances, the raw materials used for customization production would have no prior artwork (would be white in most cases) and as such, overall ink usages levels could be lower than a non-customized production. For a diaper for example, the customized artwork would most likely be applied to a white back sheet, and in cases where artwork is applied to other diaper features, in these cases the raw materials would also usually be white. An example of such an apparatus is shown in FIG. 13 where a standard back sheet splicer is equipped with a secondary customization splicer utilising the same splicing mechanism such that it very suitably can be used for the present invention. Such an equipment is based on a conventional raw material unwind stand as can be seen in FIG. 12, as in use with most web based FMCG production systems today. A web material is unwound from a first (301) and a second (302) rotating mandrill, where either material being supplied from the first or second mandrill is transferred into a splice box (303) and thereafter to a buffering system (304) which ensures constant supply of material output (305) whilst in-feed speed changes during a splice change between 301 and 302.

(60) Referring to FIG. 13 for the present application, standard first and second unwind mandrills (401, 402) together with a splice box (403) and buffering system (404) provide an out-feed (405) for a standard production back-sheet with standard artwork for the production system for making standard non-customized product. For incoming orders with customized artwork to be printed onto the backsheet, a white back sheet can be unwound from a plain material mandrill (406), printed in a printing equipment (409) and wound onto a customized material mandrill (407). The material may be transferred via a standard dancer system (408) to ensure web tension control and optionally via a web tracking device (not shown) to the printing equipment (409) may be any conventional printing system, such as inkjet or video jet or bubble jet or laser printer, optionally followed by an ink drying equipment (410). Additionally or alternatively a further component may be added to the web material in a sub component feeding system (411), or by a pick and place equipment, that may be custom made system or a commercial system, consisting of either 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 or 7 or 8 or 9 or 10 axis of motion (412) that applies these items onto the web being unwound from the plain material mandrill (406) at a predetermined position (416). Via a further dancer system (413) and optionally via a web tracking device (not shown) the web may be wound via material path (414) onto the customized material mandrill (407). Once the production of the customized material is complete on its roll, it can be unwound an unwinding path (415) into a splice system (403) which would feed in at full production speed into the manufacturing system via buffer (404) and out-feed (405). As this process is fully separated from the main production process at this stage in the customization process, this process can operate at a lower speed with lower cost printing equipment without the need to significant heating to dry the inks, which also reduced energy consumption. Further, the capacity of the system can be enhanced by adding an additional mandrill or mandrills that would allow the customization process to operate in parallel to finished customized rolls being unwound back into the production system.

(61) 1040—Awaiting Production Slot for the Customized Product

(62) Thus, the customized material can now await a suitable slot in the manufacturing process, which can be determined automatically or by an interface with an operator.

(63) 1045—in Feed of Production Material in Production Process.

(64) Once the customized material wound on customized material mandrill (407), the customized material can be fed into the main production process, e.g. via a splicer box (403) either manually or automatically. In the scenario where other customized processes are also in operation in the production system, such as printing processes on diaper tapes or frontal tapes, or RFID pick & place processes, these material streams would all be synchronised together to ensure the correct products were made according to the customizer's total design requirements. The synchronisation of the raw materials may also include the synchronisation of other components to be shipped to the customizer such as packaging materials or similar.

(65) 1050—Main Stream Process Customization

(66) In the alternative to the side stream process customization or in addition thereto, the customized product may be made in the main stream process at main stream process speed, for example if the overall process speed is relatively low, or the printing ink is fast drying, or the applicator a high speed applicator. This may also be achieved by employing the technologies as described in U.S. Pat. No. 9,248,055, to which express reference is made, relating to a “on the fly size change” system allowing to adjust size of a diaper by automatic parameter input. Both for a main stream adjustment and for a side stream customization as described in the above, diapers may be customized with regard to absorbency by also adjusting the amount of superabsorbent material “on the fly”, such as by adjusting scarfing, vacuum, speed or other process parameter in an otherwise well-known particle material printing process, such as generally described in EP1621165A1.

(67) 1055 Quality Check and “OK” Product Count

(68) During the manufacture of the respective customized products, as with any production process, a certain number of rejects will occur which will essentially destroy the entire customization process as customized products would no-longer tally with product bag and respective shipment address. Thus, an automated quality check, such as by automated optical inspection, determines the number of good quality products. If the predetermined number of products has not yet been fulfilled (“NO”), the incomplete order will be placed in the temporary storage system (see 1060) and an order for making replacement product is sent to the production system (1065).

(69) 1060—Temporary Storage System

(70) The temporary storage may be achieved by a buffer process as being added in stacking system at a point before final packaging. This is further explained by referring to FIG. 14, schematically depicting exemplarily, but not limiting, a stacker system (500) such as for a diaper manufacturing line. Products may enter a stacker chain at the stacker chain entry area (501), from where the products are transported along a stacker path (502) towards an exit section (504), e.g. a bagging station. At a pushing station, a pushing device (505) has the capability to push any predetermined number of desired products from the stacker chain into a temporary storage system (506), comprising a number of chambers for individual customized products. Once the predetermined number of products is put into the temporary storage another pusher (507) pushes the products back into the stacker chain at a convenient moment in time. which could be for instance when the product in-feed stops, at which point, the packaging systems could continue operation to package the products stored in 506. Optionally further temporary storages can be operated in parallel, here indicated by a further pushing device (508) which pushes further customized products as may be different from the ones in the first temporary storage into a further temporary storage (509), which may be a device similar to the first temporary storage (506). Optionally, either of the first or further temporary storage can be used to store customized products which would later feedback in non-customized products to produce a mixed bag of customized and none customized products.

(71) Optionally one or more secondary buffer systems with a secondary pusher system (508) and a secondary temporary storage (509) may be employed, such as for scenarios where the customizer requires a product shipment consisting of both non-customized and customized products, say a within a pack of 40 diapers, where 5 diapers are selected as travel diapers and as such, have wipes integrated into these 5 diapers which also have a dedicated artwork design, and, 2 diapers in the pack of 40 have a different artwork design for an upcoming babies party, then these 7 diapers, after successful production and quality checks have been performed would be stored in a secondary buffer system (509) and could be re-fed back into a stream of non-customized 33 diapers at a later moment in time to complete the total 40 pack shipment.

(72) 1070—Checking for Completeness of Order

(73) Once sufficient products for a customization order have been produced and stored temporarily in the temporary storage system (506), the system can check, if the actual customized product is part of an incomplete earlier order (“YES”) or if it is part of a complete order (“NO”). 1075—In the first case, the product is added in the temporary storage, optionally awaiting further products until the tally for the order is complete. 1080—In a further waiting step the complete order can now await a suitable slot for being re-introduced into the production process for the standard product. 1085—This re-introduction can suitably be achieved by a further pusher means (507).

(74) 1090—Transmitting Product to Packing

(75) For both options, a full set of customized products can now be transferred to the packing station, such as depicted exemplarily in FIG. 14 by a conventional packing pusher system (503) for pushing a predetermined number of products into a pack or a packing system (504) such as a bagging station.

(76) 1095—Linking of Address to Product.

(77) To ensure the correct shipment of customized products to the customizer, the final outer packaging system prints dedicated address labels and attaches them to the correctly synced with the customized product SKUs. In some instances the artwork may be printed to the product outer packaging/bag/wrapper/carton/box/container instead of labels being applied, and in some instances the outer packaging/bag/wrapper/carton/box/container may have a transparent window to allow the shipment address to be viewed through the packaging/bag/wrapper/carton/box/container.

(78) 1099—Shipment of Customized Products to Shipment Address.

(79) The finish product can then be dispatched and shipped via typical distribution chain directly to the customer.