Circular vs. Linear Floral Processing
| Features | Circular - turntable | Linear - Conveyor belt |
| Reliability | Fewer moving parts hence greater reliability - no electronics | Lots of parts - gear and chain driven belt - some electronics used |
| Usable Length | The 9.55 ft. diameter table will yield 30 linear feet of work area | 30 linear feet of work area |
| Employee Safety | Belt driven, the turntable can be stopped by hand | Gear and chain driven - kill switches at each work station are required to insure employee safety - potential pinch points for employees' hands between moving belt and frame |
| Wear Parts | None | The belt will stretch over time and will have to be tightened - dividers on the belt are known to break - eventually the custom belt will have to be replaced at considerable expense plus installation |
| Electrical Requirements | 120 volt - available anywhere | 120 volt and higher - special electrical circuitry may be required |
| Ease of Portability | On casters - extremely easy - one person only required | The length makes it extremely difficult to re-locate within the production area unless it is broken down to component parts |
| Employee Friendly | Encourages employee interaction - and individual responsibility for the quality of the bouquet produced | Employees are isolated - difficult to identify the employee who manufactures a particular bouquet |
| Adaptability | Easily makes the bigger bouquet - lots of vertical support for the over sized bouquet | Minimal support for the oversized bouquet |
| Product flow | Minimal disruption to product flow within the production area - less than 10 feet wide barrier | A barrier 30 feet long and 4 feet wide will disrupt product flow |
| Quality of end product | Easy to pinpoint who is doing what | Difficulty ascertaining who is responsible for a bouquet |
| Security of production capacity | Smaller units of production will give you security of production capacity as well as minimizing set -up times | Can you imagine your unit not operating before a major holiday and you lose total production capability ?????? |
| Number of work stations (5 linear feet per station) |
Five - allows for five feet for a saw to trim bouquets to a uniform length | Five - allows for five feet for a saw to trim bouquets to a uniform length |
| Trim Saw | Bandsaw used - minimal movement of bouquet - blades are cheap and easy to replace - parts readily available locally | Circular Saw - bouquets must be held secure - more parts to wear out - blades are very expensive to replace |
| Price per work station | $2,650.00 | estimated $4,500.00 and more |
