Much packaging efficiency has been achieved in recent years through automation. Technology not only improves line speed, but impacts product quality by removing potential sources of contamination that may result from human contact. Automating the packaging process also offers likely savings by minimizing waste and reducing labor costs.

Automated packaging machines offer a variety of advantages to the baker, from product inspection to product flow and positioning. Robotic systems can accommodate various types of bakery applications, and are typically versatile enough to be integrated into existing production systems at minimal, if any cost to floor space. Robotic systems can be custom tailored to the baker's needs.

Although automated machinery provides several significant means of optimizing the production process, the packaging material itself can be designed for maximum efficiency. Careful attention to packaging size and guage, or thickness, helps streamline costs and minimize waste. Bakers also can capitalize on consumers' demand for improved sustainability by increasing awareness of the recyclability of many forms of packaging materials, particularly bags used in packaging bread.

Automation's just reward

Automated packaging equipment can accomplish numerous tasks that were once highly labor intensive, many of which resulted in repetitive motion injuries. These robotic machines effectively increase production because they operate faster and more efficiently than manual labor, notes Kevin Pearson, vice president, Arr-Tech Manufacturing Co., Yakima, Wash. In addition, product integrity is improved by eliminating potential contamination from human handling.

Production efficiency is enhanced by the precision inherent in a mechanized process. “By creating a repeatable and consistent process through the use of automation, the variables that might otherwise exist are eliminated,” says Joe Dyke, manager, packaging automation, Inline Plastics Corp., Shelton, Conn. “A constant rate of production can be established, planned for and counted on.”

After an automation system has been installed, overall production efficiency manifests itself beyond the packaging process as line operators are forced to correct deficiencies that become apparent upstream, Pearson notes. “This will result in a higher percentage of product going out to market and not to the scrap or rework bin,” he adds.