A high-performance factory is something every manufacturer strives for, but too much focus on an individual machine’s speed can result in comparatively little thought being given to how the factory performs as a whole. Foodmach CEO Earle Roberts looks at what is required to create a winning production line.
Step 1: Right equipment
It’s hard to make up for an underperforming machine.
If you have capital for a new packaging line, you may be tempted to go with a single vendor offering guarantees on delivery and timelines. However, no single original equipment manufacturer (OEM) makes the best of everything.
Nothing compares to the palletiser made by a company that has decades of specialisation, or the labeller from a dedicated Italian engineering firm focused on breaking new ground in labelling technologies.
The best-of-breed (BoB) approach enables manufacturers to mix and match specialised packaging technology from multiple vendors. At first glance, BoB seems complicated, as each OEM has its own operating system and ways of doing things, like delivery and service logistics. But when done successfully, businesses can combine all their best-of-breed technology into one fully integrated system. Look for a single supplier that can source all the BoB equipment and install it for you.
Step 2: Integration
Ideally, the supplier can provide excellent line design, supply, integration, and complete digitalisation for Industry 4.0 connectivity.
At Foodmach we say, “there’s integration, and then there’s true integration”. There is a good reason why. Integration can mean daisy-chaining a series of machines with conveying and a line controller, maybe with some surface-level IIoT patching to make it work together.
Foodmach’s definition of integration means opening up each piece of equipment to a line manufacturing execution system that acts as a master controller, providing all the data points required for Industry 4.0 and absolute control over line function.
Need to change over products? Just press a button and all machine settings, conveyor speeds and pathways automatically reset to match the product recipe.
Not sure which container or label goes with that product? The line control not only tells you, but it also contains all the data for the coding and labelling because it came from the ERP system upstairs. Quality checks are built in.
If you want line efficiency, you want true integration.
Step 3: Overall line efficiency (OLE)
The holy grail in FMCG manufacturing is OLE. It means no machines are left idling while waiting for product, nothing needs to be dumped because the label was wrong or crooked, no staff standing by in anticipation of needing to fix something on a HMI or piece of equipment, no bits of paper being used for data entry, and most of all, no major stops.
OLE requires everything that can be automated, to be automated. Resource consumption – including space – is minimised, and the products produced are perfect, every time. That sounds like an impossible dream, but it is achievable. Let’s look at how.
Line as a Machine
Having spent half a century in the packaging automation game, Foodmach engineers think extensively about the ultimate FMCG production line.
We’ve used our combined expertise in machine connectivity, line control, and data acquisition to create our Line as a Machine (LaaM) integration package, to deliver OLE for our customers.
LaaM is a different way of looking at the production line. Instead of a series of machines linked by conveying and an IIoT layer, we create the equivalent of a single, high-performance vehicle engine out of an entire line.
One of the most compelling arguments for customers considering LaaM, is that it can be delivered with BoB, free-issued, and even legacy (old but still good) machines.
Our engineers design the line with the customer, help them decide on necessary equipment, and supply it. We then provide true integration and a line control system that puts the customer in the factory equivalent of a high-speed performance vehicle with all the necessary data to navigate into first place.
LaaM in action
One factory that showcases LaaM is Pernod Ricard Winemakers’ (PRW) Rowland Flat manufacturing plant in the Barossa Valley, South Australia. PRW is part of the global Pernod Ricard Group, with brands including Australian wine labels Jacob’s Creek and St Hugo as well as international spirits like Absolut and Jameson.
PRW’s brief for an Industry 4.0-enabled turnkey filling line was one of Foodmach’s largest orders to date. The combination glass and canning line was custom-built from BoB equipment, 90 per cent of which was supplied by Foodmach. Foodmach integration, combined with its data control software, FM Link, handles a broad product matrix of 140 SKUs: still or sparkling liquids in cans or glass in multiple formats with a range of closures – and it can run multiple SKUs concurrently.
Multi-SKU capability, or ‘flying changeovers’, is a significant advantage for lines with frequent product changes.
Usually, a line cannot commence a new SKU until the last case of the previous run is palletised. Our line control makes it possible to produce up to five SKUs simultaneously.
Built into FM Link are all the pre-start quality checks required by PRW. Most of these are compliance-related, some are lab sampling tests, but all are recorded and stored in the system. Production cannot begin until compliance is complete.
LaaM has provided PRW with the capacity to satisfy ever-changing market trends and stay ahead of competition.
A digital bridge: Paperless power
Foodmach’s software team spent more than a decade developing its line control software suite. The latest module, FM Link, is a comprehensive, dynamic software system that monitors, tracks, documents, and controls the process of manufactured goods. It acts as a digital bridge between the manufacturer’s ERP system and the factory floor, providing a single source of truth in the factory and taking human error out of the manufacturing equation.
Best of Breed: Machines of choice
As a turnkey supplier, in addition to Foodmach’s in-house range of palletisers, depalletisers, and case packers, it represents a stable of BoB brands including:
Robopac for pallet wrapping;
Markem-Imaje for coding and labelling;
P.E. Labellers for container labelling;
GEA Vipoll, Mengibar and INDEX 6 fillers;
ThermoFisher and miho inspection;
SOMIC, OCME, Dimac, and Prasmatic case packers; and
cobot palletising from Roblox.
This article was the cover story for our annual Australia's Top 100 Food & Drink Companies report. December/January magazine edition.
