Automation after COVID-19: Pandemic Presses Food Manufacturers to Automate

Sanitation concerns have recently been addressed, with new hygienic, wash-down compatible robots now being evaluated and added farther up in the production line. These robots can provide tangible benefits to food producers by reducing operational costs, improving food safety, and eliminating tasks that pose an injury risk to human operators. They have also drastically reduced the maintenance costs of robots operating in harsh industrial environments. These robots claim to reduce maintenance costs on individual units by up to 60%, Riley reports.

Adoption Strategies

When looking to adopt automation into a manufacturing facility, companies should begin by having automation suppliers review the material and information flow of their operation and identify opportunities to implement equipment and software that will streamline systems. “Using data, automation companies can right-size automation appropriately to meet a business’s current requirements and those in the future,” Steininger says.

After learning more about available solutions, companies should investigate the potential for a return on their investment inside and outside of their facilities—paying special consideration to soft-cost paybacks such as employee availability, retention, training costs, work loss due to illness, product damage, and waste, Steininger continues. Finally, companies should work with a supplier with the capability and interest to be a long-term partner. Being able to count on support before, during, and after implementation will overcome a lot of barriers.

When looking to automate, keep in mind that adopting automated capabilities is an incremental process. “It’s impossible to go from a traditional manufacturing structure to a fully-automated warehouse overnight,” Zimmerman says. “By starting with smaller projects, such as enhancing barcoding with RFID and automated order entry or automated analytics tools, food manufacturers can begin to see automation’s benefits.”

A modern ERP system can serve as a good way to start integrating automated tools and applications. “With operational insights and real-time data visibility, ERP solutions speed up capabilities and open the door for more sophisticated warehouse tracking and automated processes,” Zimmerman says.

Sean T. Riley, a senior global industry director of manufacturing and transportation at Software AG, which provides software solutions to food manufacturers, says the key to successful adoption is maximizing current automation resources and understanding the true cost of product per each production zone. “While this can be difficult with manual processes, manufacturers already have a significant amount of data in their process histories,” he says. Advanced analytics can analyze, monitor, and predict the operational performance of production processes and the expertise of process engineers, giving food manufacturers the ability to exactly quantify the impact that advanced robotics will have on production processes.

A higher level of training is essential to cultivate the skills required to design, integrate, and maintain the advancement of robotics, he points out. Problem solvers, intuitive thinkers, and trained specialists are needed to fill the skills gap. Automation installations represent the largest improvements at food manufacturing facilities, with more than half of food manufacturers turning to automation to fill the void of diminishing worker availability.

Overcoming Challenges

To overcome barriers to automation, food manufacturers should make incremental improvements to start automating capabilities at a smaller scale. “By seeing the benefits of automation, manufacturers can build their way up to full-scale automation over time,” Zimmerman says.

Because cost is often the No. 1 barrier to implementing automation and robotics, original equipment manufacturers and machine suppliers can benefit from collaborating with robotics providers to design more efficient packaging line configurations, Sean M. Riley says. For instance, robotic product handling to feed a flow wrapper can manage delicate and odd-shaped items like baked goods, placing them in the proper orientation for packaging without breakage. With fully integrated sensors, a connected flow wrapper and robotic packing arm can also communicate changes in packaging counts, allowing the flow wrapper to meter the precise number of products needed per cycle to the robotic arm.