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Food processing labour shortages drive packaging automation
Articles- Apr 07,23
The food processing labour shortage remains on the minds of many decision-makers. Automation can relieve some associated burdens, says Emily Newton.
A major food processing labour shortage has left many leaders getting creative to cope with it. After all, consumers continue to buy food, even in times of inflation and other challenging economic conditions. They might alter what they purchase or how much they buy, but people still need food, so the plants that process it remain in demand.
A 2023 survey from Food Processing indicated 40% of respondents want to add to their workforces this year. However, many also spoke of the labour shortage and difficulties related to the quality of the available labour as they discussed the vital manufacturing issues faced.
General Mills launched a program that brings former workers out of retirement. Elsewhere, people at Associated Wholesale Grocers Inc. use Facebook and LinkedIn to contact individuals who have left the company and encourage them to return. However, not all food industry executives are on board with that. They don’t like giving employees the idea that the door is always open for them to come back if they leave.
These are all possibilities if executives are open to urging former workers to return. However, that’s not always an option. If people left on bad terms, they might be wholly opposed to coming back, and the feeling could be mutual. Plus, if health problems, family obligations or an opportunity in another state made a person leave, those are all cases where it probably doesn’t even make sense to contact the individual in question.
That’s why some food companies are investing in packaging automation instead. Here are some of the potential benefits and outcomes of that approach.
Raising productivity at a chocolate plant
Grupo Nutresa has nine product lines and operates in more than a dozen countries. Many of the company’s strongest sellers are chocolate products. Leaders were interested in helping the company gain and maintain the momentum that would see it well into the future. That’s one of the primary reasons they have a decade of history working with an Italian packaging automation specialist.
One of the aims was to automate two packaging lines associated with two types of chocolates getting produced on three total lines. A particular challenge, though, was that the products get packaged differently. One comes in a wrapped tray, and the other is a boxed item. However, the company got impressive results after overcoming these obstacles.
First, it logged a 14% line productivity increase. Moreover, the automation allows the handling of 600 units per minute of one chocolate bar and 1,080 per minute of the other type. Taking all the different chocolate the company produces, the total accounts for more than 300 million chocolate bars sold in Mexico per month. That notable amount allows the company to make strides in achieving its growth goals and staying competitive in the market.
It would have arguably been much harder to do that without automation, particularly due to the food processing labour shortage. Automation like this doesn’t mean the company can operate without people, but it reduces the overall number of employees it must hire.
Pursuing fully automated packaging
Decision-makers at Dutch company MultiGrow Grasheok wanted their enterprise’s cucumbers to reach stores only 24 hours after harvesting. Although the company already had a few automated packaging lines that could support that aim, an existing downside was that people still had to operate the equipment manually.
Company leaders found a technology provider that could fully automate the three packaging lines. Besides making the company’s processes faster, this solution increases the ergonomic friendliness of the employees’ work. That aspect could mean it’s easier to retain employees after hiring them. Then, labour shortage problems become less severe because a larger percentage of the company’s workforce is highly experienced and able to cope with demand fluctuations.
Automation can also extend to what happens after the cucumbers leave the factory. These products are extremely perishable due to their high water content and low acidity. Damage, moisture and temperature extremes can cause perishable products to reach destinations in unsellable conditions. However, some companies use smart sensors that automatically track goods in transit.
Then, the appropriate parties get real-time alerts about packages receiving shocks, getting stored outside the correct temperature range or other instances that could cause the company to lose profits. The associated data could also tell representatives that it might be time to change the kind of packaging used. That’s particularly likely if the goods consistently get damaged during transit in the current type.
Ensuring food packages have the right labels
Many people have dietary requirements or preferences that cause them to buy or avoid certain foods. For example, if someone has a peanut allergy or is lactose intolerant, they’ll look for products that support those needs.
However, things can go wrong if packaging mistakes happen at the plant, causing foods to have incorrect labels. Such events often cause food producers to pull the products from shelves. Such errors may be more likely due to the food processing labour shortage problem, especially if the people a company has hired feel under too much pressure from their workloads.
Packaging automation can support major improvements, though. For example, one company uses a system with an integrated vision feature that checks that the identifying information on the package matches what’s inside. Such technology doesn’t replace human-led verification, but it can supplement it.
Having such a strategy becomes even more important when a company begins producing more products. Similarly, packaging errors could increase if the business operations involve frequently switching an assembly line over to make a different product.
Automation can help solve the food processing labour shortage issue
The food processing labour shortage remains on the minds of many decision-makers. However, these examples show how automation can relieve some associated burdens. Leaders should not view automation as a cure-all, but they should at least be open to its possibilities.
About the author:
Emily Newton is a tech and industrial journalist and the Editor-in-Chief of Revolutionized Magazine. Subscribe to the Revolutionized newsletter for more content from Emily.
Food processing
labour shortage
packaging
automation
food packaging
Emily Newton
Grupo Nutresa
Chocolate plant
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