How to Automate Palletizing

Industrial Automation business, Formic Technologies, has published a new how-to guide dedicated to helping Food and Beverage Manufacturers This guide helps Food and Beverage Manufacturers and Contract Packagers automate pallet stacking and package handling. This guide will also have information useful to anybody facing the challenge of Labor Shortages and Costs: A consistent challenge is the difficulty in finding and retaining reliable manual labor for repetitive tasks such as palletizing. Automation can alleviate the impact of labor shortages and reduce long-term labor costs. Safety and Ergonomics: Manual palletizing can be physically demanding and can lead to workplace injuries from heavy lifting and repetitive motion. Automated systems can improve worker safety and reduce the incidence of work-related injuries. Productivity and Efficiency: Humans can only work so fast and for so long before they need breaks. Robots can operate continuously, which significantly increases throughput and overall efficiency on the production line. Consistency and Quality Control: Manual processes can introduce variability in pallet stacking, which can affect product stability during transport. Automation ensures consistent pallet patterns and stable loads, improving product quality and reducing waste from damaged goods. Space Utilization: Automated palletizing can be more space-efficient, allowing for optimal use of warehouse and production floor space. This is crucial in urban areas where space comes at a premium. Scalability: As businesses grow, it becomes increasingly difficult to scale manual processes. Automated systems can be more easily scaled to handle increased production volumes without a proportional increase in labor. Speed of Operation: Automation can significantly outpace manual palletizing, which is critical in high-volume production environments where speed is essential to meet demand. Complexity of Packaging: With the increasing complexity of packaging designs and the need for mixed pallet loads, manual palletizing becomes more challenging and less efficient. Robots can be programmed to handle a variety of packaging types and configurations with precision. Regulatory Compliance: In the food and beverage industry, there are strict regulations regarding hygiene and contamination. Automated systems can help to meet these regulatory requirements by minimizing human contact with the product. Demand Variability: Fluctuations in demand can be hard to manage with a static workforce. Automation provides the flexibility to ramp production up or down without the logistical challenges of hiring or laying off workers. Cost of Errors: Mistakes in manual palletizing can lead to incorrect orders, product damage, and returns, all of which are costly. Automation reduces the risk of human error..

Interested parties are invited to review the how-to guide in full on their website: https://formic.co/resources/articles/automated-palletizing/how-to-get-started-with-automated-palletizing

This most recent how-to guide from Formic Technologies contains precise and detailed steps and instructions, designed to be used by Contract Packagers and others who need it, helping them This guide helps Food and Beverage Manufacturers and Contract Packagers automate pallet stacking and package handling, as quickly, easily and with as little stress as possible.

Formic Technologies states that this accessible, easy to follow guide provides all of the information necessary to fully understand the topic, to get the results they want.

The Full How-To Guide Covers: How to get started in overcoming challenges presented by manual pallet stacking and manual package handling - The guide on Formic's website on how to get started with automated palletizing covers several important topics​1​: The importance of palletizing: It's a fundamental operation for transport and storage efficiency, traditionally manual but now often automated. Steps to automate palletizing: It details a step-by-step approach including production line assessment, product assessment, evaluating production rates, understanding labeling requirements, and pallet securement methods. Covers assessing how to acquire palletizing automation for a facility - Ownership vs. Robots-as-a-Service (RaaS): Discusses the differences between buying equipment outright versus using Formic's RaaS, which includes lifetime support and no upfront costs. Implementation: Describes the support Formic provides in system shipping, unloading, setup, and post-production support and training. Types of robots: Distinguishes between collaborative robots (cobots) and industrial robots, which are used in automated palletizing. End-of-Arm-Tooling: Discusses the various tools used in automated palletizing, indicating that there's a suitable tool for every situation. Advantages of Automating Palletizing - Advantages of automated palletizing: Outlines the benefits such as increased productivity, consistency, labor savings, and reduction in injuries.

When asked for more information about the guide, the reasons behind creating a guide on How to Get Started With Automated Palletizing and what they hope to accomplish with it, Malcolm Kerr, Head of Go To Market at Formic Technologies said: ""As someone who's talked to countless of managers and owners who navigate the complex waters of manufacturing automation, I found Formic's guide on automated palletizing not just helpful, but transformative. It provides a clear roadmap from concept to execution, demystifying the jargon-laden process with practical steps and real-world examples. The guide's thorough breakdown—from assessing production lines to selecting the right robots—gives you the confidence to make informed decisions. It also sheds light on the often-overlooked aspects, like labeling requirements and pallet securement, ensuring you don't miss a beat. Whether you're a small business owner or run a large-scale operation, this guide is an indispensable resource that propels you toward efficiency and growth. A must-read for anyone considering the leap into automation!""

Food and Beverage Manufacturers and anybody interested in How to Get Started With Automated Palletizing are invited to review the how-to guide online: https://formic.co/resources/articles/automated-palletizing/how-to-get-started-with-automated-palletizing

More information about Formic Technologies itself can be found at https://Formic.co