The increase in robotic capabilities and overall automation levels are allowing processing and packaging plants to make their staff more safe and happy.

FREMONT, CA: The automation of various processes is becoming common throughout the food industry. The food-packaging sector, in particular, is making great use of many technological advances and improvements in automating processes. With automated systems more available than ever, firms quickly realize the benefits of automation. For operations including packing, pick and place, sorting, labeling, and palletizing, automated systems are offering efficiency and cost savings.

According to the report of the Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies, 94 percent of food packaging operations are using robotics. Robotic automation is already significantly deployed in the food packaging, and of the companies are planning to increase automation levels in coming years. This increase in automation will be accompanied by the hiring of new employees with more technical skills and higher spending capital assets.

The transformation of the packaging line facilitates the redistribution of operations, reducing the physical demands of the job, noticeably in the burden of manual handling. Heavy labor is reduced for workers and leading to increased efficiency and staff reliability. Using automated packaging equipment also ensures flawless products and is a proven tool for standardization and ultimately enabling to improve the firm's operation and bottom line. 

Employee and food safety are increasingly important in food processing and packaging. With automation, machines can take the place of monotonous and dangerous jobs. In addition to the role automation plays in the packaging process, it also improves worker safety by delivering faster emergency response time through real-time monitoring.  Worker safety translates to more than just fewer accidents and also means reduced costs and happier, more efficient workers.

Automation has a significant impact on the processing and packaging industry and will continue it for the foreseeable future.