Increased Biscuit Production with Automated Packaging
Biscuits remain one of the world’s favourite snack foods, with a global market value reaching more than $110 billion USD in 2021. With an expanding market expected to reach over $151 billion USD in the next five years (CAGR of 5.10%), accelerating biscuit production is a high priority for many brands.
Rising costs and increasing regulatory controls are, however, proving challenging all over the world. As biscuit producers explore ways to streamline and increase efficiency, meet hygiene standards and minimise operating costs, automation again provides a solution.
Moving to automation on the packaging line
Automated packaging machines offer a way to increase production while streamlining processes and minimising manual resource reliance. A significant investment, moving to automation requires careful planning and in many cases, tailoring the right setup to suit precise requirements.
Many brands produce a wide range of biscuits of all shapes and sizes and development is a consistent part of their business offering. This means that the packaging lines often require changeovers to accommodate different packaging. Any downtime in any production line can have an impact, so it is important not to overlook these types of considerations when shopping for solutions.
When considering a tailored approach, working with a reputable packaging machine manufacturer is essential. Expect to work closely with them to ensure the right choices are made for the entire range of products, after-sales maintenance, and repair agreements are in place and compliance is met at every level.
Keeping up with regulatory standards
The biscuit industry is understandably highly regulated in terms of hygiene and food safety. However, during the last few years of the pandemic, the industry has seen widespread, frequent changes in regulation, encompassing both products and people. This has led to an industry-wide realisation that future-proofing to protect production is a now necessary step.
Automation within the biscuit packaging and product transfer processes delivers the ability to seamlessly meet local, national, and global regulatory requirements. With reduced human contact, the packaging line can gain greater quality control and the risk of contamination is almost negated.
Operations for some producers were adversely affected during the time of strict social distancing measures and this has also proved to be driving the popularity of automation to a degree. Automating key parts of the production process can deliver better flexibility in terms of the workforce, enabling extended or additional shift operations with fewer people on the line at any given time.
Case Study
Increased efficiency, automatic compliance, and streamlined operations are some of the benefits a major UK biscuit brand realised after implementing automation on the packaging and product transfer lines.
The client came to the Jacob White development team for help automating their biscuit packaging and product transfer lines. They wanted to increase production, reduce operational costs and implement a solution to meet hygiene standards that required no human intervention.
Tailoring a packaging solution
The most important part for us is taking the time to fully understand the client’s existing working processes, procedures, and products. This is where we gain the most valuable insights, working closely with them to determine their exact requirements so that we can recommend the machines that meet them.
For this client, we recommended an automatic cartoner and case packing machine combined with a tailored product transfer system. This would increase production output speeds (to over 120 cartons per minute) and reduce their heavy reliance on manual resources while meeting compliance.
About Jacob White Case Studies
Jacob White's case studies showcase and highlight the benefits of our packaging machines in real situations and working environments. We also hope that they demonstrate our commitment to ensuring the best possible solutions for our clients around the world.
