Highly commended at the 2017 PPMA Group Industry Awards for robotic innovation, an automated turnkey installation from end-of-line automation specialist Brillopak has provided McVities with a flexible, small footprint, multi-line palletising solution that has paid for itself within 15 months through reduced labour costs.
The seven Brillopak C2 KT400 robotic palletisers, located on a mezzanine floor, have been running successfully for over 18 months at Pladis McVities’ distribution centre in Ashby de la Zouch. Processing in excess of 60 SKUs from seven different packing lines without the need for any tool changeovers, the advanced robotic solution has transformed a labour intensive bottleneck into a seamless and efficient ten-case-per-minute palletising operation.
With annual revenue of US$5.2bn and 26,000 employees worldwide, Pladis Group is an international conglomerate of biscuit and confectionery brands, including names like United Biscuits, McVities, Ülker and Godiva. In March 2015, the company invited several equipment suppliers to propose an automated palletising solution for its distribution hub at Ashby de la Zouche. The site was manually palletising boxes of McVities products on seven different lines – a labour-intensive process that was causing congestion in the packing area.
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