Automation

How Coconut Cult Keeps Culture Alive through Automation

Tue, 28 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0400

To keep the culture and grow the company, Coconut Cult partnered with Integrated Packaging Machinery to implement its first robotic automation system, featuring three custom KUKA robots at the company's manufacturing facility in Utah.

How Koch Foods Streamlined Endpoint Operations with a Unified Thin Client Strategy

Mon, 27 Jul 2026 12:00:00 -0400

As Koch Foods evaluated its endpoint strategy, it faced a familiar issue for many manufacturers: how to modernize IT infrastructure without increasing operational complexity or sacrificing reliability.

Robotics Solutions for All Food Processing Jobs and Seasons

Mon, 27 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0400

This visual overview, featuring images and videos of robotics applications in the food industry, illustrates what is possible with modern vision systems, artificial intelligence and robotics in a range of applications — from agricultural harvesting to serving up RTE meals, smart palletization and carcass cutting.

Smart Packaging: What Is It?

Tue, 21 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0400

The world of smart packaging comprises many parts — intelligent equipment, recyclable materials, captivating art and lots of data — but pulling it together is a challenge. However, if done correctly, it benefits everyone in the supply chain from producer to consumer with timely information.

McCain Foods Launches Data-Driven Grower Pilot Program

Thu, 16 Jul 2026 10:01:00 -0400

McCain says the program gives its teams and potato growers a shared, consistent view of crop performance throughout the season, using data-driven insights to help identify variability earlier and prioritize attention where it matters most.

How Automation Supports Variability and Flexibility in Food Manufacturing

Wed, 01 Jul 2026 14:06:00 -0400

As product portfolios expand and production requirements become increasingly complex, manufacturers are under growing pressure to maintain efficiency with systems originally designed for predictable, repetitive production.

Track and Trace Product Temperature on the Road

Mon, 29 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0400

You know the origins of all your ingredients and everything that happened during the processing, cooling and freezing of your product, but what can you know about your product once it leaves your premises? This is the job of the track part of track-and-trace.

Shifts in Training Are Mandatory for Battling the Workforce Gap

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:02:00 -0400

Food and beverage plants require predictive, remote and machine-embedded tools on packaging machinery to ensure uptime, but operator shadowing and hands-on repetition are equally important for operational efficiency.

Your Biggest Losses Are Hiding in Data You Already Have

Thu, 04 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Food and beverage plants often face hidden losses marked by discrepancies in yield, giveaway, and mass balance. While OEE measures capacity usage, it doesn’t provide insights into product quantity or waste, which can be revealed by analyzing quality data effectively.

Control AI Access in the OT Environment

Tue, 26 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Ever notice how ChatGPT or CoPilot saves all your AI chats? While this can help solve future problems more quickly, private data accumulated from an OT system saved on the public internet is a disaster waiting to happen. Fortunately, in most cases AI is embedded in the process and data stays private and protected.

How Food Manufacturers Navigate Labor Shortages and Traceability Demands with ERP Solutions

Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400

In an era where visibility and agility are becoming more essential, many food and beverage manufacturers are moving toward enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions that help create a single system of record.

Advancing Food Manufacturing Through Digital Transformation

Mon, 04 May 2026 09:13:00 -0400

Smart manufacturing technologies, such as digital tools and connected systems, can improve visibility, performance and decision-making on packaging lines.

Additive Manufacturing: Roles for 3D Printing and Robotics in Food Production

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Additive manufacturing can describe two technologies in food production — the more commonly known is 3D printing, which has been borrowed from 3D tool and parts making, but robotic work cells can also fit the definition of additive manufacturing.

How Digitalization Supports Pasteurization Recordkeeping

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Digital recorders and data management software ease recordkeeping and regulatory compliance — compared to traditional paper-based methods — increasing consumer safety and enhancing operational efficiency for processors.

Number of Food Recalls Up: Bad or Good?

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0400

While at times the number of food safety recalls seems to be rising, in most cases, the recalls are smaller in lot size and don’t progress very far through the supply chain because the tools stop most major potential outbreaks.

DrinkPAK Turns to Siemens to Automate Texas Beverage Facility

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 10:19:00 -0400

Through a combination of advanced automation, smart infrastructure and tailored financial solutions, Siemens helps DrinkPAK scale its operations, maintain reliability, maximize energy efficiency and enable sustainable decision-making.

Improving Packaging Line Efficiency with Automated Technologies

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 10:32:00 -0400

In past years, customers have focused more on automation as part of broader sustainability or throughput goals. Now, the focus has shifted slightly, with more emphasis on how many operators can be reassigned or how much support a system will require post-install.

How Automated Conveying Transformed Private-Label Pie Manufacturing

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 11:33:00 -0400

Gardner Pie Company turned to Benchmark Automation to develop a series of conveyors to support manufacturing and packaging of baked and frozen pies without damaging tender, flaky crusts.

Modernization Investments Improve Operator Safety

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Operator safety is becoming a critical lever for performance in food and beverage manufacturing. As workforce challenges intensify, processors are investing in automation, advanced HMI design and safer equipment to improve both retention and productivity.

How to Select Automation Technologies for Food Manufacturing

Thompsona@bnpmedia.com (Alyse Thompson-Richards) — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Black & Veatch’s Kim Lovan and Carrie Woehler discuss how food and beverage manufacturers are implementing automation, considerations for vetting solution providers, and how automation projects have evolved.

Simplifying the Alphabet Soup of Industrial Networks

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0400

It used to be that if you used one particular vendor’s automation products or sensors, you were locked in forever. With today’s open standards-based networks, users are no longer locked in and can shop around for sensors, industrial PCs, PLCs and industrial network devices.

Put Contextualized OEE Data to Use Managing Plantwide Processes

Tue, 10 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0400

While OEE is a must-have for troubleshooting line problems, contextualized OEE data with its time signatures is a key input in analyzing when and what went wrong with a plant’s total production process, including wasted product and utilities. And it can even aid in the track-and-trace process.

How Coriolis Meters Helped Milk Processor Galloway Company Reduce Giveaway and Improve Efficiency

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 11:35:00 -0500

Galloway Company turned to Emerson for Coriolis meters to optimize its dairy processing operations by delivering precise and dependable flow measurements.

How Can Data Integration Support AI Adoption in CPG Manufacturing?

Thompsona@bnpmedia.com (Alyse Thompson-Richards) — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0500

AI is revolutionizing manufacturing with applications in predictive analytics and product development. Despite challenges like data silos and integration, progress is being made towards agentic AI. Discover how companies are adapting and what the future may hold.

ISA Publishes New Standard for SCADA Systems

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 09:54:00 -0500

The ISA-112 Part 1 standard provides a vendor-neutral and technology-independent framework for the long-term management of SCADA systems and execution of SCADA modernization projects.

The Data Dilemma: Why AI Fails for Mid-Sized Food Processors

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 12:06:00 -0500

It is critical for manufacturers such as food processors to recognize that while AI has the potential to become the "turbocharger" of operations, that transformation rarely happens by simply bolting on use cases.

AI: In Quest of and Fulfilling the Perfect Batch

Fri, 13 Feb 2026 00:00:00 -0500

You don’t have to go it alone when searching for and maintaining the perfect batch. Through machine learning and AI-based batch control, the arduous search becomes easier to realize.

Motor and Drive Sustainability: Don’t Forget to Look at the Bigger Picture

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 -0500

As the march continues to make motor efficiency nearly 99%, the way motors are used and applied can make a big difference in the overall sustainability picture of any plant.

Automating Reverse Packaging: A True Food Processing Challenge

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 13:49:00 -0500

Rethinking the operation could unlock more productivity, and the key to successful automated reverse packaging hinges on robot 3D vision system technology.

Now We’re Talking: Improving Manufacturing Communication

Thompsona@bnpmedia.com (Alyse Thompson-Richards) — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 -0500

In a recent survey, Weavix found manufacturing workers are satisfied with their communication strategies but there’s still room for improvement.