"Our customers know: We can not only handle end-of-line, we can manage ecosystems"

Industrial bakeries as well as the tissue and consumer goods industries, are facing challenges that often require extensive adaptation of operational processes. Megatrends such as sustainability and digitalization play a major role here. The efficient use of energy, smoothly interlinked processes and careful handling of raw materials and supplies are becoming increasingly important for companies. The growing shortage of skilled workers and personnel is also increasing the pressure to further automate production processes.

Rising prices for energy, personnel, raw materials and production materials are putting companies' competitiveness to the test. Intelligent cost management is required that leaves room for investment. The market outlook for the three sectors is consistently positive. To realize this potential growth, companies need to be able to scale their production flexibly. Flexibility is crucial because they must react quickly to fluctuations in the market, new product trends, customer requirements, and regulatory requirements. Many companies reach their logistical and technical limits in this respect.

Körber's palletizing and conveyor technology offers solutions that enable companies to optimize their internal logistics. We develop our products in line with the requirements that companies place on us. A good example of this is the layer palletizer PA15. Companies can flexibly adapt it to their needs in three expansion stages, which can also be retrofitted. Its slimline layout solves any space problems, its energy efficiency reduces operating costs and helps to make production more sustainable. 

Dominik Griefahn, CEO Manufacturing Logistics in the Körber Business Area Supply Chain, and Peter Lambeck, Senior Expert R&D Manufacturing Logistics, explain the PA15's answers to the challenges the industry faces and how it can become the heart of a logistics ecosystem.

Mr. Griefahn, what challenges are your customers facing?

Griefahn: The industries that we supply with our palletizing solutions are undergoing a transformation process. In addition to the major trends that can be observed in all industries, such as digitalization, sustainability and a shortage of skilled workers, specific challenges are shaping this process - impacting our products and solutions.

What do you mean specifically?

Griefahn: The demands on pallet quality have increased enormously. And the same applies to the integrity of the products. Nobody wants to buy a dented can or a crushed package in the supermarket. Packaging is also becoming thinner and thinner for reasons of cost and sustainability. This means extreme care must be taken when assembling pallets. Product traceability is another major issue that manufacturers need to address: When was the toast baked? When was it packaged? When was it stored? This information must be transparently traceable. And finally, many of our customers are concerned with the question of how they can increase output within their production facilities, combined with the challenge of adapting logistics.

Mr. Lambeck, what trends are you observing in the sectors?

Lambeck: In the consumer goods industry as well as in tissue production and in bakeries, we are seeing an ever-increasing variety of products and packaging. At the same time, product lists are getting longer and longer. The trend is towards smaller and ever more specific packaging. Whereas a few years ago, production lines sometimes ran for a week with the same product, today they change three to four times a day, following the motto: two hours of sliced bread at 1000g, two hours of whole bread at 1000g, then two half-sliced loaves as single packs of 500g.

What are the pain points within the sector?

Griefahn: Energy costs are a major factor for bakeries and tissue manufacturers. Packaging is a significant cost and pain point for consumer goods. Besides the costs, it increases waste production. How sustainable packaging is also has a major influence on whether a product is bought. In general, the scalability of production is a problem that many companies face.

What is the reason for that?

Griefahn: The demands on machinery are increasing, the machines are getting bigger and bigger, they have to be able to do more and more and do it better and faster. The typical case in a company looks like this: A production line is followed by a packaging line – and then suddenly the hall has already come to an end, often leaving no more room for automated palletizing. I say often, because we usually manage to fit individually configured products into these existing production halls. We can even install larger palletizers such as the PA15 and PA8 despite the lack of space – we simply have them palletized in the third dimension so that a forklift can drive underneath them, for example. These are points that we discuss with our customers' technical teams until a system really fits the individual requirements.

What role does the PA15 play in your portfolio?

Griefahn: The PA15 is our flexible all-rounder. We have developed it according to the modular principle and designed it for different expansion stages. With the PA15, we can flexibly cover many customer requirements. In its highest configuration level, it palletizes up to ten layers per minute - making it a real high-performance product. We have placed great emphasis on variability: The product infeed of the PA15 can take place at different heights, and it can be installed as a slim cell that can be variably adapted to the respective conditions in the product flow.

To what extent does the PA15 provide answers to the outlined pain points?

Lambeck: Its high, adaptable performance, variability, modular design principle, combined with high reliability and durability – all of this meets important requirements that customers place on us. Energy efficiency is another point that meets customer requirements. We have ensured that the PA15 requires virtually no pneumatics because compressed air is an energy-intensive and therefore cost-intensive form of drive. 

Griefahn: By way of comparison, if three to four people in a family blow-dry their hair in the morning, they consume just as much energy as a palletizing cell under load.

How is the concept of sustainability reflected in the PA15?

Lambeck: The PA15 significantly reduces waste thanks to gentle product handling and high quality. Our customers can also use it to process packaging optimized for material efficiency. On our side, we try to use as few resources as possible, from development through production to disposal. In addition, like all our machines, the PA15 is designed for a long service life. Our customers know that they can reliably produce for 25 years with a PA15.

Griefahn: The PA15 is also scalable and can be retrofitted. If a customer produces a different product range after ten years or needs a higher output, we can retrofit or expand the PA15 accordingly. This means that only an additional investment is required, not a new machine.

How does the ability to offer integrated solutions strengthen your position in the market?

Griefahn: We develop many projects, from planning, technology and software interfaces through to the construction of the machinery, and we also involve third-party providers. Our customers know that we can not only handle end-of-line processes, but we can also manage ecosystems. Our unique selling point is that we know our customers' packaging systems and we know the interfaces. We understand what happens upstream and downstream of our systems. That's why we can design them optimally to meet customer requirements.