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As technology has advanced and packaging automation specialists have developed purpose-built technology to change how packaging machines are designed, the ‘tried and true’ of PLC-driven vendor specs has turned into the ‘status quo,’ stifling innovation and speed to market.
Stefan Aumann is responsible for engineering and new production systems as the Senior Segment Engineer in the European sector of Masterfoods. Stefan Kohl handles planning and operation of packaging systems in the plant at Verden an der Aller, Germany.
As technology has advanced and packaging automation specialists have developed purpose-built technology to change how packaging machines are designed, the ‘tried and true’ of PLC-driven vendor specs has turned into the ‘status quo,’ stifling innovation and speed to market. So states the new report from the analysts at ARC Advisory Group, titled Packagers’ Automation Specifications Must be Aligned with Business Strategies and Foster Innovative Machine Design.
According to ELAU technology evangelist Tom Jensen, modular software design benefits packaging automation for the same reason that World Batch Forum (WBF) recommends modularity in process automation. His presentation at the WBF 2006 Forum in Atlanta demonstrated that when implemented with ISA-88 (IEC 61512) principles in the IEC 61131-3 international standard automation programming languages, modularity becomes a powerful tool for both machine builders and users.
The annual ARC Automation Forum isn’t supposed to be about packaging. But with automation at the very heart of improving packaging performance, this has become an increasingly important event for packagers to attend.
Assemble an impressive array of automation technologists from AstraZeneca, Coors, Eli Lilly, Hershey, Miller Brewing, Procter & Gamble, Wyeth and more – and what do they talk about?
PMMI president Chuck Yuska was among several futurists at the 2006 Packaging Strategies conference addressing global competition. He explained how PMMI members will “shed their machine-centric image to become total solution providers” operating in a “collaborative environment between materials, machinery, component and service suppliers….Innovation isn’t linear any more, it’s collaborative.”
From ARC Forum to PackOps, Packaging Strategies to IPACK IMA, and the all-new Packaging Automation Forum, packaging automation has become this year’s hot topic. Why all the interest?
Lead speaker at the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute’s annual meeting, ELAU NA president Christopher Zei gave leaders of North America’s top packaging machine builders a road map to add value and reduce costs by adopting a systematic and modular approach to mechatronic engineering.
In a recent conversation with Doug Gray, engineering project manager at Coors, on the subject of automation technology, a number of issues and concerns about packaging machinery automation and integration surfaced.
As noted in the previous article, there is a trend away from rigid control specifications to give OEMs more freedom to work with the best control platform for their design, fostering innovation and cost savings.
“We used to be quite rigid when it came to the controls platforms that we specified on our packaging machinery,” says Hershey’s Joe Wagner, manager of the controls engineering department for global operations engineering at The Hershey Co. “But about four years ago, we opened up our controls standards to enable our OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) to utilize controls platforms that they are most familiar with.
In a recent conversation with Doug Gray, engineering project manager at Coors, on the subject of automation technology, a number of issues and concerns about packaging machinery automation and integration surfaced.
