Sponsored by ELAU

Category: Automation strategy

March 21, 2007

Report challenges status quo in control specs

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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.

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March 21, 2007

Masterfoods Europe demands modular machinery

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.

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October 15, 2006

Report challenges status quo in control specs

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.

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October 15, 2006

The future of packaging is: software!

How can software be any more important than it already is to packaging machinery automation?

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July 15, 2006

ELAU’s Tom Jensen addresses WBF

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.

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July 15, 2006

Packaging trends at ARC Automation Forum

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.

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July 15, 2006

New forum is first to focus entirely on packaging automation

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?

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July 15, 2006

Packaging Strategies 2006: OEMs to “shed machine-centric image”

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.”

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July 15, 2006

This Year's Hot Topic: Packaging Automation

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?

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March 15, 2006

What if you design an innovative package, and no machine exists

A record crowd at Package Design 2006, the conference organized by Packaging Strategies, enjoyed a fascinating program.

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March 15, 2006

ELAU offers PMMI members ‘lean design’ roadmap

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.

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March 15, 2006

Coors seeks OEMs who 'get it'

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.

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March 15, 2006

Why packagers are giving OEMs more say in controls

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.

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March 15, 2006

Hershey’s New Direction on Controls

“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.

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December 15, 2005

Coors seeks OEMs who ‘get it’

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.

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August 15, 2005

Make2Pack’s powerful friend in Cincinnati

Make2Pack, which aims to tightly integrate processing and packaging automation, gets P&G’s strong backing.

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June 14, 2005

Hershey’s view from interpack

Susan Sinclair, vp of operations engineering for The Hershey Company presented these observations at interpack:

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February 14, 2005

P&G’s Holmes talks

Skip Holmes is a corporate automation leader at Procter & Gamble. Here are his thoughts on deriving business value from technology.

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