The Two Biggest Mistakes People Have Shared About Buying A Robot For Contract Packaging

Only two? No, sorry to say, there’s more and those will be shared in another post. But for now, here in 2023 are the top two things that I have heard when talking to people in the industry: that if you figure out BEFORE you issue a PO for that new robot (or robots) on your contract packaging line you will be ahead of the game.

Here’s the setting. The two of us are out on the co-pack floor standing at one of just under twenty lines. The products are typical of what you’d see at most standalone co-packers that serve many customers, or one that’s embedded in some large Fortune 100 CPG. Things you’ll be picking up on your next trip to Target or CVS or any other chain. Fresh from the factory, being re-packaged in the form that the consumer will notice, grab off the peg hook and toss in the cart. We are looking at his latest purchase – a robot arm. 

He is the site manager. Has been in co-pack awhile. We are on the production floor with about ten of those lines in full swing mid first shift. Conveyors, shrink wrappers, cartoners, clamshell sealers humming away in a blend of people and technology. I vaguely remember a P.J. O’Rourke quote (that I had to look up after as I write this) that came to mind:

“Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand”.

This guy is good, but today he had the look of the second type – shaking his head after admitting he was trying to make work some technology that he wished he’d understood better when he was on the floor of the last PackExpo in Chicago and decided to buy. He was wishing he’d have understood better what needs to happen in between production runs.

I had a brief flashback. Sixteen-year-old me. First year of part time work and finally I thought I could get my own car with the money from that after school job. I had one picked out – front row of the lot (not a big dealer but the place with a trailer and a dozen cars or so.) My dad had stopped in to look at on his way home from work. Long story short – he was trying to tell me that I need to consider a few things it would most likely need and I’d have to pay for after I drove it off the lot. Things I hadn’t thought about - the hidden costs.  Had I been in a job interview I’d have described myself as “Persistent. Confident”. My father would’ve described me differently. I was relentless and a pain. But he also knew I’d never learn and wasn’t listening, so he let me buy it. A week after driving it he and I were in the driveway replacing rear brakes. (Thankfully running a tab for me for the parts. His labor was free-ish. I was a captive audience for some thinly veiled “I told you so’s” as my payment.) Two weeks later the pinkish spots on the street where I parked had turned to a puddle and I learned that transmissions have fluid. Need fluid actually. And at the rate mine was bleeding out it could end up being parked there for a long time.

Back to the co-pack floor as he opened up.  “I do read the posts. I know that packaging people like me are working hard to figure out this labor gap. It hurts to see the economy steaming along and the volume that’s there for the taking, but I don’t have the people to do it. I also see that some of my peers, and competitors, are already adding robot arms into their lines. It makes sense. I don’t need to have all fifteen or so slots on this line automated. But if I can add in one or two arms on an understaffed line, I just raised my line productivity ten or twenty percent. And my capacity. And my bottom line gets better.”

“Agreed.” I said. “So, this robot arm that’s not running now, when can I see it in action?”.

“Tomorrow. Probably second shift”.

“Mechanical issue? Broke down already?”

“No, never had a breakdown yet. It runs well. It really does …WHEN it runs”, he told me.

“So why not now?”.

That’s when he shared the two things he wished he’d paid better attention to: time and skill level to changeover.

“When I was at the show I should’ve dug deeper into programming time. We change SKUs on a line once or twice a shift. High mix is our world. On top of that the consumer packaging seems to change every few months – marketing keeps the look fresh but often that means I can’t just pull up from the saved library that SKU…it’s brand new.  It’s faster than years ago, I get it. But for our products it still can take hours. If I could hire enough people, then the person in that spot I could train to do the task in minutes. That’s what I need from this robot…minutes not hours.”

Across the aisle I saw his maintenance lead deep into what is called “unscheduled downtime” on the end of shift reports. Something stopped. And a dozen plus people standing idle until he and his team can fix it is making the site manager pay attention to that while we talk.

“And that’s the other reason this robot is doing nothing right now. I need one of the maintenance team to get freed up and dive into the tablet to set up the robot arm’s next SKU. They are the highest skilled in the building, but I need them first to keep the floor running. So, there are times on a line where I have the product, the equipment and the due date hanging over my head… but I’ll be a shift or two behind because I need the robot programmed by a tech. What’s my choice? Let that line sit and all those people standing while he gets this one ready?”.

He had a few other “lessons learned” but when I asked what he’d tell someone in his same shoes looking into adding robot arms to co-pack lines at their sites he said, “Do it. You don’t have a choice. After you get comfortable with the first couple, you’ll be adding robots into your next year’s budget like they were conveyors – just standard equipment that you need. Just be sure you pick one that can be programmed by people like a floor lead and not need an engineer or maintenance lead. And keep looking till you find someone that sells robots that can show you changeover times in MINUTES. I’m sold on robots. We’ll keep using this one. But I’m looking at better choices for the next one.”

He wrapped things up with this. “Contract packagers live in a high changeover world. You always hope that the sales team will land that contract or you get that “big fish” order of one single part number that runs on one or two of your lines non-stop, day after day. But the reality is what you see here. Shortest changeover and the ability to have that changeover programming done by more people on your floor, well then technology like robot arms will let you make money and hit due dates.” 

“Make money and hit due dates”. That’s a way better mission statement than I’ve seen posted in many site lobbies. 

If you are looking for a robot solution for your co-packing operation – look at Southie Autonomy’s offerings. They have been using AI before artificial intelligence was being mentioned, it seems, in everyone’s marketing info here in early 2023 (It should remind you of when the iPhones, iPads, iPods, iTunes first came out and everybody’s product seemed to be being rebranded with an “i” in front of its name (looking at you iHeartRadio, iRiver, iRobot and many more). 

It matters because Southie’s solution, placed on any brand’s robot arm, does allow for changeover programming to happen in minutes. It does allow for a line lead to do it (vs a maintenance tech or engineer). You can contact them to learn more at info@southie.com.

Unless you don’t want to “make money and hit due dates”.

John has spent over thirty years learning in global manufacturing, automation, engineering, 3PLs and contract packaging. Currently still learning and sharing best practices in those fields and as an advisor to Southie Autonomy out of Boston MA.