When the pressure is on a food company to ratchet up production for a new customer, additional reliable equipment may be needed.
Combined with time pressure, the packaging technology partner needs to deliver quickly. Arla Foods is a Danish cooperative of dairy farmers producing a wide range of popular dairy products sold worldwide. In October 2012, the company was awarded a contract by a private label retailer in Germany to supply products of Arla’s brand of premium cheeses. This required swift action to set up a supply chain for two sizes of the cheeses – 150g and 200g – and integrate new, efficient secondary packaging equipment.
Arla turned to Bosch Packaging Systems AG in Beringen, Switzerland, a company of Bosch Packaging Technology, for speedy delivery.
Before the big retailer contract, Arla had been purchasing packaging machinery from other suppliers. However, things changed when the dairy company discovered Bosch’s Sigpack TTM at Interpack in May 2011 – an integrated top loader for secondary packaging. The two companies continued discussions about using the technology in the months following the show, and in January 2012, Arla visited the Bosch plant in Beringen, Switzerland, to see the machine in operation.
Just a month after the retailer contract was awarded, Bosch and Arla signed an agreement for the sale of a Sigpack TTM to be installed at Arla’s Skanderborg, Denmark plant. With Arla needing to send goods to its customer in a short timeframe, delivery of the Sigpack TTM was put on an expedited schedule. As a result, Bosch managed to deliver and install the Sigpack TTM ahead of time. This has allowed Arla to fulfil its obligations to its customer in a timely and efficient way, while Bosch has been added to Arla’s list of preferred suppliers.
Arla’s product portfolio ranges from milks and creams to yogurts and cheeses, to butters and spreads, and even beverages. Headquartered in the Viby J district of Aarhus, Denmark’s second largest city, the cooperative has production facilities in 12 countries and sales offices in 30 more, employing more than 18,000 people.
The 130-year-old dairy business supplies numerous brands, including the House of Castello, a brand of blue cheeses popular in Scandinavia, Australia, Germany, the US and Canada. Customers associate the Castello cheeses with its semi-circular shape, though Castello isn’t perfectly round but six-edged. The products are known for their unique tastes and textures and are packaged at the Skanderborg plant in Denmark, where the Sigpack TTM now is located.
The semi-circular shape and the nature of the cheese product – soft and heavy – present a top loading challenge and require a lot of know-how and experience in the field. The segments of cheese demand highly accurate placement because the cartons are only slightly larger compared to the packaged cheese, leaving no room for error. Bosch tailored the Sigpack TTM perfectly so it fit Arla’s needs.
While the cheese is arriving from the primary packaging machine, the Sigpack TTM first forms the carton from flat blanks. The machine’s top loading robot simultaneously grips multiple products, already tightly wrapped in foil, and packs them separately into cartons. To ensure safe and gentle product handling, Bosch shaped the Sigpack TTM grippers to match the cheese product. After loading of the products, the TTM closes the cartons and the products move to end-of line packaging.
“We are extremely happy with the Sigpack TTM, especially about its efficiency, which is even above our expectations,” said Kim Søvang, process, technology and development manager of Arla.
The Sigpack TTM is a versatile, integrated top loader for secondary packaging that can handle almost all single products, such as bars, tubes and bags, at speeds up to 1,000 units and 150 cartons per minute. Designed for flexibility, the TTM offers the ability to pack products into a wide variety of common top load carton styles. It’s made for reliability and efficiency, with a quick and repeatable format changeover concept that requires only one operator, who can also run and clean the Sigpack TTM single-handedly. This allowed Arla to redirect workers to higher-skilled tasks. In addition, the machine is compact and has several in-feed and layout configurations. The design is hygienic and ergonomic, giving the operator superb accessibility and process visibility.
“Bosch has a solid reputation in the market for high quality machines, which of course was important to us,” said Søvang. “What was really welcome was the efficiency of Bosch as a company, as well as the way the company identified our pressing needs and delivered over and above what was expected. Most importantly, Bosch has helped us keep our own customers happy, enabling us to grow our business in different markets around the world with the support of our new committed packaging partner.”
Having discovered for certain that Bosch has the efficient technology and expertise, Arla is so satisfied with the machine that another Sigpack TTM has already been delivered.
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