Replacing its manual turntable style apple crate loading operation with two ergonomic Brillopak PAKStations has enabled leading apple producer Adrian Scripps to boost the efficiency of its packing operation.
“The PAKStation has made the entire process easier for the person packing. Historically, packs were presented to packing staff on a Lazy Susan rotary table, which allows a large area for crates to accumulate. We wanted a solution whereby crates were presented to the operator without accumulation, so that the pace of packing is dictated by the machine rather than people,” says James Simpson, Managing Director of Adrian Scripps.
Adrian Scripps is one of the UK’s premier growers and packers of English fruit. Several varieties of apple – Braeburn, Kanzi, Jazz, Opal, Gala, Red Prince and Bramley – along with Conference pears and blackcurrants, are grown on five farms totalling 750 hectares.
The family owned farming business is one of Tesco’s key apple suppliers – a relationship that stretches back more than 30 years and has seen much change in the way that fruit is handled at the company’s centralised packing facility on Moat Farm.
Historically, apples were sold either loose in moulded fibre trays or in plastic bags with a neck tie. Both packing operations were entirely manual, and packing staff worked at a rate of 2.5-5 packs per minute (ppm) on average.
When Adrian Scripps took the decision to invest in flow wrapping equipment, this accelerated the speed of the packaging operation but left packing hall staff struggling to keep up.
“That left us with lots of packs coming off the flow wrapper at speed, creating a very repetitive task – that was when we engaged Brillopak, who we knew had experience in automation in FMCGs for the grocery trade,” explains James.
On visiting the Kent facility, Brillopak quickly got the measure of the situation.
“Up to three people were trying to manually pack flow wrap apples into retail crates at a rate of up to 60 per minute per line. The packing operatives couldn’t consistently keep up with the pace, which meant upstream efficiency improvements from their grading and flow-wrap investments were impacted,” recalls David Jahn director at Brillopak.
“Brillopak immediately understood what we were looking for and very quickly got to grips with the challenges,” says James.
Brillopak’s engineers designed a semi-automated version of the traditional ‘Lazy Susan’ style packing station, which, branded the PAKStation, was to go on to become one of its best-selling packaging solutions. The system, which helps manual staff load packs of fresh produce into retail crates, has significantly enhanced process and productivity at more than 12 UK fresh produce packhouses to date.
One of the reasons for the popularity of the PAKStation is that rather than trying to replace human labour, it optimises it.
“The PAKStation is ergonomically designed to minimise operator movement by feeding product at the right height and in the right orientation. Unlike with a round table, with the PAKStation there is no swivelling or turning; the operator simply places the product gently into the crate without moving,” says David.
He says this makes a “surprising” difference to crate packing efficiency, typically increasing line speed by 15% across a shift.
At Adrian Scripps, one person feeds empty crates into two PAKStation systems. A roller conveyor then transports them to the operator. Bags of apples coming directly from the flow wrapper are transported into the system on a second, higher level conveyor. The operator simply has to pick the bags off the moving conveyor and place them in the crate. Because there is no accumulation, packing has to be consistent, thereby putting the system – not the operator – in control of line speed.
Filled crates exit the PAKStations and converge onto a single infeed into a robotic palletiser, also supplied by Brillopak.
James concluded “You can honestly trust Brillopak. A British company, on our doorstep at the forefront of their field. They’re innovative, proactive and delivered everything we asked. We couldn’t have worked with a better partner on this project”.
