By Eric Whitley, Director of Smart Manufacturing at L2L
Since its inception, the food packaging industry has continuously transformed to meet the stringent regulatory mandates, ever-changing consumer demands, and the challenges presented by global supply chains.
With these challenges top of mind, food manufacturers are embracing digitalization and automation to boost efficiency, competitiveness, and customer satisfaction.
Here are four practical improvements digitalization and automation offer food packaging businesses.
Automation in the food packaging industry has revolutionized food packaging processes, increasing its speed and accuracy. By standardizing advanced machinery and digital tools, organizations can achieve significant improvements in production speed.
These improvements are a direct result of:
Harnessing the power of automation in food packaging not only improves efficiency but also ensures consistent and high-quality output, setting the organization up for sustainable growth.
It’s no secret that automated food packaging results in fewer quality discrepancies than manual packaging. This is largely due to factory automation, which ensures that products not only look and feel consistent but remain fresh and safe for consumption.
Here are a few ways in which digitalization and automation contribute to higher quality output:
Raising the quality of the end product also fortifies the brand’s reputation, cementing consumer trust and loyalty.
As we become increasingly conscious about the origins and journeys of our food products, the food packaging industry has responded with innovative digital solutions to meet this demand. FMI’s 2018 survey revealed that a striking 94% of consumers are likely to be loyal to a brand of meat and poultry that offers complete transparency, while 73% would be willing to pay more for a product that offers complete transparency.
The core benefits of improved traceability include:
By embedding advanced digital tools into the traceability framework, the food packaging industry can offer consumers the clarity they expect, fortifying brand reputation and ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements around traceability.
Through the integration of digital tools and automation, the industry has taken significant strides toward minimizing waste and maximizing output, ensuring both economic and environmental sustainability.
For example, one study shows that installing an IoT-based digital food waste monitoring system in a ready meal factory reduced food waste by over 60%, among other benefits.
Automation and digitalization lead to resource optimization in a few key ways:
Embracing automation and digital tools for resource optimization ensures that the food packaging industry operates at peak efficiency, balancing economic gains with environmental responsibility while paving the way for a more sustainable and resilient future.
From streamlining production processes and ensuring consistent product quality to enhancing traceability and optimizing resources, technological advancements have set the stage for an industry that is more efficient, sustainable, and responsive to consumer demands.
For stakeholders in the food industry, there’s an undeniable call to action: invest in these innovations and harness their potential. The future promises an industry where transparency is the norm, sustainability is a mandate, and quality is consistent. 
After an extensive career as a reliability and business improvement consultant, Eric joined L2L, where he currently serves as the Director of Smart Manufacturing. His role in this position is to help clients learn and implement L2L’s pragmatic and simple approach to corporate digital transformation.
