The need to reduce costs and increase yield in processing and packaging is nothing new. In today’s expanding food market, however, fierce competition and lack of predictability require producers to proactively build greater flexibility, connectivity, and efficiency into their systems, not reactively. Time is unerringly money, and the fastest speed to market without sacrificing quality wins.
Easier said than done.
Integrating these crucial elements for optimized operations may not be as simple as making a phone call to your local OEM. Handling pre-packaging and processing from initial bulk product distribution for various fresh, frozen, or marinated products to feeding to accurate fixed-weight portioning and weighing presents its own daunting challenges.
Traditional pre-package processing solutions are incomplete. Producers working with multiple equipment vendors must patch together multiple systems, requiring multiple on-site testing iterations to improve machine performance, simplify diagnostics, and streamline planning, installation, and start-up processes to improve results.
Even when combined, the complex multi-vendor systems’ weight accuracy can be questioned, reducing product time to market, limiting ROI, and slowing payback.
THE PROACTIVE ANSWER TO THE PRE-PACKAGING QUESTION
So the question is:
“How do you streamline your systems, simplify operations, and cut costs—while handling a wide range of fresh, frozen, marinated, and irregular products with a single, continuous solution?”
Enter the comprehensive system solutions from Cabinplant and Harpak-ULMA Packaging.
The partnership of these two global packaging and processing leaders delivers innovative weighing, portioning, and loading systems designed for seamless, continuous, connected operation.
Their solutions, including batchers, vibration and screwfeed systems, multihead weighers, portioning tools, distribution equipment, and marinating systems—are engineered for unparalleled precision, accuracy, and efficiency. From bulk receiving to portioning and packaging, their streamlined applications and integrated service approach keep production moving with minimal downtime and maximum yield.
. 
Combined into a continuous production line, these pre-integrated, single-source solutions streamline operations, reduce risk, and improve reliability. Together, they increase yields, minimize labor challenges, and nearly eliminate product giveaway.
With one trusted system simplifying operations, businesses gain a streamlined purchasing process, dependable service, and consistent quality. The result is optimized operations, higher profitability, and scalable automation for processing and packaging across the U.S. and Canada.
REDUCING COSTLY PRODUCT GIVEAWAY WHEN EVERY OUNCE COUNTS
Traditional, manual packaging processes result in average annual product giveaway rates of 5-6%, meaning significant revenue (valued in the millions) is lost due to overfilled packages. According to experts, achieving optimal product weighing and portioning precision within the production line is the key to reducing this costly giveaway.
Cabinplant’s cutting-edge, fixed weight, weighing and portioning systems allow producers to consistently reduce product giveaway to as low as 1-2% at large volumes, creating dramatic annual savings across every cycle.
Let’s look at an example.
If your production scale is 500,000 pounds of ground beef per month, and your target weight is one pound per package, you must hit that target weight without deviation to achieve a 0% product giveaway.
With traditional processing methods and systems, the average package weight may be 1.02 pounds per package (due to overfill). At $4 per pound (avg. wholesale ground beef price), you can see how just 2% of product giveaway can affect overall profitability:
500,000 packages x 1.02 pounds = 510,000 pounds of ground beef
10,000 pounds of product giveaway x $4.00 = $40,000 per month
$40,000 per month x 12 months = $480,000 per year in product giveaway
Reducing this product giveaway from 2% to 1% through sophisticated multi-head weighing systems corrects the weight discrepancy and provides significant savings for the producer:
500,000 packages x 1.02 pounds = 505,000 pounds
5,000 pounds of product giveaway x $4.00 = $20,000 per month
$20,000 per month x 12 months = New Annual Savings of $240,000
MINIMIZING LABOR COSTS WITH ADVANCED AUTOMATION
Optimal product portioning isn’t the only source of savings. Labor shortages and rising wages are critical challenges in today’s manufacturing landscape. It is essential to have a processing system that allows for automation and reduces complexity, efficiency loss, and time consumption when deploying new equipment.
Cabinplant’s fully automated systems streamline pre-packaging processes such as product distribution, feeding, and weighing, providing a blend of labor configurations, including human and automation, and minimizing manual intervention.
This transition reduces labor costs by up to 70% across all production (reallocating 2-3 operators off the line), boosting efficiency, effectiveness, accuracy, and product quality through consolidated processing and packaging with better data.
SEAMLESS EFFICIENCY THROUGH SMART CONNECTED SYSTEMS
Even with automation, multiple systems and human-machine interfaces (HMIs) from various vendors have difficulty communicating. They require extended engineering at increased costs.
An extensive array of devices can create maintenance challenges as industrial automation devices have become more dependent on digital communication. Production success will depend highly on how easily devices and components are configured to exchange data across digital networks in real-time.
Interconnected Smart Machinery like Cabinplant’s and Harpak-ULMA’s pre-configured, connected HMI, processing, and packaging systems can operate more efficiently, reducing downtime and allowing for more customized design flexibility according to the client’s needs.
HMIs act as a digital handshake between systems, and by connecting groups of machines, results can be pooled across multiple lines of identical product groups to simplify calculations and make collected data more reliable. This connection, in turn, allows for better automation throughout operations, better data collection, predictive analytics, better efficiency through improved network techniques, and reduced service and maintenance needs for the client.
Downtime is reduced. Uptime is increased, and more production is possible for a more diverse range of products across verticals.
MAXIMIZING PROFIT WITH STREAMLINED PROCESSING & PACKAGING SOLUTIONS
Cabinplant and Harpak-ULMA Packaging offer innovative solutions that streamline processing and packaging, reduce labor costs, and minimize product giveaway. These advanced, interconnected systems ensure greater efficiency, accuracy, and profitability. Explore how these solutions can transform your operations with tailored solutions to meet your needs.
