Berry Global: Automated Cup Storage System

Abstract

With labor shortages being a major issue throughout the nation via the impacts of COIVD, increasing the levels of automation in a manufacturing environment is essential to compensate for when such shortages occur. Industries that make products that call for high volumes of production in short periods of time can’t afford lengthy shutdowns since even short shutdowns can quickly lead to a high accumulative opportunity cost. Whether these shutdowns are due to labor shortages and/or require a relocation of valuable labor to deal with the shutdown, it would be best to avoid idle time as much as possible. Berry Global, a large international manufacturer and marketer of plastic packaging products, is also attempting to find ways to free up labor on the production floor of their facilities via finding areas where manual labor can be replaced with automation. This will allow for floor workers to be relocated to other areas in need. Considering this, the Process Innovation Department has proposed the installation of a carousel-based storage system along two of its conveyors/pneumatic tube lines, with these lines transporting newly formed polypropylene cups from the thermoformer to the label printers. With the printers having frequent shutdowns for maintenance, repairs, or reloading ink, this vertical carousel will be able to recognize when said printers shutdown and be able to remove the cups, store, and reload cups directly back onto the conveyor when the printers restart and continue normal operation. This automated storage system will be able to replace the currently used system, which requires extensive labor, equipment usage, and warehouse storage space.