PW: Must today’s packaging engineers be expert at controls? Hernley: Today’s packaging equipment includes so much electronics that you need to really understand both [electronics and mechanics] to maintain it. But to have a totally theoretical background without any hands-on experience . . . it takes much longer for that person to be really useful to us here.
PW: How are the machinery builders that Hershey buys from handling this electronic/mechanical duality? Hernley: There are three types of companies that we have dealt with. One has people with a totally mechanical focus who are [transitioning] to bring us more electronics. A second type of company has people who are doing a good job marrying mechanical and electronics skills. Latz: These folks are taking the current capabilities of computers, servos, motion controllers, and operator interfaces, and they’re starting from a clean sheet of paper with a clear understanding of what the current technology is capable of doing. Hernley: But then there’s the third example which is a company with a purely electronic orientation. And they come in with a set of really good electronics folks and programmers, and they’re inside this packaging machine and— Latz: —they miss everything else about it.
