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Coffee Pod Co-Packer Realizes Perks of ERP System

Between limiting downtime, speeding up throughput, and a host of soon-to-be realized improvements via ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software data harvesting, Pod Pack is making the most of its new ERP system.

Pod Pack now operates 14 packaging lines producing half a dozen formats with contract packaging customers including all the big national brands, local regional brands, hospitals, schools, foodservice, and anywhere else you can imagine.
Pod Pack now operates 14 packaging lines producing half a dozen formats with contract packaging customers including all the big national brands, local regional brands, hospitals, schools, foodservice, and anywhere else you can imagine.

From humble beginnings nearly 25 years ago in a 400-sq-ft New Orleans facility, with a single SKU of single-serve espresso, Pod Pack has grown to be considered “the Switzerland of coffee pod packaging” as the company does business with just about every brand these days on some level. That includes providing many major national, regional, and private label store brands as a value-added co-manufacturing partner. The company also serves the institutional and hospitality segments where its products can be found in hotels, hospitals, offices, college campuses, QSRs, convenience stores, and foodservice locations, plus a host of local, high-growth boutique brands.

“We offer a wide array of turnkey single-serve solutions,” says Marion Gray, CFO, Pod Pack. “Whether using the customers coffee or one of our in-house blend selections, we can manufacture virtually any single-serve format the customer prefers. We have 14 different packaging lines—all primarily custom-designed, highly specified equipment.”

There are many tight-tolerance, multi-point processes and ensuing packaging operations that occur dependent on the specific format desired. For instance, coffee beans that are designated for K-cup compatible products are ground precisely 24 hours prior to primary packaging to allow for optimal degassing to occur, a necessary step for this format. But other single-serve formats go from whole bean to ground coffee to packaging in less than 180 seconds, ensuring maximum freshness for the end consumer. For soft filter pod offerings, coffee beans are ground to exacting specifications per a predetermined amount that is automatically metered out by volume or bulk density onto the bottom layer of a single-serve filter paper pod, and the top layer is heat sealed to enclose the pod. Secondary packaging involves a number of individual pods being placed into a film pouch, which is then nitrogen flushed and sealed, again insuring maximum freshness.An ERP-connected HMI within each pack cell relates to operators real-time metrics and downtime event prevention information.An ERP-connected HMI within each pack cell relates to operators real-time metrics and downtime event prevention information.

Dealing with SKU proliferation

Far from its original digs, Pod Pack now operates a 75,000 sq ft. facility in Baton Rouge, La., and in 2018, the family-owned business took on private equity partner to accelerate growth. And grow it has. Like other contract manufacturers and packagers that are growing and dealing with major brands and private label, as well as growing its own brand, Pod Pack has recently been dealing with a rising number of SKUs.

“We currently support over a dozen convenience-portioned formats, and certain lines are tailored to certain applications,” Gray explains. “On a given day we are likely to be running all formats across our 14 different production lines. Each product that we develop or manufacture for a customer will have its own product specifications sheet. That product specifications sheet details all the materials that are used including the precise grind, weight, flavor profile and packaging format. Anything you can imagine that's specific to that product is on that sheet—we think of it as a unique, custom recipe for each product.”

Until recently, this meant operators starting a new production run had to consult a Microsoft Excel-based database—a clunky but familiar and functional work-around for so many manufacturers for so long—to find the right recipe. Then, they would have to manually gather the correct packaging materials and components, such as film and filter paper or machine change parts and the tools needed to changeover. Often, Gray says, this could mean operators physically checking stock parts, a time-consuming process.

“It was a fairly manual process that involved a combination of paper, binders, Excel files, and access databases,” Gray says.

It was also a static process with little runway for scale. Such a process would suffice for a limited number of SKUs, but in a dynamic growth environment the process no longer worked. The facility was growing, and with outside investment, the prospects for the future were growing. It became clear that a better solution was in order.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) modernizes operations

In recent years, Pod Pack implemented the DELMIAWORKS (formerly IQMS) manufacturing ERP system to drive the real-time insights and automated processes required to handle SKU proliferation, ensure quality and compliance, maximize productivity, and provide a superior customer experience. Though, as the name implies, the ERP system is enterprise-wide, advantages are felt right down to the packaging line operations.

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