Discover your next big idea at PACK EXPO Las Vegas this September
Experience a breakthrough in packaging & processing and transform your business with solutions from 2,300 suppliers spanning all industries.
REGISTER NOW & SAVE

Stonyfield Farm stacks benefits

Maintenance mechanic designs and builds an automatic case stacking machine that reduces labor costs and helps ready the company for new palletizing equipment.

A close-up of the stacking machine shows the three sets of three-high cases of yogurt. Based on the stacker?s success, Stonyfie
A close-up of the stacking machine shows the three sets of three-high cases of yogurt. Based on the stacker?s success, Stonyfie

Stonyfield Farm maintenance mechanic Michael Carlson says he comes from "a family of inventors who are mechanically inclined." A 25-year packaging veteran, Carlson has worked for the past 11/2 years at Stonyfield Farm.

Carlson was instrumental in building a stacking machine that automatically stacks three wraparound corrugated cases, each of which contains a dozen 8-oz cups of yogurt. The unit went into operation in February at the yogurt maker's Londonderry, NH, headquarters facility.

John Daigle, the company's vice president of operations, credits the building and design of the stacker to Carlson. "The stacker allows our people to pick up stacks of three cases and place them on a pallet as opposed to lifting every single case," he notes.

In the past, workers had to handle each case individually. They would then lift three cases and place them onto a nearby pallet. "But as we increased the line's speed, one person couldn't handle the output all day long," Daigle recalls. "So a case packer operator [located just upstream of the stacker] often came over to help stack cases. But that led to occasional problems on the case packer because at those times there'd be no one operating that machine."

The labor-intensive stacking process also led to high turnover in the position. "In today's labor environment, our turnover of labor on the task was huge," relates Daigle. "People would work the job for a few days and say, 'I'm just not going to do that.' With the automatic stacker, we've found that people are more willing to stay with the job."

The most impressive bottom-line benefit the stacker provides Stonyfield Farm is that it saves $50ꯠ/yr in labor costs, according to Daigle. That's the result of eliminating one full-time "temp" worker on each of two daily eight-hour shifts. Now only one person is necessary to load cases onto the pallet.

Beyond labor savings, plant engineer Herb Berwald says the addition of the stacker "will allow us to convert from manual to automated palletizing more readily. That's because it's more efficient to palletize a stack of three cases than it is individual cases. And if we were to palletize single cases, we'd need three times the length of conveyor space for accumulation. We don't have that much room in our building." A palletizer is on order.

Is your palletizing solution leaving money on the floor?
Discover which palletizing technology—robotic, conventional, or hybrid—will maximize your packaging line efficiency while minimizing long-term costs in this comprehensive analysis.
Read More
Is your palletizing solution leaving money on the floor?
Coding, Marking, and Labeling Innovations Report
Explore our editor-curated report featuring cutting-edge coding, labeling, and RFID innovations from PACK EXPO 2024. Discover high-speed digital printing, sustainable label materials, automated labeling systems, and advanced traceability solutions that are transforming packaging operations across industries.
Access Report
Coding, Marking, and Labeling Innovations Report