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New Equipment Helps Melitta Brew a Solution for Bottlenecks

Coffee producer solves line issues a decade apart through an ongoing partnership with Precision Automation.

Melitta coffee pour over beans
Melitta is a global producer of household and foodservice coffee products, and also has a robust business in co-packing for other high-profile brands.
Melitta

Melitta is a brand known for its widely available household and foodservice coffee products, including paper filters, brewing systems, ground and whole-bean java in a variety of pack sizes, serving vessels, and more. Melitta also has a robust business in coffee co-packing for other high-profile brands. The Germany-based company was founded in 1908, and has operations around the world, including roasteries in Brazil, Germany, and Cherry Hill, N.J. In addition, Melitta produces their industry-leading coffee filters at their world-class facility located in Clearwater, Florida.

The Cherry Hill plant has been in operation since 1964, and currently employs around 100 people. While the facility has efficiently served the needs of Melittaā€™s customers over the years, coffee production there has more than doubled over the past decade, so improvements and upgrades during that time were necessary to handle the increased capacity. 

Melitta started working with Precision Automation in 2008 to assess those capacity issues and manage the ensuing solutions, right down to identifying available equipment in the marketplace within budget and overseeing installation. Precision Automation was also tasked with keeping downtime to a minimum while new equipment was put in place, and to find machines that would fit Melittaā€™s existing footprint. 

The partnership between Melitta and Precision Automation resulted in a new canning line at the Cherry Hill plant, which was a turnkey solution for the coffee producer. The new line included a depalletizer for empty coffee cans, a pressureless combiner to keep those cans from being crushed during production surges, and more. ā€œWith Precisionā€™s help, we were able to come up with a really good design that met our needs,ā€ says Vincent Tagliaferro, director of coffee operations at Melitta North America. ā€œReally effective and an amazing project in terms of efficiency and productivity along the way, setting us up for where we are today.ā€

While productivity along that line improved dramatically over the ensuing decade, new challenges arose as Melittaā€™s business grew rapidly during that time, particularly with bottlenecks caused by an outdated palletizer that couldnā€™t keep pace. ā€œWe reached out to Precision first and foremost to help us solve that problem,ā€ says Tagliaferro. ā€œWe realized at that point we were beyond the ability of speeding up or shortening the time of the existing palletizer and needed to invest in a new unit to eliminate that bottleneck on the back end of the line.ā€

In 2020, Precision Automation created a plan to alleviate those bottlenecks through new equipment strategically placed in lagging areas along the line, beyond just replacing the palletizer. First, an accumulation table was installed to handle overflow when product backups occurred, allowing production to continue on other parts of the line. ā€œThe table gave us a 15% reduction in downtime by allowing the line to continue running on the front-end producing and filling cans,ā€ remembers Tagliaferro, ā€œwhile the back-end issues were dealt with. It gave us the ability to have that surge in production and catch up.ā€

Melitta coffee factory New Jersey accumulation tableThe addition of this accumulation table helped Melitta keep their coffee production line going even when bottlenecks occurred on the back end, resulting in a 15% reduction in downtime.Melitta

In 2021, the first of two new labelers was installed, using a faster side labeling mechanism compared to the previous machine. ā€œWe removed a lot of the motion that occurs when youā€™re applying the label with arms and pistons that come out,ā€ Tagliaferro explains. ā€œNow itā€™s basically just a side apply, which has been really effective and efficient.ā€

Next on Precision Automationā€™s upgrade list was a new conveyor that allows for 10 minutes of accumulation feeding into a speedy new tray packer. After that, a new top sheet applicator was installed, along with the second labeler, and a conveyor with zero-pressure accumulation that feeds into the palletizer.  

In April this year, the original source of the bottlenecks was addressed when a new palletizer was installed. ā€œThe pandemic hit during the course of this whole project and slowed everything down in terms of supply chain, skilled labor to produce, and everything else,ā€ says Tagliaferro. Up to that point, the old palletizer couldnā€™t handle the accelerated rate of Melittaā€™s production line, so the company had two to three people hand palletizing to help keep things moving.

With Precisionā€™s recommendation, Melitta picked a palletizer made by Columbia, which only took a few days to install. ā€œWe utilized Precision from an engineering and layout perspective,ā€ Tagliaferro says. ā€œThey designed the best process available and actually participated in the direct installation.ā€

Melitta Coffee Columbia FL3000 PalletizerPrecision Automation helped Melitta choose and install this Columbia palletizer, which alleviated bottlenecks on the back end of its production line. The speedier palletizer also allowed Melitta to move existing labor from hand palletizing to quality control positions.Joyce Fassl

Some of the initial ROI from the new palletizer includes ā€œincreased outputs on the canning line and higher efficiency. Weā€™ve also had a reduction in labor and eliminated some repetitive motion activities,ā€ notes Tagliaferro, adding that workers who used to palletize by hand on the back end have been moved into quality control positions requiring more skill.

ā€œIf you look at the capital request for this project, we initially called it ā€˜replace the palletizerā€™ to remove the bottleneck on the line. The beauty of the project though, ultimately, is it addressed a couple of different needs along the way,ā€ Tagliaferro says. ā€œThe sign of a very successful project is when you tackle your main thing, but youā€™re able to eliminate a couple other smaller issues too. Our line is fairly well loaded now and constantly supplying our customers with product. This project has given us more confidence to be able to meet that demand.ā€

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