Page 94 - Packaging News Magazine Nov-Dec2020

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PROFILE | PKN 60 YEARS SPECIAL
Foodmach
It’s said that there are packaging line inte- grators – and then there’s Foodmach. By redefining line connectivity and end-to-end solutions, Foodmach has maintained its
position as one of Australia’s biggest and most successful packaging automators for nearly 50 years.
Under the motto “Built by Australians for Australians”, Foodmach began trading in Melbourne in 1972. The intention was to pro- vide a locally made alternative to the monop- oly of imported packaging equipment. An early achievement was manufacturing the first Cheezel processing line in Australia. The dynamic engineering team turned their talents to industry-firsts in automation for the meat, dairy, food, beverage, and wine industries. Through close partnership with customers, they created faster solutions with more user- functionality. Research and development pro- grams were established to put the company in the lead for palletising, depalletising, and conveying systems, most notably the high speed Robomatrix Palletiser – still the indus- try’s gold-standard.
Foodmach has since doubled in size and turn- over, generating awards and accolades along the way. Now with a national footprint, it has been at the forefront of Industry 4.0 connectivity in Australia – line integration and control systems
being strengths within the business. Dulux’s $165m smart factory at Merrifield, which has been held up as one of the world’s most advanced industrial batch plants, is a recent Food- mach integration project.
Not everyone can afford
a new greenfield factory,
so the Foodmach controls
team specialises in break-
ing open legacy control sys-
tems on older machines and
enabling them for data extraction.
Being able to integrate any OEM equipment with an existing line and next-level line control is Foodmach’s superpower.
The Foodmach Technology Products divi- sion is a recent addition to the business. A full suite of world-leading automation comple- ments the core product range. From case packing to inspection systems, coding and labelling, traceability, stretch wrapping, filling, and autonomous vehicles, these technologies are available as out-of-the-box solutions or fully integrated into a turn-key project – as only Foodmach can.
In support of customers’ need to migrate to a smart factory, Foodmach recently
launched its Machinery-as-a-Service (MaaS) finance offer, Foodmach FLEX. Rather than buying equipment outright, it’s a pay-as-you-use approach, where the cus- tomer pays just for machine output, whether it be filled cases, pallet loads or containers. Data capture is central to MaaS, so it seems appropriate that Foodmach should be the first to introduce it. FLEX is available on much of Foodmach’s core and technol- ogy products.
The company has been a prominent exam- ple of Australia’s manufacturing pivot during Covid-19. Project Med-Con, which received world-wide attention, saw a 40-year-old Australian medical mask machine design (Australia’s one and only) re-engineered from scratch and put into action within five weeks – with no blueprints and major updates to latest controls, electrical and safety technology. Seven of the complex machines were turning out masks at PPE manufacturer Med-Con’s facility 24 hours a day, within just 14 weeks. All this during a pandemic, where extra pressure on staff safety, workplace logistics and blown-out supply chain timelines were added to the mix. How did they manage it? Five key areas: a) All services in-house, b) operational agility and efficiency, c) a resilient supply chain, d) a positive and collaborative work culture and e) 5400m2 of manufacturing space.
What does the future hold for Foodmach? Industry 4.0 connectivity is a major enabler of innovation within the business. Using the con- stant flow of data from digitised installations, Foodmach’s design-focus and innovation mindset is given even more scope to develop. Watch this space.
www.packagingnews.com.au | November–December 2020