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Last week, a Formic customer reached out with concerns about impending tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico, and China. As prices threatened to climb, they were hit with a surge of orders from existing and new customers racing to secure domestic supplies before other companies got the same idea — creating both a challenge and an opportunity to scale fast....
Read MoreWatch an informative and interactive webinar featuring a live Q&A session with two of the top minds in CPG automation. Meet the Experts: Danijel Lolic, VP of Product & Solutions at Formic – Former Head of Operations at Rice Fruit, the leading supplier of fruit and fresh produce to Walmart on the East Coast. With experience working alongside operations leaders...
Read MoreAt ATX West in Anaheim, California, last week, the Formic team met with attendees to discuss how end-of-line production automation is closing labor gaps and boosting productivity for U.S. manufacturers. As consumer demand increases, automation adoption is growing, but not every business has a big CapEx budget or the internal expertise to deploy and maintain these solutions. If you stopped...
Read MoreThis year, a record number of CPG companies will invest in production automation. The reasons for these investments have persisted over the years and continue into 2025: challenges with labor shortages, a prioritization of employee safety, a tight focus on production efficiency, and a need to lower factory costs. In fact, Deloitte’s Digital Maturity Index survey found that 98% of...
Read MoreCHICAGO—February 5, 2025—Formic, a Robots-as-a-Service (RaaS) automation provider for U.S. manufacturers, deployed five gantry-style palletizing robots at Land O’Frost’s Lansing, Illinois, manufacturing facility, saving them 20% on labor-related OpEx daily and transitioning employees from manually stacking boxes onto pallets to being robot operators. Formic’s Full Service Palletizer Rental program optimized end-of-line production, increasing safety and production while bolstering employee skills...
Read MoreA bright orange industrial robot stacks boxes 100” high at 10 cycles per minute. Nearby, a virtual reality tool seamlessly maps out an automation system on the warehouse floor, while a sleek cobot arm precisely palletizes boxes amid lively conversations. CPG industry leaders from across Chicagoland watch and listen closely, discovering how effortlessly automation can be deployed to tackle productivity,...
Read MoreAs the U.S. manufacturing industry continues to grow, it’s evolving to keep up with demands for quicker turnaround times, better pricing, and quality maintenance. However, ongoing labor challenges continue to be an obstacle to advancement. While Formic’s “2024 State of U.S. Manufacturing Report” found that hiring more people was a top priority for manufacturing companies last year, manufacturers will still...
Read MoreThe first thing you notice when you enter the Land O’Frost facility in Lansing, Illinois, is the pace of the operation. There are forklift trucks buzzing from station to station, pallets being stretched wrapped, and workers packing case after case of deli meats and hot dogs. After all, you don’t pack and ship 128,000 pounds of meat daily by moving...
Read MoreCHICAGO—January 7, 2025—Formic, a Robots-as-a-Service (RaaS) automation provider for U.S. manufacturers, announced that the company surpassed 200,000 production hours, that means Formic is delivering the equivalent of 5 months of human labor every single business day with its fleet of robotic automation equipment. To celebrate, the company is hosting its first Formic Automation Community event on January 23, 2025, at...
Read MoreThe holiday shopping season used to be more predictable. On Black Friday, consumers headed to malls and department stores to wait in line for the sweetest deals on items like electronics, toys, and clothes. But with the rise of e-commerce and consumers expecting quicker delivery times, the holiday shopping season starts earlier every year and new demands continue to arise. ...
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