CPG companies across the United States produce billions of products every day to fill our shelves with food, beverages, personal care, cleaning supplies, medicine, and more that allow people like us to live our lives with ease. However, getting the job done and shipments out the door has become increasingly difficult over the last 5-10 years.
Labor availability for manufacturing jobs is at an all-time low, while wage rates and cost of raw materials continue to climb. At the same time, demand for CPG products is projected to grow from $160.75 billion to $244.92 billion by 2030. As business leaders rethink their strategy to keep up with the expected 5.4% compounded annual growth rate, they’ve realized that “doing it the way we’ve always done it” is no longer an option.
A vast majority of these businesses are exploring automation for the first time to solve labor and throughput challenges. With little experience in this area, many leaders are quickly finding themselves overwhelmed with the system capabilities, capital investment needed, maintenance required to keep running, and staffing demands for ongoing operational success. They are all searching for an easy way to get started with automation and succeed.
Formic was started to remove the traditional financial and operational barriers to automation adoption and success. After over 100 deployments and more than 200,000 production hours, the 75% of our customers that are automating for the first time are finding that success. At Pack Expo 2024, we officially introduced our newest program to further realize our mission for customers: our Full Service Palletizer Rentals program.
“Full service rentals are the easiest way to automate packing and stacking operations that typically require a high volume of hard to find labor,” said Saman Farid, Formic’s CEO and Co-Founder. “Deploying robotic automation to handle the tasks that are less forgiving on the human body allows business and operations leaders the ability to redeploy those knowledgeable employees to other high value tasks in the facility. We typically end up training the same folks that used to stack boxes on the line to operate the equipment, leveling up the skills on the team.”
Our Full Service Palletizer Rental program includes four different fully supported turnkey palletizing systems — from cobot to industrial — all for one all-inclusive fixed monthly rate. Manufacturers can swap equipment to deliver the new throughput required as demands on productivity increase and keep the same fixed price, keeping your financial projects easy and constant.
There are no unwelcome surprises with 24/7 technical support, 100% maintenance coverage, and contracted performance rates. Operator training for your team is included, which drives employee retention and skill growth. We provide the fastest and easiest way for you to succeed with automation the first time around.
Why Palletizing?
Coupled with the fact that nearly every manufacturer needs palletizing solutions to successfully operate, company productivity related to unfilled labor gaps, employee well-being, and process simplification are pressing challenges Formic is helping overcome with our Full Service Palletizer Rental program.
1. Filling Labor Gaps
Filling labor gaps is the number one challenge we help you overcome with the Full Service Palletizer Rental program — especially when it comes to 2nd and 3rd shifts. The manufacturing sector has one of the highest percentages (5.7%) of night workers, and with each role left unfilled and with every staff turnover, companies are left with negative impacts on production throughput and increased downtime.
There are currently 1.5 million unfilled manufacturing jobs, of which 30% can be automated. One of Formic’s customers, Mi Rancho, a tortilla, chip, and salsa manufacturer, emphasized both safety and labor concerns as issues before implementing Formic’s palletizing solution.
“We have a lot of manual labor and safety is a huge concern of ours. But it's also not easy to hire or to find personnel,” said Joe Santana, Mi Rancho’s Senior Director of Operations. “The workers are just not out there.”
Robotic palletizers work around the clock for your business — producing equally on 1st, 2nd, and 3rd shifts. With a 99.4% system availability, Formic palletizers are a consistently dependable employee in your facility.
2. Boosting Productivity with Better Employee Well-Being
Recently, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) called for OSHA to better address ergonomic hazards at warehouses. This request comes amid increasing customer demand and sales, which has pushed production employees to work faster than ever, leading to injuries due to overexertion from bending, lifting, and twisting.
In fact, according to the National Safety Council, overexertion and bodily reaction injuries and illnesses from these movements (as well as pulling, pushing, holding, carrying, and throwing) resulted in the most Days Away from Work, Restricted, or Transferred (DART) cases and the second most Days Away from Work (DAFW) during 2021-2022.
By automating and scaling production lines with robotic palletizers, manufacturers can improve day-to-day working conditions for employees who are now running the machines doing the bending, lifting, and twisting. In turn, companies foster a better, happier, and more productive company, eliminating turnover and loss of institutional knowledge. These operational and cultural improvements have an immediate positive impact on the bottom line.
3. Simplifying a Critical Process
Manufacturing to meet rising demand in 2024 is complicated enough. Formic’s Full Service Palletizer Rentals program does everything for you, with month-to-month agreements, full operational support, and a $0 upfront investment. We’ve simplified the critical process of palletizing your products and delivered contracted success every time.
“Formic removes all the anxiety of a traditional equipment purchase,” said Adam Bragg, Cameron Coffee’s Technical Director for their Shakopee plant. “We like that they provide the entire solution, including committed uptime and service.”
With the average American factory sitting idle ⅔ of the day or over 5,000 hours per year, robotic automation is the solution to simplifying processes, boosting productivity, filling labor gaps, and simultaneously improving employee productivity and well-being.
Quick Breakdown of Our Full Service Palletizer Rentals Program
- Access to four different fully supported turnkey cobot and industrial palletizing systems
- A fixed monthly rate with unlimited equipment usage
- 24/7 technical support
- 100% preventative and protective maintenance coverage
- Contracted performance rates
- Team training
- Equipment swapping at no extra cost
- Shift to longer-term agreements or cancel with 30 days’ notice whenever you want
- Lead times of 10 weeks or less