How Boxed Water Is Taking the Strain Out of the Line with Automation

At Boxed Water, sustainability drives every decision, from manufacturing cartons made of up to 96% plant-based materials to planting over 1.5 million trees across the United States. Consumers are responding, and demand for the product continues to soar. But as orders spike further during the hottest months of the year, employees at the company’s Holland, Michigan, facility face a tough reality: lifting and stacking 28-pound cases of water, shift after shift, to deliver on orders.

That strain, both physical and operational, led Boxed Water to automate its end of line palletizing process, easing the load on employees while maintaining the consistency and speed needed to serve major customers across the U.S., from music festivals to e-commerce subscribers.

Boxed Water Puts Its People First

Running two shifts a day, Boxed Water often rotates employees out of palletizing roles because the work is so physically demanding, explained Director of Operations Rick Kulas. Even with ergonomic pallet tables in place, the manual process of lifting case after heavy case takes a toll.

“Even with people rotating, it’s still heavy manual labor on a long shift,” Kulas said. “We want to make life easier for our people.”

The company, founded in 2009, has already automated much of its filler line, but palletizing remains a bottleneck, both physically and operationally. Manual stacking not only fatigues workers but also introduces inconsistencies that could lead to unstable pallet stacks and damaged products.

“This project is about consistency,” Kulas said. “We want the robot delivering the same way every time so the line keeps moving.”

Kulas emphasized that the addition of automation doesn’t mean they plan on eliminating roles. Instead, employees who once stacked boxes will transition to less physically demanding tasks, including handling separate e-commerce fulfillment or operating the Formic Full Service Automated palletizers that Boxed Water will be using at the end of their line.

Automation Helps Eliminate Temp Labor Reliance

During the busy summer season, when Boxed Water’s sales spike thanks to higher temperatures and event partnerships, the company has traditionally relied on increased temporary labor to ensure products are delivered on time and in full.

When you have a small, trusted production team like Boxed Water, even one person leaving makes a big difference. With temporary labor, there’s a constant learning curve involved. By automating that role, Boxed Water removes the onboarding and retraining burden of short-term labor.

“Assuming the robot successfully runs all the time, it’s no longer a position we have to worry about filling over and over again,” Kulas said.

Fully Supported Automation Eliminates Risk

While Boxed Water has automated filling systems and equipment on the line, this marks its first experience with end of line automation. Rather than buying the equipment outright and having to manage it themselves, Boxed Water chose to partner with Full Service Automation provider Formic. That meant no upfront capital required, and the confidence that Formic would own system performance from day one.

“With Formic, the cost to entry is low and the risk is low,” Kulas said. “I’m not expending all that capital up front to force myself to make it work; that’s their job.”

That flexibility matters even more as Boxed Water continues to expand its product line. In response to popularity among customers, the company is delivering more 12-pack flavored waters. Compared to traditional 24-packs, they come off the line faster, adding more pressure on end of line processes. With Formic’s solution in place, the Boxed Water team can confidently handle all of the different case sizes customers want, without compromising performance.

More Automation, More Sustainability

Looking ahead, the team plans to automate case packing, not only to improve throughput but reduce corrugate usage in support of the company’s broader sustainability goals.

“This is just our first step into having some automation to see how it can help us and make life easier,” Kulas said.

For those interested in being a part of Boxed Water’s sustainability mission, for every photo posted with a Boxed Water carton and the hashtag #BoxedWater, the company plants two trees. As Kulas put it, “We don’t have celebrity endorsements, trees are our celebrities.”