Otis Spunkmeyer cookies are individually wrapped for grab-and-go convenience.
New horizons in packaging
With demand on the rise for convenience items, innovation can be seen in the packaging area, especially for those single-serve, 4-oz. cookies staking their claim in the c-stores. “We designed multiple avenues that can be used across a number of packaging, whether it’s clamshell, individually wrapped or bulk packaging,” Mr. Mina said. “We set up the area for easy process flow, which allows for more versatility.”
For example, two identical Fuji horizontal flowwrapping systems create redundancy to keep the line moving should any stops occur. The line was also customized for the ability to bypass converters for bulk packing into boxes or clamshells.
After the cookies are individually wrapped, employees hand-pack into the secondary packaging such as display cartons, which hold eight individually wrapped cookies for c-store sales. Afterwards, tamper-proof seals are applied by hand. Some automation may loom on the horizon for this area, but Mr. Mina emphasized that certain parts of packaging still require some human interaction.
Display cartons hold eight wrapped cookies.
“Having people looking to not only package the food but also look at the quality, that’s not something we’ll not look to eliminate,” he said. People are present to monitor the cookies as they enter the packaging room before they feed into the flowwrappers. “They make sure nothing’s broken and peel off anything that doesn’t fit. A machine won’t tell you if a cookie is broken, cracked or misshapen; these people pay attention to that.”
After secondary packaging, cartons go through another Safeline metal detector before being hand-packed into cases and automatically sealed and closed, then checkweighed and ink coded for traceability. The cases are stacked on a pallet and secured with a Lantech stretch wrapper before heading to the holding freezer. At -10°F, the final freeze takes about 12 hours. At that point, it’s just a matter of waiting for clearance from the final sensory testing the next morning before shipment across the US and to Canada.
Data scanned into the SAP goes directly into Aryzta’s ERP system, and once validated, will go straight to the shipping point. “Anything can be traced down to the case or ingredient level in the event of a recall,” Mr. Mina noted.
