Page 39 - Beverage Master February March 2020
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Craft Beverage
accommodate future outputs,” said Welker. “It is Best of Both Worlds
our clients who make the decision to automate
based on labor costs, labor availability and safety The marketplace had to wait nearly a century
of their personnel. Reducing labor or the concerns before Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery, founded in
of safety due to manual processes generally drives the 1800s in Nashville, Tennessee, was resurrected
automation, in addition to increasing line speeds, by brothers Andy and Charles Nelson. The Nelson
which reduces labor economies.” brothers worked to restore the landmark distillery
built by their great-great-great-grandfather, Charles
Welker says that switching from manual to auto- Nelson, and with it, a brand that many consider
mated end-of-line packaging takes output to new highly responsible for putting Tennessee whiskey
levels. on the map worldwide before Prohibition dried up
production.
“Manual packaging is extremely flexible. The
human hand can do a number of things that are dif- Fast forward to the 21st Century, when the Nelson
ficult with automation. Still, automation of packag- brothers have embraced many aspects of automa-
ing is by far more cost-effective, and it can reduce tion in their end-of-line packaging. However, just
or eliminate repetitive motion injuries where one as they managed to re-create the family’s origi-
injury can potentially cost more than a fully auto- nal whiskey recipe through meticulous, hands-on
mated line. Automated packaging can also run research, Andy Nelson says the distillery is just as
much faster than manual work, thus increasing line careful not to abandon many of the manual end-of-
speeds, reducing labor and driving up efficiencies.” line packaging techniques that make Green Brier’s
Welker says that his brewery clients work with a products unique. A combination of automated and
variety of end-of-line packaging options. manual systems, Nelson believes, brings together
the best of both worlds.
“The carton and tray are the most accepted pack-
ages in the brewing industry when cans are run. “We have been utilizing both for quite some
Bottles are often run on older case erectors, drop time,” Nelson says. “If you have all or mostly auto-
packs and case closers, but more breweries are mated equipment, it’s important to have a good
looking to eliminate the box-shop and utilize all-in- tech on hand to help when things inevitably go
one wraparound case packing technologies. These wrong. And, with manual or semi-auto equipment,
greatly reduce footprint, labor, case costs, and can it’s necessary to have a staff that is attentive and
even potentially eliminate partitions in the cases detail-oriented. It’s all about quality and efficien-
for even more material savings.” cy!”
However, for some craft beverage makers, the Sourcing suppliers for end-of-line packaging needs
dollar investment of automated end-of-line pack- is as careful a process as deciding what products to
aging can be daunting. Meghann Quinn, co-own- order. Nelson says that his distillery relies upon a
er of Bale Breaker Brewing Company in Yakima, variety of options.
Washington, says her brewery’s end-of-line packag-
ing is all done by hand. “We’ve used a handful of methods, ranging from
brokers to OEM directly. It can depend on how
“We manually put the six-packs into the cases much I know about each item and how much I trust
and palletize them. We do both of those manually others to help me select equipment and coordinate
because end-of-line automated packaging systems maintenance.”
are too expensive, and our speed doesn’t necessi-
tate them.” For those embracing automation on any level, the
opportunities are endless. While manual packaging
Some breweries and distilleries deploy manual renders what only a human approach can offer,
labor as a way to test the market to learn what are automation addresses the future, boosting produc-
the best pack sizes and styles. Once the decision is tion and the bottom line.
made on what works and what doesn’t, many pro-
ducers turn to automation to quickly get their prod-
ucts to customers.
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