Packaging is primarily used for attractive marketing, conveying product information, product protection, convenience, and security. Paper and packaging are one of the rapidly growing sectors in India, expected to reach US$ 204 billion by 2025 – making it the fifth largest sector in the Indian economy.
Food processing, pharmaceuticals, FMCG, the manufacturing industry, and the healthcare sector along with organized retail and eCommerce are driving this growth. The packaging industry is technology-intensive and requires a high level of automation. With the increased demand for safety and security and the associated stringency of regulations and compliances, factories and machine builders (OEMs) need to adopt safe and secure solutions.
Human safety and secure access
OEMs, that is to say, equipment suppliers and factories, continuously focus on higher productivity, machine availability, and efficiency. Moreover, consumer demands are changing rapidly, which is a major factor for factories to adopt new features in their manufacturing lines. The implication is more SKUs with shorter runs and hence the need for more rapid changeovers.
As most of the packaging machines and lines are part of critical infrastructure, there is enormous importance not only on efficiency, and availability but also on product, machine, and human safety. Moreover, the Machinery Directives further lay down functional safety requirements on these packaging installations. Thus, making safe and secure automation an essential part of packaging machines and lines.
Factories demand systems that provide the capability of remote diagnostics, predictive maintenance, and machines and lines that are Industrial IoT-ready. They need machines that can exchange data seamlessly horizontally and vertically. The packaging and pharmaceutical industries need to adhere to Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and machines and lines to ensure safe operating conditions during the initial setup to avoid accidents.
Defined access and authorization also are desirable for such installations. Factories can ensure a tamperproof operation and conform to various regulations with these measures. These procedures in automation ensure data logging, tamperproof operations, and guarantee end-to-end visibility and traceability.
Pilz India enables safety with best-in-class OEE
The focus of the packaging industry and their factories and the machine builders has to align with several aims simultaneously –– operator safety, while avoiding unnecessary downtimes and maintaining maximum productivity and flexibility. Pilz India, a technology leader in offering safe automation solutions, helps machine builders and factories to lay a strong foundation for optimizing Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) with safe automation solutions. Its comprehensive automation and safety solutions protect against unavoidable accidents and contribute to economical, efficient packaging with reduced downtimes. Capacity planning and predictive maintenance are benefits that arise from automated systems with real-time monitoring and feedback capabilities.
“We support machine builders and factories with our consulting competence and comprehensive product range, ensuring their projects are implemented professionally,” asserts Pilz India’s managing director Sanjay Kulkarni. Machine builders and factories benefit from personalized consultation, helping them optimize their safety automation solutions aligned with their requirements. Additionally, they benefit from intelligent dovetailing of safety standard control functions and risk assessment and safety validation from a single source – a one-stop shop for all safety and security requirements for the packaging industry.
