Should You Build Quality Control Into Your Packing Automation?

A damaged or incorrect pack identified after case loading can create additional work if identified late, just before sealing or palletising, or result in a fine from your customer if missed completely.

Building inspection into the packing process can allow defined faults to be identified while the individual pack is still accessible.

For food production quality assurance, this raises an important question: could inspecting products immediately before packing help you identify unsuitable packs earlier and manage them more consistently while reducing reliance on manual inspection?

What Happens When Quality Control Sits Outside Your Packing Machine?

When inspection is a separate stage, a fault may be found further down the line, after the pack has already been loaded.

Many vision systems sit before or after the packing stage, which means a fault can be identified without necessarily being acted upon at the point where it occurs. Manual inspection can also introduce inconsistency and the risk of human error.

The result can be more rework, more waste and a greater chance of a faulty pack progressing further through production.

Combining quality control with robotic packing removes the need for a separate inspection stage and can help maintain throughput. When inspection is integrated into the packing machine, the machine can respond at the point of packing instead of the fault only being detected and dealt with further along the line.

Which Packing Faults Could Be Caught Before Case Loading?

The most useful checks are those that identify a specific fault while the pack is still accessible.

Depending on your products and packaging, these may include missing or incorrect product counts, empty packs, product presence, pack orientation, fill levels, label accuracy, cut or damaged packaging, unreadable date codes or visible contamination in a seal.

These checks can run while production continues, so quality control in food production does not necessarily require the line to stop for inspection.

The inspection method must be capable of distinguishing the defined fault from an acceptable pack at the required production speed.

A pick and place vision system, such as PAKsight, can inspect products at the point where the pick and place machine is already handling them. For example, PAKsight can be used to detect empty “ghost” bags entering the line, distinguish trays of rice from trays of curry, or detect the presence of a sachet within the product outline.

What Should Your Packing Machine Do With A Failed Pack?

Detecting the fault is only one part of the process. A pack that fails inspection should follow a defined rejection process so that it does not continue into the finished container. PAKsight supports configurable rejection, allowing the machine response to be designed around the product and the type of fault being detected.

For food production quality assurance, the reject process therefore deserves as much consideration as the inspection itself.

Catching an issue while the individual pack is still accessible and acting on it at the time of packing, can reduce unnecessary rework and waste.

Can That Check Run Reliably On Your Actual Product Range?

The suitability of an inspection system depends on whether it can reliably distinguish the specified fault from an acceptable pack under normal production conditions.

Packaging materials, product presentation and the position of the feature being inspected can all influence what the cameras are able to see. A new film, pack format or product arrangement may therefore require changes to the inspection criteria or further training of the system.

Both acceptable “good” packs and deliberately faulty “bad” packs should be assessed during trials. Testing should establish whether the system can identify the agreed faults, accept suitable packs and complete the required machine response at your normal production rate.

The results should establish whether the inspection can meet your agreed quality criteria at the required production rate, including the configured machine response. This gives Engineering and QA teams evidence on which to decide whether the additional check is appropriate for the application and justifies the investment.

What Can Real-Time Inspection Data Tell You?

Integrated inspection can provide more than a pass-or-fail decision. Real-time quality checks also generate production data. Over time, this can make it easier to identify recurring trends, such as a particular fault appearing more frequently on one pack format, production run or product type.

That information can help your team investigate the underlying cause and maintain more consistent standards across shifts and product ranges.

Because the inspection is incorporated into the packing process rather than added as an unnecessary standalone stage, an integrated solution can improve product quality without making the line unnecessarily complex.

Improve Your Food Production Quality Assurance

Integrated inspection can move quality checks closer to the point where individual packs are still accessible and where the packing machine can respond immediately.

If you are exploring ways to improve food production quality assurance alongside robotic packing, download Brillopak's Packing To Perfection guide to explore how integrated packing automation can improve both efficiency and product quality.