Automation plays a huge and ever-growing role in the packaging industry. No surprise, then, that the July issue of Packaging Strategies featured a story on automation and controls (From Smart Valves to Smart Factories).

The pandemic caused a sudden storm that has buffeted individual companies and entire industries and caused business leaders to seriously consider the critical importance of resilience, efficiency, and sustainability.

Augmented reality describes a digital enhancement to the external world. A good example of this would be Nintendo’s Pokémon Go app, which overlays images of characters onto the real world through the user’s mobile phone screen. 

Modern manufacturing environments produce an enormous amount of data. And as systems and platforms develop to monitor and manage this volume of information, many companies are left wondering what kind of software best suits their need for both measurement and analytics.

Packaging is a constantly shifting environment. However, unlike the rest of production, packaging processes have been slow to uptake new technologies. Thankfully, with the rise of developments in technology, like sensors, human-machine interfaces and motion control, flexibility of the packaging line is better than ever.

What exactly does it mean? That’s what I asked myself recently when I was at the Automate Show in Chicago. Let’s explore this buzzword.

Modern society has come a long way since the arrival of the Model T in 1908. From the early days of hand-cranking, no heat, unreliable mechanical performance and loud, dirty engines, there is no doubt that today’s automobile is a marvel by comparison.