Automation helps mid-sized brewers compete

It was four years ago that management at Moosehead Breweries Ltd. decided to benchmark their performance with the rest of the industry. After visiting brewery operations throughout Europe and crunching some numbers, “We saw some significant gaps we needed to close,” says Wayne Arsenault, vice-president of operations. “One of the major ones was controls and automation.”

Getting to an automated state is a matter of competitive survival for brewers of any size, Mr. Arsenault says. “Beer pricing is relatively stagnant, so clearly breweries need to do something to reduce costs. Larger competitors have already significantly reduced theirs. We had to react to keep up.”

That reaction was a $21-million investment that would see Moosehead overhaul end-to-end production from material handling and inspection to labelling and packing at its Saint John, N.B., plant.

The productivity improvements have been substantial, Mr. Arsenault says. Consolidating two bottle lines to a single high-speed fully automated one, for example, reduced staff requirements by half, while generating the same output. The original seven labelling machines, which were individually manned, have been rolled into a single fully automated system with quality inspection capabilities that require only a single person at the helm. On the packing side, new boxboard and six-pack systems have led to a 70% reduction in assets without putting a dent in volumes.

Other innovations in the works include a new electronic bottle inspector for returns, along with a $8-million overhaul of the canning operation, with a focus on energy reduction and capacity improvements.

This level of automation is not an easy call for small- to mid-market players, admits Russell Tabata, chief operating officer of Brick Brewing Co. in Kitchener. “Smaller organizations don’t have access to a ton of capital so we need to be very focused on high-value innovations that improve quality and reduce costs.”

Brick recently automated its canning line and bottle vision inspection systems after a tenfold increase in volumes. “We needed more capacity and to run very efficiently,” he says.

Its new filler system features electronic controls that improve accuracy dramatically. It runs 2.5 times faster with fewer workers on the line, and reduces loss by 75%. “We thought ROI on that investment would be about two-and-a-half years,” Mr. Tabata says. “It’s ended up being one.”

Uptake in automation and robotics in Canadian brewing organizations is still in its infancy for smaller operators, although the biggest players are extremely well automated, says Dwayne Wanner, president of Highlander Brew Co. in South River, Ont. “Some of those facilities are so big you can ride in golf carts and you’d

Wayne Arsenault, vice-president of operations at Moosehead Breweries, in Moosehead’s newly automated bottling plant. Getting to an automated state is a matter of competitive survival for brewers of any size, he says. be hard put to find a human being. These places are very, very efficient. The scale of these operations have demanded they be efficient or die.”

While there may be a limited number of automated solutions for smaller operators, the ROI can be compelling, Mr. Wanner says. “In certain areas, an automated solution can replace the labour of three men. The terms of reference for ROI are very short in those scenarios.”

For brewers like Moosehead and Brick that are on the cusp of becoming big, automation is the only way to go to the next level, contends Bernie Liehs, technical services manager for Automation Services Group in Kitch- ener. “Once you cross over a certain production threshold, you get taxed at a much higher rate so it’s more expensive to make beer. The only way to recoup that is through automation.”

A staged approach usually works best, starting with the heart of the operations (i.e. production machinery) and working your way out to secondary processes such as labelling and packaging. “The first thing is how to make more beer and get it into containers. That’s where the money and the market is,” Mr. Liehs says.

Casey Di Battista, general manager for ABB Robotics Canada in Mississauga, says the compelling question for brewers of any size is: What level of automation will deliver the type of return I’m looking for? “Realistically, you can build something that delivers a three- to five-year ROI.”

What constitutes ROI can range from reduced operational costs and improved product quality, to increased production with reduced waste, to lower capital costs and saving space.

Whatever the underlying motivation, successful brewers are those that commit to continuous improvement, Mr. Liehs says. “They’re always finishing one project and moving to another to get better efficiencies and savings.”