Production line observations, studies and evaluations for any beverage category usually focus on several prime factors: equipment capability, machinery speeds and capacities, productive time maximization, and packaging configurations.
In a famous episode of the “I Love Lucy” show, Lucy and Ethel go to work in a candy factory where their packaging skills are put to the test. Chocolates make their way one by one down a conveyor, and the women must wrap each one before it reaches the next packaging station. If one chocolate makes it past them unwrapped, they’ll be fired.
When Kansas City, Mo.-based Boulevard Brewing Co., now a part of Puurs, Belgium-based Duvel Moortgat, realized that the craft brewing business it had been building since 1989 was outgrowing its infrastructure and equipment, the company knew it needed to turn to automation to support its growth.