Automated stretch wrapping improves a restaurant chain’s distribution

A large restaurant chain trucks unbaked loaves of bread to its Midwestern restaurants, which have increased in number in recent years. As the chain has grown, daily production has become more challenging, leading the chain to move to automation.

Originally, frozen loaves were distributed directly from freezers into trucks in bakery cabinets. Unfortunately, the cabinets weren’t then available for the next day’s bread. The cabinets had to be washed down between uses, which increased labor cost and slowed productivity.

The chain opted to replace the cabinets with plastic bread trays that can be stacked up to 60 to 80 inches tall, rest on wheeled bases and be moved into trucks with minimal effort. The stacked trays are lightweight, but they could also easily tip, so they were wrapped by hand with one layer of stretch film for stability.

Hand-wrapping was labor-intensive and time-consuming, and slowed the throughput required to meet restaurant demand. To solve the problem, the restaurant chain decided on a set of three rotary tower automatic stretch wrappers, which are arranged in a triangular configuration in an area between the freezer and the loading dock. All stacks are rolled into position at each wrapper. Operators then activate the machine, which can wrap one, two or three of the loads, depending on what’s required. The stacks are wrapped within one minute and are moved to the loading docks.

This arrangement meets the restaurant chain’s throughput needs. The three-wrapper system was designed to wrap 100 loads per hour, which is the chain’s target. However, during operation, it has been able to wrap even more—upward of 120 loads on a regular basis.

In addition, the wrapper eliminates manual operations by automatically attaching the film tail to the load and cutting and securing it at the end of the cycle. It also incorporates precision ring bearings that provide long wear life, thus reducing downtime and further increasing productivity.

To stabilize the lightweight trays, film is applied at a very low tension and corner compensation. The stretch wrapper provider’s 260% pre-stretch film also increases the film’s strength, ensures it’s more puncture resistant and reduces the amount of film used. The chain has also seen reduced labor costs, increased productivity and elimination of the time needed to wash down cabinets (20 minutes each).

Due to this new end-of-line capability, the daily orders acquired from restaurants can now be filled in one evening shift. And, as business continues to increase, the chain anticipates it will be able to easily handle seasonal upsurges in volume.