ARTICLE - Q2 2023

"Ice Factory Automation"
by Mike Carpenter, Automatic Ice Systems

One of the most common conversations that I have had in recent years is how to optimize ice facility production. After a few exploratory questions, the conversation almost always includes a discussion on Automation.  Automation can be the answer not only to optimizing production, but to workforce challenges.

Compared to other food products, ice is unique.  Ice is one of the few industries you can get away with under-automating.  You wouldn’t expect a producer to be hand-scooping potato chips or candy into a bag and running it through a manual sealer.  This is not uncommon in an ice factory.  But just because an ice facility can still get bags out the door, it isn’t necessarily the most efficient or cost-effective choice. Since Covid-19, securing and retaining reliable labor has become a challenge and has included a dramatic increase in wages. Following the pandemic there has been a dynamic shift in the size of facility appropriate for automation.  10 years ago, automation was primarily for large, high-capacity ice production facilities. It has now become cost effective to add automation to much smaller factories.

To measure a facility’s overall productivity, I recommend comparing your maximum potential production against the number of pallets in your freezer at the end of a given day.  Every system does have some waste, with ice lost to melting and screening ice chips out through a shaker/snow reel.  I still expect a fully productive facility to put about 90-95% of their daily max production into the freezer on each given day.  To achieve this target, your ice machines must never shut off.  If management is observing machines shutting off due to bulk surge being at capacity, I recommend that they monitor the operational interruptions on a packaging line for a week.  An interruption is any stop to the equipment except for running out of ice or bags.  Before offering overtime or putting in an additional packaging line, just observe. It is often a better solution to update a packaging line and make it more productive.  Current automatic solutions should average far less than one interruption per hour.  

Below, I will specifically focus on packaging/palletizing automation. It is important to first recognize that to have reliable, automated solutions you need to look at the entire picture. A packaging machine will only work as well as the system feeding ice into it. If you have interruptions and problems upstream, even the best packaging solution in the world won’t be able to fix that issue.
 
Form, Fill and Seal Packaging – Most small to mid-size ice companies start out with an automatic bulk surge transfer bin and a volumetric bagger. This packaging process usually requires 3 operators. One will be responsible for taking the bag from the volumetric bagger through a closer, and two people will alternate stacking bags and then taking the finished pallets to the freezer.

​Typically, the first step in automation is moving to a form, fill and seal packaging machine. This will remove the person responsible for moving a filled bag through a closer. This is an extremely tedious job that is relatively inexpensive to automate. It is also worth noting that you’ll save about 15-20% on packaging switching to roll film for a form, fill and seal machine versus using pre-formed bags. 
 
Semi-Automatic Palletizing – As an ice company grows, semi-automatic palletizing typically makes sense for facilities producing at least 20 tons per day. This will eliminate another laborer and make the work much less physically demanding. The simplicity of the work is hard to factor into the ROI, but it is much easier to find an employee willing to move around pallets, as opposed to stacking bags.

When operators are required to hand stack bags onto pallets, they are indirectly incentivized to find problems with the machine. If there is an issue, they can take a break from stacking bags and work on resolving the problem. Sure, if the boss is watching, a facility will operate near 100%, but we have observed that most facilities will only operate at about 60% of capacity when you look at the actual number of bags in the freezer. A palletizer makes the job easy, and it encourages the operator to keep the line moving. The boss is also less likely to worry about workers showing up that day.

It is also worth noting that we’ve had customers put in semi-automatic palletizing solutions in as small as a 9-ton per day facility. These facilities are typically owner-operated, and a palletizer can free up time for them to focus on sales and growing the business vs. packaging. A semi-automatic palletizer can be a valuable tool if you are planning on expanding your business.    
 
Fully Automatic Palletizing – If your long-term goal for a facility is to exceed 200 tons of daily production, we recommend considering full system automation. There is no easy way to ‘upgrade’ from semi-automatic palletizing to fully automatic palletizing. They are completely different platforms. With full system automation, you can operate 3 packaging lines running simultaneously, with only 2 people. You will need an operational technician (keep film on the bagger, keep slip sheets loaded) for the 3 lines and a second operator on a forklift pulling out finished pallets, loading empty pallets and loading trucks. It’s not uncommon that during an 8-hour shift, we observe only 2 employees putting 100-200 pallets of ice into the freezer.   
 
Control Automation - With each level of automation, the importance of having a reliable control system becomes more evident.  It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that each piece of equipment stands alone, but high-capacity ice factories are systems that will only work as well as its weakest link.  Flow rates should have the ability to automatically adjust, as you change products.  A control system should be able to identify when there is a problem and what the likely cause is.  A qualified partner should be able to log into the system to remotely help diagnose issues or make updates to your system.  The control system represents the brains of the operation and allows the individual components to function at their best. 
 
When you are designing your ice factory, it is important to plan not for where you are today, but for where you want to be in the future. It is not always possible to just throw in an automatic palletizing solution later. There are many details that need to be thought through for the system to work efficiently. I highly recommend working with a company experienced in ice factory design from the start. They can help educate you on the options and make sure you think through the entire process. Ice has many unique characteristics; it does not stack like other packaged products. It is important that you look for equipment that has been engineered to handle ice specifically. The IPIA can be a great resource for getting connected with suppliers specific to the ice industry.  Please feel free to reach out to me, or any of our other members, if you want to explore the potential options for your facility.