Outlook 2022: Robotic solutions

SILKE BLUMER, Vice President Strategy and Product Management for the business unit Food at Syntegon, shares her thoughts on packaging developments and adoption of robotics by small companies.

Silke Blumer, Vice President Strategy and Product Management for the business unit Food at Syntegon

How is the pandemic still affecting industry, and what are your expectations for 2022?

The packaging industry has proven to be quite robust: There has been hesitance to invest particularly in the beginning of the pandemic, yet overall investment volumes did not decline. Travel restrictions asked for new ways of collaboration for example with digital factory and site acceptance tests and remote support. Overall, the pandemic facilitated digitalisation and we expect it to further accelerate automation in packaging.

The Asian F&B market, including confectionery and snacks, remains very promising. Could you comment on the adoption of automated packaging in this segment especially in Southeast Asia where F&B manufacturers are mostly SMEs?

We see huge potential to increase efficiency and lower costs in the segment of SMEs in the region: Today’s machine generations are very robust, flexible and easy to operate. To successfully operate in Southeast Asia’s fast-growing markets with rising quality standards and increasing cost for human labour the adoption of automated packaging will be the way to go.  COVID has adversely impacted on the availability of quality skilled labour and SME food manufacturers are actively looking to reduce exposure to the resulting labour fluctuations. Hence, we see a growing trend of employing robotic solutions in existing as well as greenfield projects. 

What is your outlook for packaging for 2022/beyond?

Generally, we expect fast growth of the packaging market in the region, particularly for the upcoming years there will be COVID catch-up effects. With the robotics technology becoming widely available and the application maturing in packaging we assume fast adoption to cater to the flexibility needs in the region.

Read more: Syntegon's pick-and-place robots: Increasing quality and efficiency thanks to automation