Located in Donegal, Ireland, Promise Gluten Free is a leading global specialist in the gluten-free bakery sector. Producing a premium range of gluten-free baked goods, the company exports its products worldwide, requiring a highly efficient operation to meet rapidly growing international demand.
To support their global expansion, Promise Gluten Free needed to scale capacity on their primary production line. However, their existing packaging infrastructure was hindered by significant operational bottlenecks:
Production Inefficiency: The existing packaging line could only achieve 25 packs per minute (ppm), which failed to match the bakery’s upstream manufacturing capabilities.
Severe Throughput Bottlenecks: Baked goods left the cooling stage at a rate of 28 ppm. Because the packaging line was too slow to handle this flow, an 8-hour oven production shift required 10 hours to fully pack, stalling the entire facility’s throughput.
Downtime and OEE Losses: The plant suffered from frequent, costly operational downtime and lacked the visibility required to track, identify, and rectify Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) drops.
While undertaking routine maintenance on the bakery’s existing flow wrapper, the Record Packaging team identified the facility’s expansion constraints. Record Packaging subsequently designed, engineered, and delivered a bespoke, user-friendly, fully automated ‘process-to-pallet’ packaging line valued at €708,000.
The automated system features:
Intelligent Buffering & Refeed: A built-in 10-minute buffering system with an automated conveyor control mechanism that seamlessly re-feeds products back into the main line once surges clear.
Advanced Orientation & Slicing: An automated reject system to correct product orientation before it reaches a high-precision reciprocating slicer.
Automated Tray Loading: An integrated tray-denester coupled with an automatic tray loader to smoothly place sliced bread into trays without manual intervention.
High-Speed Flow Wrapper: A robust flow-wrapping machine equipped with an intelligent, automatic flow-feed system operating at 35 ppm, with built-in scope to scale up to 40 ppm.
Integrated Quality Control: A 90-degree bend conveyor that guides packed trays into an integrated, high-precision metal detector and checkweigher combination line.
End-of-Line Packing & Coding: A semi-automatic case erector and a top-and-bottom case taper, paired with a Videojet inkjet printer to automatically print barcodes directly onto the outer cases prior to manual palletisation.
The implementation of the fully integrated automation line has completely transformed Promise Gluten Free’s packaging operations:
Bottleneck Eliminated: By increasing packaging speeds to 35 ppm, the line now comfortably outpaces the 28 ppm cooler output, giving operators the necessary clearance space to clear the buffer effortlessly.
Drastic Labour Reduction: Despite the substantial increase in throughput and speed, the entire high-capacity line now requires only three operators and one supervisor to run.
Optimised OEE: The facility has successfully targeted an impressive 85%–95% OEE benchmark. The intuitive system design allows operators to quickly identify errors and pinpoint the exact causes of OEE drops.
Synchronised Operations: Packaging is now fully synchronised with the baking schedule, completely eliminating the legacy two-hour post-oven packing lag.
