Packaging and robotics automation for food manufacturers

Simplifying automation
for your plant

We provide the knowledge, expertise, and method to build the automation roadmap for your facility, then deliver it as your general contractor, from initial concept to installed on your floor. Our engineering and project management come at no cost to you.

Get your automation roadmap Watch a line run

The problem

“We want to automate. We're just not sure where.”

Most food plants we talk to know labor is the problem. What they don't have is an engineer with the time to explore every solution: which technologies fit the product, which vendors can deliver, what it really costs, and the ROI case that finance will sign.

So the project waits for next year's budget, again. We fix that by doing that engineering ourselves, at no cost to you.

See how the roadmap works

Nobody has time to explore all the solutions

Plant engineers are keeping the lines running. Researching every technology, vendor and configuration that could solve a problem is a second job that never gets done.

OEMs sell what they make

Ask a case-packer company what you need and the answer is a case packer. Nobody is looking at the line as a whole, or at the payback.

The business case never gets written

A quote is not a justification. Without the labor model, the lease option and the lead-time picture, the project does not survive the capital meeting.

How it works

Find it. Prove it. Deliver it.

One contract, from initial concept to installed on your floor. The goal is not one project. It is a standing automation program that takes labor out of the plant every year.

Find it

We walk the whole plant, receiving to shipping, looking for hand loading, hand packing, hand palletizing, giveaway and inspection gaps. Often things nobody has asked about yet.

Prove it

Every opportunity gets a budgetary quote, a layout, and an ROI model with capital and lease options side by side, ranked by payback. Written so your champion can take it up the chain.

Deliver it

When a project is approved we are the general contractor: we supply the equipment, coordinate every OEM on the line, and run drawings, factory acceptance, installation, commissioning and startup. One contract, one team accountable, until it is running on your floor.

How we get paid

Through our vendor relationships we provide equipment at list pricing, with all of the systems engineering and project management handled by Next Tech Automation. You pay the same price for the equipment as you would have if you put in the hundreds of hours yourself.

That makes us your turnkey general contractor, not a consultant: one contract from initial concept to installed on your floor.

Get your automation roadmap

From current roadmaps

What the numbers look like when the engineering is done properly

Two examples from current case studies. Projected figures, customers anonymized.

Charcuterie · fully automated tray line

$1.49Mbudgetary

20positions offset

13 moprojected payback

Four hand placements and a hand-pack station became robotic tray loading, count-based filling, inline label verification and robotic case packing, as one project. Cash-positive from month one on a lease.

Read the case study →

Carton loading · the right-sized answer

$400Kinstead of $1.5M

~6 moprojected payback

<2 yrfull-automation payback

A customer wanted to fully automate carton loading. The fully automated line was upwards of $1.5M with a payback under two years. We found a semi-automated alternative at about $400K with a payback closer to six months, and recommended that instead.

What we automate

From primary packaging to the pallet, and what comes next

Build a line and watch it run

Primary packaging

Bags, trays and flow packs

VFFS bagging
Thermoforming and HFFS
Tray sealing, MAP and skin
Flow wrapping
Robotic loading into any of them

Secondary packaging

Cases and cartons

Case erecting and sealing
Drop and robotic top-load case packing
Cartoning
RSC, display and specialty cases, meat trays
Checkweighing and metal detection ahead of the case

Palletizing

End of line

Robotic palletizing cells
Pallet pattern building
Full-pallet index out to stretch wrap
Washdown-rated, USDA environments

Emerging technology

What comes next

AI vision for picking and inspection
Innovative quality control systems
Label and product verification
Custom solutions no catalog covers

Turnkey delivery

One contract, from initial concept to installed on your floor

Every system on the roadmap, we deliver as the automation general contractor: equipment supply, systems engineering, vendor coordination, installation, commissioning and startup. The same team and the same process run a single case packer, a complete line or a greenfield plant.

Zack Lynch, PMP, has delivered over $75 million in automation systems across food, automotive, electronics and distribution. All automation is designed to USDA, OSHA 1910.147, ANSI/RIA R15.06 and NFPA 70/79 standards.

See the full service scope How a project runs

Engineering and layouts

Feasibility, ROI, 2D and 3D layouts, construction-ready documents.

Equipment supply

Every OEM on the line at list price, under one contract and one schedule.

Installation and commissioning

Factory acceptance at each vendor, rigging, installation, commissioning on your floor.

Startup and support

Site acceptance, operator training, and the long tail after the ribbon is cut.

Experience

Built on plants like yours

Common questions

What plant managers ask us first

How can this be free?

We are an automation distributor. The equipment manufacturers pay us out of their distributor margin when a project goes ahead, so you pay list price for the equipment, the same as buying direct, and the engineering and project management come with it. When a project goes ahead we deliver it turnkey, from initial concept to installed on your floor, and that engineering and project management is included in the equipment price. If a project never happens, the roadmap still cost you nothing.

What is an automation roadmap?

A plant walk, a ranked list of automation opportunities, and an ROI case for each one with capital and lease options, delivered as a report your team can take to the capital meeting. The full description is here.

Who delivers the project?

We do. Next Tech is the general contractor: one contract covering the equipment, the systems engineering, vendor coordination, installation, commissioning and startup. You are not handed a set of quotes and left to coordinate three OEMs yourself.

Are you tied to particular equipment brands?

We work with over two dozen vendor partners across packaging, robotics and inspection, and we specify by application: product, rate, footprint, sanitation, changeover. Where we don't carry the right machine, we say so.

What size projects do you work on?

From a single checkweigher or case packer to a complete line or a new plant. The bread and butter is packaging and robotics projects in the $200K to $2M range. Larger greenfield and new-line work runs under the same team as general contractor.

Do you work outside food manufacturing?

Food is the focus, because that is where the sanitation, compliance and product-handling expertise matters most. We have delivered in automotive, electronics and distribution and will take a look if the application is a fit.

Simplifying automationfor your plant