The Twypack packhouse based in Nelspruit is dedicated to soft citrus, packing up to 800 tonnes every day. "We are far from the world markets where we export to: we have to pack and ship our entire crop, without having the luxury of supplying specific orders in a short period of time as citrus packhouses close to Northern Hemisphere markets can do," explains Josef Malan, general manager of Twypack. "We have a much more intense, abbreviated crop and at any given moment, we're packing for at least twenty different clients to their specifications."
The floor space needed to accomplish this, not to mention the amount of packhouse personnel required, is astronomical. Working on the 400-kg bins, in which fruit is delivered to packhouse, this means around 340,000 fruit need to be packed per hour, 24 hours per day. For a staff of between 400 and 500 packers, this will require each person to consistently manage up to 800 fruit an hour.
Apart from those hundreds of packing staff, there'd have to be between 100 and 120 palletizers, strappers, almost 60 forklift drivers. It's an army of people, with a platoon of forklifts, moving around large operational areas. It is also a nightmare to manage.
Packing Nadorcotts in Twypack packhouse, Nelspruit.
South African packhouses walk a tightrope between the optimal amount of automation that can help them to pack away their large crops while also making an impactful contribution to employment and social economic growth in mostly rural communities, Malan adds. "By finding the balance we add value to be able to expand, recruit more people and uplift people."
Fortunately, the modest size of the Twypack packhouse acquired by Indigo Fruit Farming in 2018 opened the door for a feasible automation integration project: looking at the output they desired, they settled on a 70:30 ratio between automation and personnel. This entails a manageable team of 250 personnel per shift, and up to 600 people over various operations and shifts.
The formula that works for Twypack is to have 70% of fruit packed by automated equipment, leaving 30% to still be done manually.
"The best way to do this is by upscaling. When you upgrade a packhouse that handled 30 bins an hour to one that does 100 bins an hour, you can double up on your people but to remain within your footprint, you add automation," he says. "And then people's roles become less physically demanding, rather acting in support of the equipment that does the hard physical labour, the palletizing and the strapping. We would never have been able to handle these types of volumes without this integration, purely because of the amount of floor space and the management that it would require."
The other benefit, he adds, is that the skills profile of the packhouse lifts, as people become skilled operators of equipment that requires training and experience, and it then lifts the salary levels and the morale within the packhouse. Staff learn beneficial critical skills, like computer and office skills, or becoming machine operators and technicians.
Automated palletizers
Looking ahead: automating the despatch area
The automated equipment was mostly manufactured locally for Twypack. Equipped with a thorough knowledge of similar equipment manufactured abroad and well-acquainted with the imported equipment in some of Indigo Fruit Farming's other packing facilities, Malan proudly claims the South African equipment to be "as good, if not better, than their global competitors".
The grader and sizer are from Tomra.
"We have a tremendous amount of product that enters in bins and leaves in cartons on pallets, that are stacked in racking while awaiting inspections and loading (right), and all of that requires a massive fleet of forklifts and a high cost in human error, as well as safety considerations."
He continues: "What I would like to see would be more automation of the dispatch, and outbound areas with automatic trolleys moving around, placing or picking up pallets from rack spaces that are GPS-designated. This is widely used around the world."
For more information:
Josef Malan
Indigo Fruit Farming
Tel: +27 13 004 0507
Email: [email protected]
https://indigofruit.co.za/