Founded on family recipes and a commitment to quality, Mrs. Gerry’s has grown from a 1,100 square foot kitchen in 1973 to a more than 200,000 square feet facility, producing more than 50 million pounds of salads and sides each year. As demand increased, the company sought a way to streamline packaging while maintaining the high standards that define the brand.

Their existing hand packed line required 12 employees and struggled to keep pace with production needs. Additionally, products exiting the spiral chiller arrived in inconsistent orientations, creating bottlenecks and inefficiencies.

Mrs. Gerry’s turned to FANUC Authorized System Integrator Delkor Systems—known for turnkey automation and expertise in food packaging—to design a fully integrated solution. The new line incorporates FANUC’s M-10iA robot, the M-2iA Delta robot for high speed picking, and the heavy-duty M-410iB/700 robot. Together, these systems automate orientation, case packing, sealing, forming and palletizing.

Despite the complexity of the project, Delkor delivered a remarkably fast installation. “We needed to have this project up and running in 10 days,” said Stuart Ness, Director of IT and Project Management at Mrs. Gerry’s, and that’s the impressive timeline that was met.

The impact was immediate. Labor requirements for this particular process dropped from 12 employees to two or three, while throughput increased significantly. The system now supports roughly 36 million pounds of product annually across three shifts with just 24 people.

Equally important, the line offers the flexibility needed for frequent changeovers. “We’ll sometimes go from a 2 pound bag to a 5 pound bag” in order to meet customer demand, said Ness. “The Delkor line doesn’t ever hold us up.”

From case forming to palletizing, the system “just runs”—so reliably that monitoring it has become one of the calmest jobs in the plant.

Founded on family recipes and a commitment to quality, Mrs. Gerry’s has grown from a 1,100 square foot kitchen in 1973 to a more than 200,000 square feet facility, producing more than 50 million pounds of salads and sides each year. As demand increased, the company sought a way to streamline packaging while maintaining the high standards that define the brand.

Their existing hand packed line required 12 employees and struggled to keep pace with production needs. Additionally, products exiting the spiral chiller arrived in inconsistent orientations, creating bottlenecks and inefficiencies.

Mrs. Gerry’s turned to FANUC Authorized System Integrator Delkor Systems—known for turnkey automation and expertise in food packaging—to design a fully integrated solution. The new line incorporates FANUC’s M-10iA robot, the M-2iA Delta robot for high speed picking, and the heavy-duty M-410iB/700 robot. Together, these systems automate orientation, case packing, sealing, forming and palletizing.

Despite the complexity of the project, Delkor delivered a remarkably fast installation. “We needed to have this project up and running in 10 days,” said Stuart Ness, Director of IT and Project Management at Mrs. Gerry’s, and that’s the impressive timeline that was met.

The impact was immediate. Labor requirements for this particular process dropped from 12 employees to two or three, while throughput increased significantly. The system now supports roughly 36 million pounds of product annually across three shifts with just 24 people.

Equally important, the line offers the flexibility needed for frequent changeovers. “We’ll sometimes go from a 2 pound bag to a 5 pound bag” in order to meet customer demand, said Ness. “The Delkor line doesn’t ever hold us up.”

From case forming to palletizing, the system “just runs”—so reliably that monitoring it has become one of the calmest jobs in the plant.