Tasteful Selections’ Bite-Sized Success Automating Baby Potato Packing
Tasteful Selections increased efficiency, improved safety, and scaled production by automating palletizing and case packing with FANUC robots.
Challenges
- Labor shortage
- Need for more sanitary processes
- High-speed and gentle packaging solutions
Results
Story
Tasteful Selections, located near Bakersfield, CA, is the largest grower, shipper, and packer of bite-sized potatoes in North America. The company first started its robotics automation journey by installing palletizers using Schneider Packaging, a FANUC Approved Systems Integrator. The solution using FANUC palletizing robots has not only boosted efficiencies but also helped to keep Tasteful Selections’ employees safer by reducing the number of accidents and injuries.
As the company increased the speed of the processing lines, manually packing the bags of potatoes in boxes became a bottleneck. The automated solution needed to be food safe and gentle to produce the best quality baby potatoes. Tasteful Selections invested in five FANUC M-3iA Delta robots for case packing that are equipped with Soft Robotics’ mGrip soft gripper.
With the investment in automation, Tasteful Selections has been able to grow very quickly as well as maintain the quality bite-sized potatoes customers and food retailers like Costco have come to love. Plus, this has all been done at an attractive price point.
Before we had the robotics, everything was done by hand, so for food safety, that’s a little bit of a concern because there’s a lot of hands touching the product. Since we put in the robotics with the soft gripper – you know, it doesn’t eliminate a person, it just moves them to a different role – it allows less human contact. Our philosophy here, in regards to food safety, is we want to make sure that the potatoes people are consuming are the safest that they can be from farm to fork.
Lindsey Mebane Food Safety Manager – Tasteful SelectionsFANUC Products Used
M-410iB/140H
The FANUC M‑410iB/140H is an extremely fast, 5‑axis versatile palletizing robot offering the best repeatability in the range.
- Max Payload:
- 140 kg
- Reach:
- 2850 mm
M-3iA/6S
The FANUC M‑3iA/6S is a 4‑axis delta robot with a high-speed single-axis wrist; its long reach boosts dexterity for fast picking across multiple conveyors.
- Max Payload:
- 6 kg
- Reach:
- 1350 mm
Meet Schneider Package Equipment Co Inc., FANUC Authorized System Integrator
With more than 50 years of industry problem-solving in end-of-line automation, Schneider Packaging Equipment Company, Inc. is a leading manufacturer of case packing and robotic palletizing solutions.
About Tasteful Selections
Tasteful Selections began with multi-generational potato farmers who recognized an opportunity to expand the baby potato category to meet the busy consumer’s preference for simpler, convenient meals. Today, the Tasteful Selections brand is the leader in this unique potato category. They pioneered bite-size potatoes as a convenient source of nutrition, flavor versatility, and variety for everyday meals.
