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Batching and mixing add flexibility; processing automation equipment handles increase of SKUs.

Article Excerpt
HUNDREDS OF BOTTLES AND CANS LINE THE SHELVES AT GROCERY AND other stores around the country. With the proliferation of SKUs and variety of recipes, processing automation equipment can keep track of individual processes at a beverage plant, making operations simpler and more flexible.

Batching and mixing of multiple ingredients can be a complicated process, especially with the increasing complexity in many new products. Processing automation machinery keeps the primary stages of making a beverage as efficient as possible.

"In the old days, you might have had a couple of raw material bins you were blending together in a batch tank," says Mike Jamieson, global director, consumer packaged goods industry, Rockwell Automation Inc., Milwaukee. "These would have created a few predefined recipes that would then fill containers on your packaging lines, thereby creating a variety of SKUs. Those days are gone.

"There are multiple types of raw material ingredients, multiple types of recipes that you...

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