Combi Helps Okanagan Specialty Fruit Stem Sticky Packaging Challenges

The situation

Okanagan Specialty Fruits is a Canadian agricultural biotech company known for its varieties of Arctic® apples that taste great and resist browning—providing extended shelf-life and reducing waste.

Fruit from the company’s orchards in Washington state are sent to Okanagan’s newly built central facility in Moses Lake, British Columbia. They are processed, packed and shipped to destinations across North America.

Processing includes cutting the apples and packaging them in plastic bags of various sizes; smaller bags of slices serve retailers and institutional markets like school cafeterias, while larger bags – either sliced or diced – are used by food service operations.

When the Moses Lake facility opened, the finished product was packed by hand into cases for shipping, with up to 100 bags per case. This end-of-line (EOL) packaging operation included a Combi Ergopack hand-packing station.

But even as the facility was being finished, two issues emerged:

1. Bags moved into the EOL operation faster than they could be packed for shipping. “…There would be bags that would remain on the rotating table for a long time. So it wasn't necessarily always first-in/first-out. That's pretty important in our business,” said Angela Smith, quality control manager at Okanagan.
2. The number of packets placed in each case was wildly inconsistent. “Counting is hard … when you're doing the volumes that we're doing. So we would end up with customer concerns that they didn't get their 100 bags or that maybe they got 120 bags,” Smith said.
   
   

The solution

The issues would be resolved by adding two fully automated EOL packaging lines, each located in a separate part of the facility at the end of processing and primary packaging operations.

This time, though, there was another constraint: Each new line had to fit into what seemed like an impossibly tight footprint of about 46 x 34 feet.

The company chose Combi, in partnership with manufacturing representative R.L. Scott & Associates Inc., because, even though the hand-packing line couldn’t keep up with demand, it had been working well based on the objectives at the time it was originally designed. Further, configuring a line that could fully automate the packing process within the allotted footprint would require a level of custom engineering that few EOL equipment manufacturers would undertake.

“We were faced with what seemed like an impossible situation to automate the packing of the boxes, the sealing of the boxes, the stacking of the boxes,” said Ray Moody, facility operations manager at Okanagan. “We got together with the Combi team and were able to come up with this custom design that honestly is nothing short of miraculous.”

“It was a really, really tight space,” agreed Mike San Miguel, senior western regional sales manager at Combi. “In the early meetings, I spent a lot of time wondering how we were going to get those machines into that space. It took a lot of work with our applications engineering team to figure out how to design a system that would fit the space while keeping up with production. At the end of the day, that’s why they went with us. It came down to understanding all of their needs and being able to design and build a system that would be highly customized.”

Each system ultimately would include:

• Automated case erector
• Multiple conveyors
• Case packer
• Integrated shaker table
• Case sealer

“There were a lot of modifications on the conveyors,” San Miguel said. “We had to keep the orientation of the box in the right direction, which would have been simple in a larger space. And we built in a number of traffic cops to hold boxes so they wouldn’t bottleneck at the case sealer.”

Another complexity was the tendency of the product to pile up in a pyramid as it was dropped into cases. “So inside the case packer, we have to shake the box to settle the product. There was a lot of programming to get everything right. It was one of the most complex systems I’ve been involved with,” said San Miguel, who has been with the company for eight years.

The outcome

Before the completed system was shipped to Okanagan, company representatives visited Combi’s Canton, Ohio, manufacturing facility for a Factory Acceptance Test that put the machinery through its paces at a specified operating speed. After final adjustments, the systems were transported to Okanagan, where team members from Combi and R.L. Scott supported assembly and provided training on the equipment and HMI. The finished systems began running in April 2024, exactly on schedule.

Training was fast and fruitful, according to Okanagan Production Supervisor Liliya Yushchuk. “I haven't really worked with these types of machines before, [and found] it's pretty straightforward. I didn't need much coaching, and we were able to train our operators fairly quickly on how to use them,” she said.

The improvement was dramatic. “We were able to go from like 140 bags a minute [per line] … to 240 bags a minute,” Smith said. “It's keeping the product in a first-in/first-out fashion. The bags are going into the box at the same speed that they're coming off of the machine … so [we] don't have any backup or buildup....”

Far fewer people need to be assigned to EOL operations, which saves on labor costs and reduces hand-touching of product—always a concern in food processing. She added that spot checks of packed cases have found unit counts to be consistently accurate—eliminating the need to repack finished boxes.

The original Ergopack hand-packing station still gets used at periods of peak production. “When we're running it at a fast pace, we can put a couple of people on that line and they can hand-pack,” she said.

Finally, the new equipment has required only the expected maintenance—all of which has gone smoothly, according to Jose Pacheco, Okanagan maintenance manager. “[Combi] helped us install it … and they didn't leave until we were happy and the equipment was running to our expectation,” Pacheco said. “They worked with us on creating critical part lists to make sure that those parts that go out more frequently are on our shelf.”

He also complimented Combi’s culture. “Combi is doing a good job at who they're hiring. I've gotten along with all [the] support team—from the sales team, parts, support … it's never seemed like there's a door closing on us.”

“This automation is night and day,” Moody summarized. “It’s flawless. …. When it comes to stuff like this and these custom builds, you know, and these tricky situations, I would recommend Combi every day of the week.”