a high-volume snack manufacturing facility in Australia producing retail popcorn and packaged foods
How a Snack Plant Runs Pallet Moves 24/6 With Four AMRs
Four AMRs move pallets between packaging and wrap stations at a snack plant, running 24/6 and handling hundreds of pallet moves weekly with safer backend logistics.
- 4
- AMRs deployed
- 24/6
- Operating hours
- 100s
- Pallets weekly
- Safer
- Backend moves
Based on a documented real-world deployment. Figures are from public reporting; the organization is not named.
Manual pallet moves risked the packaging backend
A high-volume snack manufacturing facility in Australia produces retail popcorn and packaged foods on automated lines. Behind the cells, workers manually moved finished pallets toward hood wrap and shipping, which created pinch points in tight aisles next to running equipment.
Leadership wanted pallet transport that could run in real production clutter, alongside people, without stopping the line for every full or empty swap.
- Manual pallet moves beside palletizing robots
- Safety risk in confined backend aisles
- Need for near-continuous internal logistics
Four AMRs on a managed fleet schedule
The site deployed four autonomous mobile robots to pull full pallets from palletizing cells to hood wrap stations and return empty pallets on loop. Fleet software prioritized tasks, managed charging, and coordinated handoffs with existing equipment.
The project targeted flexibility in narrow spaces with human coworkers rather than fixed guided vehicles that would need infrastructure changes.
- Full pallets to wrap, empties back to cells
- Fleet scheduling and auto-charging
- Navigation in tight, live production aisles
Hundreds of weekly pallet moves without extra truck traffic
Robots now operate twenty-four hours a day, six days a week, handling hundreds of pallets weekly and logging tens of thousands of in-plant kilometers over time. Staff reported better manual handling conditions and enthusiasm for the automated helpers on the floor.
Operations leadership cited greater productivity, efficiency, and overall site safety from automating the backend pallet loop.
What US food plants can take from the pattern
Service Robot Co. maps the same backend pallet loops for US snack, bakery, and CPG plants: automate the path between packaging robotics and wrap or cold storage before you widen the project.
Buy or lease through financing, integrate with fleet software, and keep service on RoboCare nationwide. Vendor-neutral selection helps when load weight, aisle width, and wrap station timing do not match one catalog.