350 million pies need to be packaged first: JTM Foods is the leading producer of snack pies in the USA and has continuously increased its annual production capacity by orders of magnitude. This growth can only be managed with high-performance systems. A new factory built specifically for this purpose was equipped with fully automatic packaging systems from Sacmi Packaging & Chocolate.
The US baked goods manufacturer JTM Foods is a very fast-growing company with a wide variety of products. Handheld snack pies are an important part of the range. These small filled pies in a variety of flavours are designed to be eaten on the go and between meals. JTM Foods produces them under its market-leading own brand JJ's Bakery and as a contract manufacturer under external brands such as Entenmann's.
The output of snack pies has tripled since 2017. This made it necessary to expand the production facilities. „Our plant was running around the clock,“ explains Joe Amboyer, Senior Vice President of Operations. „This meant capacity bottlenecks and high labour costs.“ For a Investment volume totalling 40 million US dollars a new production site was built in Wichita, Kansas. With an area of 195,000 square metres, the plant means doubling the existing production and logistics space and, in addition to increasing performance, also enables further product innovations, according to the company. The factory's high degree of automation is remarkable. Human intervention has been reduced to a minimum in order to avoid errors. The aim was also to avoid arduous manual tasks in view of the labour shortage in the baked goods industry.
170,000 units per line and shift
Although the new plant offers a lot of space, those responsible wanted to minimise the footprint of the production equipment. Initially, two lines were installed for the production of mini cakes weighing 30 and 60 grams and cakes weighing 90 and 120 grams respectively. Each line achieves an output of more than 170,000 units per shift. Such production volumes require high-performance packaging machines. JTM Foods has already been using secondary packaging machines from Sacmi at its main plant for many years, and the positive experience gained has now prompted the company to commission the supplier with primary packaging as well.
(Image: JTM Foods)
Tubular bag packaging with high performance
In autumn 2024, JTM Foods integrated a JT Advance horizontal high-performance flow-wrapping machine with contactless infeed into both lines. This new development from Sacmi is a Fully electronic and servo-controlled machine, which can be configured for flat pouches, gusseted pouches, pouches with offset sealing, pouches with tear strip and on-edge packaging with longitudinal and transverse sealing.
The two machines pack the small cakes in the new bakery factory with a speed of 200 cycles per minute. Even significantly higher cycle rates would be possible, but the systems are limited by upstream processes. High availability is ensured by automatic film splicers, which allow reels to be changed during production without reducing the machine speed.
The hygiene-friendly design of the tubular bag machines also proves to be advantageous for processing the baked goods. Thanks to special trays and protective devices, the not inconsiderable amount of product abrasion from the sugar-glazed cakes can be easily removed. JTM Foods only uses heat-sealable paper foils in the interests of the environment. The processing of paper-based materials as well as environmentally friendly films with regard to weight reduction has enabled Sachmi with new functions. For example the machine manufacturer produces an individual moulding shoulder for each application using 3D printing. The components, which are perfectly adapted to the respective paper, prevent breakage of the sensitive material. In addition, the pull-off speed can be precisely controlled and adjusted using servomotors. The added sustainability is therefore in no way at the expense of the quality and appearance of the packaging.
Centralised secondary packaging
Once the mini cakes have been flow-wrapped, the products must be filled into cartons. To do this, the two production lines are brought together at a case packer. The IER 030 toploader has a 2-axis robot, which picks up the bags from above, groups them and places them in the secondary packaging according to the required quantities. JTM Foods produces cartons containing six and twelve bags in single or double-row configurations. The high-performance system can handle 400 bags per minute. The cartons fed to the case packer are also produced using Sacmi packaging technology. The Electronic carton erector F-EL with double moulding head can produce cartons in many dimensions with bottoms sealed with hot melt. Thanks to its very compact design, the machine only requires a small footprint and therefore fulfils JTM Foods' requirements in this regard.
At the end of the line, the BC3-90 carton sealer ensures that the collection containers are reliably sealed. With its 90-degree angled outlet and compact design, the servo-driven machine can be optimally integrated into the production systems and can be used for a wide range of applications. seal up to 90 cartons per minute with hot melt glue.
JTM Foods requires for only one employee to operate the entire line. At the main plant, a comparable system with packaging systems from another manufacturer requires three operators, according to the company. On average, format changes on the Sacmi systems take less than 20 minutes and are therefore significantly shorter than the comparatively time-consuming changeover in the production process.
OEE of 99 per cent
JTM Foods is now operating the new packaging machines in two-shift operation without any problems, and those responsible are very satisfied with the investment in the technology. The performance data is right, and the flexibility gained gives the baked goods producer valuable room for manoeuvre for the future. „We can now fulfil our orders faster and more efficiently,“ emphasises Joe Amboyer. Amortisation should be achieved in less than two years. Based on the positive experience, JTM Foods two more JT Advance flow-wrapping machines and an additional secondary packaging cell. ordered to replace less efficient systems.
packaging journal 2/2025
