Running 758 cookies per minute on one operator
At ZoRoCo Packaging Inc., the challenge wasn’t one product—it was many.
As a contract packer, they run a wide range of cookies for different customers, each with its own size, format and packing requirement. On this line, both round and square products are handled, often in short runs. Products arrive from the oven with natural variation, and changeovers between runs are frequent. The question was how to handle that variability without constantly adjusting the line.
Building flexibility into the line, not around it
Instead of designing the line around a single product format, ZoRoCo implemented a system where grouping happens after the oven, based on what actually arrives on the belt.
Cookies are identified individually, and the system builds the required configuration—rows, stacks or slugs—depending on the product being packed. This allows different formats to run on the same line without mechanical changeover in the infeed section.
In practice, this means that variation coming from upstream does not need to be corrected first. It is absorbed in the handling step, where products are organised into the required pattern before packaging.
Scaling capacity without changing the process
As volumes increased, ZoRoCo did not redesign the process—they extended it.
Additional handling capacity was added by installing parallel modules, each working on the same principle. The upstream product flow remains unchanged, while the system distributes the workload across multiple units.
This allows capacity to grow stepwise, without introducing new handling concepts or increasing line complexity.
At the same time, operators can switch between products using stored settings, rather than manual adjustments. This is reflected in the overall line performance: operating at around 758 products per minute, with one operator, and achieving over 99% efficiency in daily production.
