Strategic Alliance to Revolutionize Food Industry Automation

The alliance formed by Bizerba, FANUC, KILIVATIONS, and Schmalz aims to address growing challenges in food production automation. With a focus on innovative solutions, the partnership promises to significantly enhance the efficiency, scalability, and sustainability of food processing operations.

Collaboration of Expertise: Addressing End-of-Line Challenges

As the food industry moves towards continuous production lines, the End-of-Line area—where products are labeled, inspected, stacked, or palletized—remains a key challenge. Manual operations in these stages are plagued by inefficiency and labor shortages. The strategic alliance tackles these issues with a comprehensive approach that combines each company's expertise.

Complementary Strengths for End-to-End Solutions

Each partner in the alliance brings specialized knowledge to the table:

Bizerba leads the way in weighing, labeling, slicing, and inspection technologies, and serves as the system integrator.
FANUC contributes cutting-edge robotics and control systems, enhancing the automation of the entire process.
KILIVATIONS adds years of experience in developing robotic applications, offering advanced automation solutions.
Schmalz focuses on gripping and vacuum technology, crucial for handling delicate food products.

This collective strength allows the alliance to deliver holistic solutions that span the entire production process.

Introducing Modular, Automated Sandwich Station

At automatica 2025, the companies unveiled their first collaboration milestone—a modular, fully automated sandwich station. This innovative system combines precise slicing technology, robotics, vacuum gripping, and high-precision dosing to create snacks efficiently and hygienically. By enabling contactless production, the system offers increased precision and hygiene—critical for the food industry.

Future-Proof Automation in Food Production

The alliance is already working on numerous projects to optimize product handling, case loading, and palletizing in food production's End-of-Line areas. Bizerba plays a central role as the overall system integrator, providing customers with seamless, scalable automation solutions. The aim is to transform the entire downstream process from packaging into a continuous and automated system.

A Powerful Driver for Food Industry Transformation

With a shared vision for holistic solutions, the strategic partnership between Bizerba, FANUC, KILIVATIONS, and Schmalz is positioned to be a game-changer for food processing automation. By combining industry expertise with technological innovation, this alliance is setting the stage for future-ready automation that meets the evolving needs of the food sector.