While we've looked at the key issues - including COVID-19 - facing food processors and A&E/Cs this year in FE's 2020 Annual Plant Construction Survey, there's a lot more to discuss.

For locating facilities, operators look for geographical areas with an employable workforce and adequate logistics.

The company will close its Warren, Arkansas, solid hardwood flooring manufacturing facility. Production will be moved to the AHF Beverly, West Virginia, facility, the largest solid hardwood flooring plant in North America, and the AHF West Plains, Missouri. 

Shaw Industries is further enhancing its domestic resilient flooring manufacturing capabilities with a $90 million investment in Plant RP in Ringgold, Georgia, which makes SPC and LVT resilient flooring. This latest phase of investment will more than double the facility’s resilient flooring production capacity by 2026. 

Versatrim President and CEO Keith Medick shares how the floor moldings manufacturer is adding new products and new services. 

While laboratory and other manual methods have been used for years, new automated moisture measurement and control systems can play an important role in improving product quality monitoring, increasing plant efficiency, and lowering energy costs.

With more canine and feline mouths to feed than ever before, robust pet food safety and detail-oriented inspection has never been more paramount.

The Perceptiv ecosystem is designed to offer customers a unified platform to meet the growing reliability needs industrial manufacturers face.

Ahmik Hindman, senior networks and security consultant at Rockwell Automation, recently spoke about how food manufacturers can assess cybersecurity risks, implement security patches and build a cybersecurity risk management system.

While you can measure and chart OEE manually, today’s AI and ML-based technologies with smart sensors can help processors find the little things that can improve availability, performance and quality — leading to autonomous manufacturing.

Phrases such as “artificial intelligence” and “machine learning” are dominating headlines – and boardroom discussions – but what do they really mean? And more importantly, what can they do for food and beverage manufacturers?

While previous industrial revolutions were primarily driven by technological advancements, the emergence of Industry 5.0 is much more people focused. It's not defined by a single technological advancement but by a renewed focus on the human element. This era marks a crucial and overdue transition toward human-centric manufacturing operations, processes and businesses as a whole.

Located in Conway, Arkansas, the 570,000-sq.-ft. facility represents a $315 million investment in manufacturing capability and includes a comprehensive beverage development laboratory.

The expanded facility includes the addition of a new single-serve aseptic juice production line and a 104,000-sq.-ft. distribution center.

The new facility will be one of the largest manufacturing sites for the Chomps brand and is expected to create approximately 250 full-time jobs, with potential for future expansion.

Since its introduction in late 2019, Kinder Bueno has reached No. 17 in sales among mainstream chocolate brands, hitting more than $214 million in retail sales in the past year.

Shamrock Farms is investing $59 million into the project, which includes adding additional equipment, cold storage space and a new production filling line.

Once operational, the 284,000-sq.-ft. plant will produce cocoa-free chocolate, nut-free spreads and bean-free coffee, and it will have the capacity to make 10,000 metric tons of cocoa-free chocolate annually.

The food manufacturing industry faces any number of challenges, both great and small, but according to Food Engineering readers, the future is bright.

Since 2014, respondents to Food Engineering’s annual State of Food Manufacturing survey have ranked automation as the No. 1 trend affecting the industry—until this year.

Constant changes, huge swings in demand or shifts in consumer behavior, employee safety, and a general uncertainty about what comes next are all present in the 2020 State of Food Manufacturing Survey.

Food Engineering’s annual State of Food Manufacturing shows processors are still responding to the effects of COVID-19.

During the Women in Food Manufacturing segment, the keynote covers how to turn an idea into a brand, which is followed by a women’s panel discussion.

In order to understand what factors are shaping the industry today and what obstacles operators face in 2022, Clear Seas Research, a B2B market research firm, recently surveyed processors about a wide range of today’s industry challenges, and here are some of the highlights from that report.

Survey results show an increase in demand for products, but supply chain and labor issues are preventing food manufacturers from a corresponding increase in revenue.

Manufacturers are consistently investing in their manufacturing processes as costs are finally starting to come down, albeit slowly.

Nayyer Carpets has a production capacity of 50 million square meters annually and is poised to serve markets across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, Africa, India, and Pakistan. The company’s expansion strategy includes plans to double both its production output and workforce every year as it scales its operations.

The June Issue features a Special Technology Report looking in depth at the latest developments in the world of Automatic Identification and Data Capture/Mobile Computing solutions.

Also included is a ‘Cover Story’: Gartner forecasts spending on cloud security to grow 24% in 2024, making it the highest growth of all segments in the global security and risk management market.

Supply chain hardware, software and services company Renovotec is launching a ‘fast improvement manufacturing programme’ designed to deploy those technologies that have the greatest impact on supply chain manufacturing.

This issue features a Special Technology Report looking in depth at the latest developments in the world of Printing and Labelling solutions.

Also included is a ‘Cover Story’: Gartner explains that by 2026, 30% of enterprises will automate more than half of their network activities, an increase from under 10% in mid-2023.

RealtyAnalytix Advisors, LLC announces the introduction of Catawba Industrial Commons, a multi-tenant industrial campus offering the most attractive, affordable and functional manufacturing, distribution and warehousing space in the Greater Catawba County region.

Chinese maker of products for the textile industry has located its first US manufacturing facility in Conover, creating 78 new jobs.

Achieving net-zero carbon emissions in the U.S. by 2050 is feasible and would not only help address climate change but also build a more competitive economy, increase high-quality jobs, and help address social injustice in the energy system, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Advanced manufacturing brings the potential for positive transformational change to a variety of areas, including the defense industry. It is essential that universities, companies, and the government take steps to better prepare the next generation of engineers to work with these emerging technologies.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recommended that linear set-top boxes (STBs) be included in the PLI scheme to promote local manufacturing in the television broadcasting sector. The TRAI has also suggested conducting periodic reviews of indigenous components, factoring in local components in determining localisation levels under the PLI scheme, and reviewing investment outlays required for MSME manufacturing for selected equipment.

IBM Executive Director Rajesh Parameswaran outlines key trends and strategies to transform manufacturing through technology.

Applied Manufacturing Technologies has introduced a new product: R-Palletize, a flexible robotic palletizing station.

Muffins, pastries, and croissants are very diverse and delicate products that must be handled with care, from distribution to primary packaging.

Amy’s Kitchen, Petaluma, Calif., expects to break ground, early next year, on a 500,000-sq.-ft. manufacturing facility in Goshen, N.Y.

NuTek Food Science will product NuTek Salt at its new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Fargo, ND.

Representatives of JTM Foods LLC and its financial partner Tenex Capital Management announced the expansion, joining Wichita leaders in the groundbreaking at ict21 Industrial District.

The American Bakers Association’s Bakers Manufacturing Academy has launched a new specialized course for cracker operations: the Sheeting and Laminating Lesson.   

SNAXPO18, taking place March 12-14 in Atlanta at the Georgia World Congress Center, is a must-attend event for anyone working in today’s snack food industry.

There is a lot of confusion in cookie and cracker manufacturing today. Let’s focus on one of the major areas of confusion: leavening.

Delkor will introduce its new Corrugated Case Former/Erector at Gulfood Manufacturing in the Dubai World Trade Center, November 7–9 in Hall 4, stand E4-15.

Available now, the “Zen Guide to Manufacturing Intelligence” leads manufacturing professionals down the path to an enlightened look at quality metrics that shows the potential for greater quality control and cost savings by extracting more value from manufacturing data.

The number of gluten-free products that have entered the market in recent years is quite large—almost mind-boggling. To some degree, this trend was fostered by FDA’s relatively new rule, Gluten-Free Labeling of Foods (August 2013), which allows manufacturers of foods inherently gluten-free to make such label claims. Thus, we now have gluten-free tomato sauce, a product that was probably always gluten-free.

Heat and Control, Inc., an equipment manufacturer and food processing industry supplier, recently released the OilSaver Filtration System to its Oil Management System lineup.

Franklin Water Treatment provides products, services, and system solutions for residential, commercial, and industrial point-of-use and point-of-entry water treatment products, in a wide variety of markets and applications.

Selected as one of 33 projects in the U.S., the funding will be matched by Kohler investment to support the Electric Boiler & Microgrid project at its manufacturing site in Casa Grande, Arizona.