Esteemed readers,

The COVID-19 pandemic certainly impacted labor issues and the trend towards automation and robotics, but that trend existed before the virus and its impact on society began affecting manufacturing.

With more and more manufacturers tending towards technology solutions to improve efficiency and decrease downtime, contract services need to make choices for their companies’ futures. Their decisions could mitigate labor issues, help them stay competitive in their fields, and improve their relationship as well as build trust with customers.

In this issue, we’ll cover pros and cons on the matter and successes from both contract services who use have built empires through technology and those who rely solely on hand-packing operations.

The following articles of the Spring issue of Contract Manufacturing & Packaging cover this topic from various viewpoints:

• CPA President, Jerry Thompson’s insights on the matter on page 3
• The MSI Express profile on page 6
• A look into Canadian hand-packer Bullseye Packaging on page 9
• And Sunbasket case study with Chef Robotics on page 10

Keep your eyes peeled as well in the coming months for more information about the pros and cons of robotics and automation applications within the contract manufacturing and contract packaging space and where to start.

Further topics to look out for include insights from CPA’s 2024 ENGAGE, The Contract Packaging and Manufacturing Experience, where these topics and more were also discussed by peers, experts, and brands/consumer packaged goods companies.

For any topics you would like covered in future issues, or insights you feel you could contribute to this space, please feel free to reach out to me at the email below.

Looking forward to this year,

Melissa Griffen

[email protected]