How three manufacturers tackled seasonal peaks and cut their reliance on temporary workers with palletizing automation.

Every fall, the same question comes back on the plant floor: how many temporary workers do we need to get through the peak?

For many manufacturers, the hardest job to fill is at the end of the line. Palletizing is repetitive, physical and the first job new temp workers leave. Some start on Monday and are gone by the next week. One coffee manufacturer told us their COO had to go down to the floor himself to teach a new pallet pattern.

In our latest Automation Talks webinar, Beat the Holiday Rush: Automate Your Palletizing, Elisabeth St-Marie (Director, Demand Generation, Robotiq) and Tyler Johnson (Regional Sales Manager, Robotiq) shared what they learned from three manufacturers who faced seasonal peaks. One makes chocolate, one makes food packaging, and one makes consumer goods. The peak doesn't have to be the holidays. Lawn products in summer and windshield washer fluid in winter create the same pressure.

Here are the five takeaways.

1. Start with one straightforward application

A chocolate maker and its co-packer relied on about 300 temporary workers. Around Christmas, that number climbed to nearly 500. Ten lines needed palletizing.

They didn't try to automate all ten. They started with two simple applications: low payload, a measurable rate and easy to prove. Robotiq generated configurations and simulations for three products on the same day they reached out. That gave their internal champion what they needed to make the case. The customer valued the simplicity and the short lead time and chose Robotiq over a system they had already ordered elsewhere.

The lesson: you don't need to automate everything at once. Pick one repetitive, labour-intensive end-of-line task, prove it on one line, then expand.

Not sure which line to start with? Check if your application is a fit in 5 minutes. 

2. Standardize it, then scale it

A food-packaging manufacturer was running seasonal peaks from August to the end of winter, sometimes seven days a week. They depended on contract staffing and when workers didn't show up, they had to stop lines. Each stopped line cost thousands per day. Operators were hand-stacking cases up to 18 kg, across hundreds of SKUs.

They started with one PAL Workcell. Once it proved itself, they added five more, then three more: nine palletizing Workcells in three phases. It worked because the setup was standard. The first install takes about two days, including training. The ones after that can be ready in one day.

The lesson: a first install that's easy to repeat becomes your model for other lines and other sites.

3. Pick automation that grows with you

A consumer goods manufacturer ran three shifts and about a third of its workforce was temporary. They had to raise production quickly on older equipment, in a tight space, while planning a move to a new plant in a few years.

A custom cell built around today's line would have become dead weight after the move. So they picked a mobile, low-footprint PAL configuration. It can handle about 50 products and is designed to grow from about 2 to up to 10 cases per minute as demand rises. When they move, it moves with them.

The lesson: solve today's staffing problem without limiting tomorrow's production.

4. Own your solution

You don't want to call an outside engineering team on a Saturday night shift because a new SKU came in. With PAL, teaching a new SKU takes about two minutes and operators can manage the Workcell themselves. When you're running dozens of SKUs during the peak, that independence is what keeps the line moving.

5. Validate before you commit

Automation doesn't scale when integration stays manual. That's why Robotiq built IQ. Start with the Fit Check, a 5-minute questionnaire about your boxes, rates and pallets. You get:

• A real-time simulation of your Workcell and stack pattern
• A one-page budgetary quote
• An ROI estimate based on your operators, shifts and labour rate

From there, the Simulator lets you upload your floor layout to confirm fit and add safety fencing, scanners and slip-sheet racks. There's no upfront engineering commitment. And if you want to see a cell running, Robotiq's 200+ certified partners have palletizers on site.

Is it too late for this year?

It might not be. The palletizer itself can be ready in a few weeks. Conveyors, internal approvals and integration usually decide the real timeline. That's the real reason to start early. If this year's peak is already here, use it: count your temp hires, time your end-of-line bottleneck and run a Fit Check. You'll have the numbers for next year's plan.

Want a realistic timeline for your line? Talk to a palletizing expert.

From the Q&A

• Safety: PAL runs in collaborative mode by default. You can add area scanners that slow or stop the robot, light curtains, or full fencing. The right level depends on your site and local rules.
• Missing products: the system can check case weight to about ±1 lb. That catches a missing bottle in a 6-pack, not a missing pouch in a box of 100.
• Labels: barcode and vision (OCR) checks have been added in past projects, often in pharma.
• Grippers: vacuum is standard, but custom grippers handle open-top cases and side picks.

Our recommendation

If you're staffing up for the peak every year, start with your simplest, most painful SKU on one line. Then standardize and scale. If you already have one palletizer running, look at your next line and use the same setup.