The Brewery that wanted a robot | Palletizing | Rocketfarm

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The brewery that wanted a palletizing robot

A wish to take care of its employees was the driving force that made a small brewery invest in a new worker to do the heavy lifting: a palletizing robot.

Ægir brewery employees

The American Ewan Lewis made a brave choice in 2007. Together with his wife Aud Melås, he established Ægir Breweri in the small village of Flåm, deep into Norway’s Sognefjord. 

Ægir is the ruler of the sea in Norse mythology and he had the world’s biggest brewing kettle. According to Odin, he was the best brewer in the world. 

–  He was known for being a good host, and that is what we strive to be for our guests, says Evan.

Greater production – more heavy lifting

The brewery in Flåm became an instant success.  Rumors about the Norse beer started to spread outside the vicinity of the Sognefjord. This led to a need for bigger facilities, which in turn made it possible to produce thousands of cans both for the Norwegian and the international markets. 

An increase in production also meant more heavy lifting at the end of the production line: getting the beer from the conveyor and on to a pallet. That’s when Evan started to consider a palletizing solution from Rocketfarm.

You hire people and the people build the organization. The people we have in our organization are very experienced, educated, and they bring a lot to the business. So why did I hire a robot? For the same reason I’ve done a lot of choices in the business: I don’t want to wear my people out. In our business all of the employees took part in the palletizing from time to time, but it wasn’t a popular task. They hated it, to be honest.

Evan Lewis
Co-founder at Aegir Brewery

Evan Lewis CEO at aegir brewery

Limited extra space is no show stopper

Even if Evan knew he wanted a palletizing robot to do the heavy lifting, he was unsure whether the brewery was a good fit for a robot. They had limited extra floor space and he also feared the investment in buying a robot would be too big for a small company like Ægir. 

But with the abilities of a collaborative robot, you don’t need a lot of extra space to install a robot. The outcome of a palletizing solution from Rocketfarm is also quite enjoyable – most businesses experience a positive return of investment during the first year of use!

Palletizing solution at Ægir brewery using Pally from Rocketfarm
The palletizing solution at Ægir Brewery needs little extra space and it is flexible and easy to use.

Find palletizing solution

A diligent robot = happy employees

The solution for Ægir was a robot that replaced the hard, manual labor of moving the boxes of beer over to a pallet. This was especially favoured by the packaging manager Claus.

Claus told me that if we hadn’t gotten the robot, he would have eventually left the job, says Evan. 

Since then, the palletizing robot – now named Stacky McStackface – has palletized thousands of boxes of  Ægir’s beer. In a small business it is important to utilize the number of hands in the smartest way possible. By eliminating the manual palletizing Claus could focus on other, more interesting tasks at the brewery. 

If it wasn’t for our robot Stacky, I would have quit my job. I hate stacking cases of cases of cases on a f******g pallet, Claus says. 

A palletizing robot could benefit your business immediately. Contact us today, and we’ll show you how!  

packaging manager Claus Bjerga
Packaging manager, Claus
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