The factory of the future: How Wipak is building smarter manufacturing
What will a flexible packaging factory look like in the future?
Imagine production equipment that can identify changes in performance before they become problems. Real time data giving operators a clearer picture of what is happening across production. Maintenance teams receiving earlier indications of potential equipment failures. Quality systems that can identify defects as packaging is being produced. And artificial intelligence helping people make faster, better-informed decisions.
This is the direction in which manufacturing is evolving. For us at Wipak, it is also an important part of the transformation behind Horizon 2030 and our Wileap programme.
Our ambition is not simply to introduce more technology into our factories. It is to create a smarter, more connected manufacturing environment that improves how we plan, produce, monitor and ultimately serve our customers.
As Prince Ndinga, Solution Lead at Wipak explained recently:
“A Smart Factory is not a technology project. It is a business transformation journey driven by strategic vision and enabled by people, standardized process and technologies.”
What could the flexible packaging factory of the future look like?
The smart factory is a long-term vision rather than a single technology or system.
As manufacturing develops, machines, sensors, systems, data and people can become increasingly connected. Instead of collecting information in different places and relying heavily on manual processes, factories can use real time information to understand what is happening across production and respond more effectively.
In the future, this could begin before production even starts. Sensors could provide more accurate information about raw material levels and automatically update inventory systems. AI enabled cameras could support visibility of other materials across production areas. More accurate stock information could in turn support better purchasing decisions and reduce working capital.
On the production line, connected systems could help operators with machine set up and process monitoring. Historical production data could enable AI to recommend actions when a process begins to deviate, helping operators respond earlier and reduce the risk of waste or product defects. Importantly, people remain central to this vision, with human decision making retained where judgement is needed.
This changes the role of technology. Rather than simply recording what happened, data can increasingly help us understand what is happening now, what might happen next and what action could be taken.
From reactive to predictive manufacturing
Maintenance is a good example of the potential.
Traditionally, maintenance can be driven by scheduled activity or by responding when something goes wrong. In a smarter factory, sensors can continuously monitor machine condition. Historical patterns and data can then help identify potential failures earlier, giving maintenance specialists greater opportunity to act proactively.
The same applies to quality.
Cameras already play a role in inspecting packaging during production. The future opportunity is to go further by using computer vision and connected data not only to detect a potential defect, but also to improve understanding of what the defect is and how similar situations have previously been addressed.
At factory level, greater connectivity can also give production teams more immediate visibility into machine status, downtime and waste without needing to manually combine information from different sources.
For us, this is an important distinction. A smart factory is not about collecting more data. It is about making that data useful.
Putting people at the centre of smart manufacturing
Automation naturally raises questions about the changing role of people in manufacturing. Our vision is centred on using technology to support people, giving them better information and helping remove repetitive tasks where they add little value.
Prince Ndinga described the future operator as an ‘augmented’ operator, supported by systems that can provide guidance on machine settings, flag deviations earlier and offer recommendations based on available data.
That means experience is complemented by information.
It also means that developing skills is an important part of the journey. As our factories become more connected and the role of data and AI grows, we are also developing the capabilities of our people. Upskilling our workforce is therefore part of the transformation, alongside the technology itself.
Building the foundation at Wipak
Turning that future vision into reality requires a strong foundation.
Our factories contain equipment of different ages and from different manufacturers. Those machines do not necessarily generate or communicate data in the same way. Creating a secure and scalable foundation for connectivity and data is therefore an essential part of enabling smarter manufacturing across Wipak. Just as importantly, it means standardising beyond connectivity: common ways of working, common data and common manufacturing concepts across our factories.
This is where the Wipak Smart Platform comes in.
The Smart Platform is the foundation of our Smart Factory vision. It is designed to securely connect machines, standardise machine connectivity and make real time manufacturing data available so that our operational teams can use it to make better decisions.
Prince Ndinga used a simple analogy to describe the challenge. Different machines can effectively speak different languages. The role of the Smart Platform is to create a common language through which their data can be understood and used.
But connectivity is only the beginning.
“After collecting the data, what we do with those data is where Smart Platform will bring value.”
That is the real opportunity.
Connecting data to better decisions
The first phase of our Smart Platform focuses on practical manufacturing use cases.
These include real time production visibility, providing greater transparency around what is happening during production; maintenance capabilities, supported by sensors monitoring machine condition; energy monitoring, giving greater transparency of machine energy consumption; and live machine monitoring, designed to provide operators with earlier alerts when a process begins to deviate.
Together, these capabilities establish a foundation from which manufacturing can become progressively more intelligent.
The journey moves from building that foundation towards connecting and visualising operations, then predicting and optimising what happens, followed by assisting people with recommended actions and eventually increasing automation where appropriate.
Today, our focus is on those foundational capabilities and machine connectivity. Our UK operations are serving as the pilot environment for the Smart Platform, allowing us to develop the approach and understand its outcomes before decisions about wider deployment are made.
A connected vision for Horizon 2030
The Smart Factory does not sit in isolation. It connects with the wider transformation taking place across Wipak through Wileap and Horizon 2030.
The vision extends across how we develop, plan, produce, check and deliver packaging. Alongside Smart Platform capabilities, the future model described by the project connects areas including digital twins, forecasting and capacity planning, manufacturing execution systems, inline monitoring and automated material handling.
The result is not one standalone digital project.
It is an increasingly connected manufacturing ecosystem, with data flowing more effectively throughout the operation and helping our people make better informed decisions.
And importantly, the Smart Factory is a journey. Technology, AI, regulation, market pressures and customer expectations will continue to develop. Our manufacturing vision needs to evolve with them.
What does smarter manufacturing mean for our customers?
Ultimately, transformation only creates meaningful value if it makes us a better partner for our customers.
Our Smart Factory vision connects directly with that goal.
Prince Ndinga summarised the ambition simply:
“We will be the easiest supplier of flexible packaging to work with.”
Greater standardisation across our manufacturing network has the potential to support more harmonised ways of working and consistent product quality across our sites. More efficient processes can also support lead time and delivery performance, while energy monitoring and waste reduction contribute to more efficient manufacturing.
The vision also connects with our customers’ sustainability ambitions. Smarter production can complement our work on recyclable packaging materials by improving the efficiency of the processes used to manufacture them.
For customers, the technology itself is not the destination. What matters is what it enables: greater consistency, better decisions, more efficient manufacturing and an easier experience of working with Wipak.
Building the factory of tomorrow
The factory of the future will not appear overnight. It will develop as data becomes more connected, systems become more intelligent and people learn new ways of working alongside technology.
Through Wileap and our Horizon 2030 journey, we are building the foundations that can take us there.
Because for us, smarter manufacturing is not simply about having smarter machines. It is about connecting people, processes, technology and data to create better manufacturing decisions and, ultimately, greater value for our customers.
