WHAT’S ON AT AUSPACK
SMC automates food and beverage at AUSPACK Food & Beverage Industry News speaks to William Lebihan, head of field sales and marketing for SMC Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), about their plans for AUSPACK 2022 and what they will showcase for their customers.
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MC Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) will return to AUSPACK at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre on 17-20 May to showcase their product and service offerings for the industry. Chief among these offerings is automation. As the largest pneumatics provider in the world – and listed in Forbes Global 2,000 as one of the world’s most innovative companies – SMC delivers automation solutions to its diverse customer base. With more than 12,000 basic products and over 700,000 variations, SMC has exhibited at AUSPACK since 2016. At the last event three years ago, their focus was on energy saving and optimisation capabilities. Since then, more government incentives have become available in Australia, throwing energy saving into sharper focus for many of SMC’s customers. “At the last AUSPACK event, energy saving was still fairly new for everyone, although our products are generally designed to save energy. But now, we can also talk to customers about some triedand-tested cases,” said SMC ANZ head of field sales, William Lebihan. Therefore, SMC plans to continue with the theme this year through showcasing their next generation of products which are more compact, more efficient and smarter, and consulting with customers to uncover what level of automation is really needed in their factories. “We’re focusing on helping customers understand how easy it can be for them to take the first step in becoming ‘smart,’” Lebihan said. “But rather than selling a widget to people, we would rather sit down and say, ‘Let’s see what’s happening in your factory and the area where you’re working and see if we can help manage that a little better for you.’” Some of the products on display will include robotic pick and place units,
interchangeable end effectors for cobot arms, and electric actuators that rapidly move substantial loads vertically and horizontally. Additionally, SMC head of Energy Saving Conservation Group Bill Blyth will speak about SMC’s recent work with the abattoir, Fletcher International, where they conducted a complete energy audit that saved 38 per cent of Fletcher’s energy consumption that is produced via compressed air. This presents a good opportunity for attendees in the food and beverage industry to discover how this was achieved and what technology SMC recommended to bring this about.
Preparing for the future For their clients in the essential food and beverage sector, Lebihan said that SMC’s automation products have allowed better self-efficiency in the past few years. A key part of achieving this was helping to shift their clients’ mindsets to safeguard against future disruptions like the COVID-19 pandemic. “We looked at things like automation, measuring how much energy they’re using, and getting an understanding of how they’re going about doing their business from an automated point of view, rather than relying on the older school technologies they were previously using,” Lebihan said.
Visit the SMC stand at AUSPACK to discover how they can help with automating processes.
40 Food&Beverage Industry News | May 2022 | www.foodmag.com.au
William Lebihan, head of Field Sales and Marketing for SMC Australia and New Zealand. A focus on staff training during the pandemic also positioned the sales team well to better inform customers about the extensive range of automation solutions on offer. Companies also realised their own shortcomings during the COVID19 pandemic and relied more on
