Throughout the beverage supply chain, manufacturers and distributors have found that the SKU explosion has created impacts resulting in constantly changing operating conditions, making maintenance a necessity for a flexible manufacturing infrastructure.

Consider the input/output scope of the supply chain and a logical starting point for reviewing and evaluating the possibility of using flexible machinery and equipment is found in the processing department. When producing beverages — whether it’s sparkling, still, alcohol or non-alcohol — variables like materials, process time and equipment capability/capacity are usually quite different; therefore, existing infrastructure configurations might or might not have the flexibility required to process a variety of beverage products and packages.