Instead of fighting over graduates from packaging schools, you might do better to recruit your next hire from Google. Find out why in this podcast.

Lisa McTigue Pierce, Executive Editor

September 8, 2021

2 Min Read
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How will tomorrow’s IT programmers design and set up your packaging line’s automation platform? Wait … who will do what?

We talk with packaging automation experts at Rexroth, A Bosch Co., about tomorrow’s connected packaging lines, the overall challenge of finding and hiring IT-knowledgeable packaging production engineers, and how Blockly or other visual programming languages (VPLs) might appeal to younger employees and STEM students for future packaging machine and packaging line programming.

Dave Cameron, Rexroth’s Director of Sales; Mike Vandemortel, Senior Sales Engineer; and Ilya Boym, West Coast Sales and Applications Manager, tackle these questions:

• Why is the Factory of the Future centered around connectivity and the IIoT?

• What are the pros and cons of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) for packaging machinery?

• In all this talk about automation, sometimes it’s easy to forget that people are still the most valuable asset. Will it be a challenge to find and hire packaging production engineers who are also skilled in IT? Why or why not? Where should packaging departments look for these people? STEM schools?

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• What impact do you think visual programming languages like Blockly will have on packaging automation in coming years?

Related:Will You Soon Download Packaging Machine Controls from the Internet?

Photo credit: Video shot by Packaging Digest at ATX West 2021 in the Rexroth booth

 

PACKAGING POSSIBILITIES - Season 1: Episode 10

If you have a topic you’d like to propose for a future PACKAGING POSSIBILITIES episode, please email Lisa Pierce at [email protected].

About the Author(s)

Lisa McTigue Pierce

Executive Editor, Packaging Digest

Lisa McTigue Pierce is Executive Editor of Packaging Digest. She’s been a packaging media journalist since 1982 and tracks emerging trends, new technologies, and best practices across a spectrum of markets for the publication’s global community. Reach her at [email protected] or 630-272-1774.

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