Industry Automation Solutions — Pacific Robotics & Automation Ltd

Dairy & Milk Processing

New Zealand's Dairy Industry Runs on People. It Shouldn't Have To.

The Challenge

"We can't find workers willing to do night shifts in a cold room. Labour turnover is 40–60% annually. ACC claims from manual handling cost us hundreds of thousands every year."

New Zealand is the world's largest dairy exporter, with Fonterra, Synlait and Open Country processing millions of litres daily. Yet most NZ dairy facilities still rely heavily on manual palletizing, case packing and intralogistics — creating bottlenecks, injury risks and staffing crises that automation eliminates entirely.

40–60%Annual Labour Turnover in Cold Processing

-30°CKUKA Cold-Rated Robot Operating Range

24/7Automated Operation Without Shift Changes

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KUKA KR QUANTEC PA — Hygienic Palletizing

Food-grade HO (NSF H1 oil) robot variants for direct food contact. Stainless steel construction. Operates at -30°C for cold store palletizing. Replaces 3–5 workers per shift at 1,000+ cases/hour.

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Swisslog Vectura Cold Store AS/RS

High-bay automated pallet storage for dairy cold rooms — operating reliably at -28°C. Achieves 4× the storage density of conventional racking in the same footprint, eliminating the need for costly cold store expansion.

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KUKA CYBERTECH — Case Packing & Handling

High-speed case packing and product handling for dairy lines — bottles, cartons, pouches and tubs. Hygienic design for washdown environments. Vision-guided for variable product orientations.

Get a Dairy Automation Assessment →

KUKA food-grade robots operate in hygienic dairy environments — stainless steel construction, NSF H1 food-grade oil, and IP67 protection rating for washdown.

Meat & Seafood Processing

The Highest-Injury Industry in New Zealand. Automation Changes That.

The Challenge

"Manual meat processing is one of the most injury-prone jobs in New Zealand. We struggle to find workers, retain them, and keep them safe. ACC costs are enormous. And we're competing against Australian and South American processors who are automating fast."

New Zealand's meat and seafood sector — Silver Fern Farms, ANZCO, Alliance Group, Sanford, Sealord — processes billions of dollars of product annually. Cold, wet, physically demanding environments make automation both challenging and essential. KUKA's cold-rated, hygienic robots are specifically designed for these conditions.

HighACC Injury Rate in Meat Processing

IP67KUKA Washdown Protection Rating

-30°CCold Chain Robot Operating Range

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KUKA Cold-Rated Robots — Packaging & Palletizing

Automated packaging, tray loading and palletizing for meat and seafood products. Cold-rated to -30°C, IP67 washdown protection, food-grade materials throughout. Eliminates the most injury-prone manual tasks.

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Swisslog Cold Chain AS/RS — Chilled Storage

Automated chilled storage and retrieval for meat and seafood products — maintaining precise temperature control while eliminating workers from cold environments. Integrates with SynQ for full traceability.

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Vision-Guided Portion Handling

KUKA robots with 3D vision systems handle variable-weight meat portions — picking, orienting and placing cuts with precision impossible to achieve manually at speed. Reduces giveaway and improves yield.

Get a Meat Processing Assessment →

Automated cold chain handling eliminates workers from sub-zero environments while improving throughput, traceability and food safety compliance.

Food & Beverage Manufacturing

Your Palletizing Line Is a Bottleneck. It Doesn't Have to Be.

The Challenge

"Our palletizing line runs at 300 cases/hour because that's all our workers can sustain. We lose 2 hours every shift change. During peak season we can't keep up with demand, but we can't justify hiring 10 more people for 8 weeks."

New Zealand's food and beverage sector — DB Breweries, Coca-Cola, Goodman Fielder, Sanitarium, Watties — faces the same challenge globally: labour-intensive end-of-line operations that limit throughput, create quality inconsistencies, and can't scale for seasonal peaks. KUKA palletizing robots run 24/7 at 5× manual speed with zero shift changes.

5×Throughput vs Manual Palletizing

1,500Cases/Hour — KUKA KR QUANTEC PA

24/7Operation Without Shift Changes

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KUKA Palletizing Robot Cell — End-of-Line

Complete end-of-line palletizing cells with KUKA KR QUANTEC PA or CYBERTECH robots, iiQKA.Palletizing software, conveyor integration and pallet dispensers. Handles cartons, bottles, cans, bags and mixed loads.

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KUKA KR DELTA — High-Speed Packaging

Ultra-high-speed delta robots for confectionery, bakery and fresh food packaging — picking and placing at under 0.5 second cycle times. Handles fragile products gently with vision-guided picking.

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Swisslog ACPaQ — Mixed-Case Palletizing

Automated store-friendly mixed-case pallet building for food distributors — the same system Swisslog deployed for Coca-Cola Amatil in Auckland. Handles multiple SKUs in a single automated system.

Get a Food & Beverage Assessment →

KUKA palletizing robots in food and beverage environments — handling bottles, cans, cartons and mixed loads at 1,000–1,500 cases/hour, 24/7.

Cold Chain & Frozen Storage

Running Out of Cold Storage Space? Build Up, Not Out.

The Challenge

"We're running out of cold storage space, but building a new cold room costs $5–10M and takes 2 years. Our workers can only do 2-hour shifts in the freezer. And we're losing product to mis-picks and temperature excursions."

New Zealand's cold chain sector — Emergent Cold, Lineage Logistics, and food manufacturer cold stores — faces a capacity crisis. Auckland land costs make horizontal expansion uneconomical. The answer is vertical: Swisslog Vectura stacker cranes in high-bay cold stores achieve 4× the storage density of conventional racking in the same footprint, operating reliably at -28°C.

4×Storage Density vs Conventional Racking

-28°CSwisslog Vectura Operating Temperature

45mMax High-Bay Warehouse Height

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Swisslog Vectura — High-Bay Cold Store AS/RS

Automated stacker cranes for high-bay cold stores — operating reliably at -28°C with double-deep load handling for maximum density. Eliminates workers from sub-zero environments entirely.

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KUKA Cold-Rated Robots — Inbound & Outbound

Automated palletizing and depalletizing at cold store entry and exit points — KUKA robots rated to -30°C handle inbound product palletizing and outbound order assembly without workers in the cold zone.

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SynQ WES — Temperature & Inventory Control

Swisslog's SynQ warehouse execution system provides real-time temperature zone management, FIFO/FEFO inventory control, and full product traceability — critical for food safety compliance in cold chain operations.

Get a Cold Chain Assessment →

Swisslog Vectura stacker cranes in high-bay cold stores — operating at -28°C, achieving 4× storage density, with full SynQ inventory management.

Logistics, 3PL & Distribution

Your Warehouse Is Full. Your Orders Are Slow. There's a Better Way.

The Challenge

"E-commerce orders are getting smaller and more complex. We're picking 500 lines/day with 8 people and making too many errors. Our warehouse is full but we can't find what we need. And we can't afford to build a new facility."

New Zealand's logistics and 3PL sector — Foodstuffs, Woolworths NZ, NZ Post, DHL, Mainfreight — is under pressure from e-commerce growth, rising wages and space constraints. Swisslog AutoStore uses 60% less floor space than conventional racking while delivering 300% throughput improvement — fitting in existing buildings without structural changes.

60%Less Floor Space — Swisslog AutoStore

300%Throughput Increase Possible

99.9%Inventory Accuracy with AutoStore

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Swisslog AutoStore — High-Density Small Parts Storage

AutoStore fits in your existing building — no structural changes required. Compact robots on a grid of stacked bins deliver 99.9% accuracy and 300% throughput improvement. Scales as your business grows.

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Swisslog CarryPick — Goods-to-Person Picking

AMR-based goods-to-person picking for 3PL and distribution — 400+ lines/hour with 99.9% accuracy. Installs in under 6 months, scales without additional infrastructure. Ideal for omnichannel fulfillment.

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KUKA AMR Fleet — Intralogistics Automation

KUKA KMP AMRs automate material transport between receiving, storage, picking and dispatch — eliminating forklift dependency and enabling 24/7 operation with inductive charging.

Get a Logistics Automation Assessment →

Swisslog AutoStore and CarryPick systems transform existing warehouse space — no new building required, 60% less floor space, 300% throughput improvement.

Manufacturing

Your CNC Machines Are Idle 30% of the Time. Your Competitors' Aren't.

The Challenge

"We have expensive CNC machines sitting idle while workers load and unload them. We can't run night shifts because we can't find staff. Our competitors in Germany and South Korea are running 24/7 with robots. We're falling behind."

New Zealand has only 55 robots per 10,000 manufacturing workers — compared to 371 in Germany and 934 in South Korea. NZ manufacturers like Fisher & Paykel, Gallagher, and hundreds of SMEs are competing globally with 1990s production methods. KUKA robots and AMRs enable 24/7 production with existing staff redeployed to higher-value tasks.

55NZ Robots per 10,000 Workers

934South Korea Robots per 10,000 Workers

17×NZ Automation Gap vs South Korea

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KUKA CYBERTECH — Machine Tending & CNC Loading

Automated loading and unloading of CNC machines, injection moulding machines and presses — enabling 24/7 production without additional headcount. Integrates with machine tool controllers for fully automated cells.

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KUKA AMR Fleet — Production Supply

KUKA KMP AMRs supply raw materials to production lines and collect finished goods — eliminating manual forklift transport and enabling lean, just-in-time production flow. 24/7 operation with inductive charging.

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LBR iiwa Cobot — Human-Robot Collaboration

KUKA's sensitive collaborative robot works alongside workers for assembly, quality inspection and delicate handling — no safety fencing required. Ideal for SME manufacturers who need flexibility without full automation.

Get a Manufacturing Assessment →

KUKA AMRs and robot cells enable 24/7 manufacturing — machine tending, production supply and intralogistics running continuously without additional headcount.

Automation Built for
New Zealand's Key Industries