How Manual Cartoning Is Costing Biscuit Factories Over $100,000 in Lost Profit Every Year
Alyssa/ December 29, 2025 Return
In many biscuit factories, cartoning looks like a simple job.
It doesn’t touch the food.
It doesn’t require special skills.
And it’s usually done by a small group of workers on each shift.
Because of that, it’s often treated as a “low-cost” position.
But when factory owners take a closer look,
they often realize something uncomfortable:
Manual cartoning is quietly draining profit every single year.Get A Quote
Why Cartoning Is the Hardest Position to Keep Staffed
In biscuit factories, cartoning work has a few clear characteristics:
- Repetitive movements
- Long hours standing
- Little room for skill growth
- High physical fatigue
Even with reasonable pay,
workers leave this position faster than most others.
Many factories fall into the same cycle:
- Hire new workers
- Train them
- Lose them
- Start over again
And cartoning is where this cycle repeats most often.Get A Quote
Where the Profit Is Actually Being Lost
Most factories only calculate direct labor costs.
But manual cartoning creates losses in several hidden ways.
Productivity drops every time workers change
When experienced workers leave:
- Packing speed slows down
- Errors increase
- Supervisors step in to fix problems
The same cartoning line can perform very differently
from one week to the next.
Over a full year,
these small drops add up to a significant loss.Get A Quote
Training becomes a permanent expense
Because turnover is constant:
- Training never really ends
- Output stays unstable
- Skilled workers spend time guiding new hires
This cost doesn’t appear as a single line item,
but it continues month after month.Get A Quote
Management time turns into hidden cost
Manual cartoning always needs attention.
Someone has to:
- Rearrange shifts
- Cover absences
- Handle packing mistakes
That “someone” is usually a supervisor or the factory owner.
The time spent fixing daily cartoning issues
is time not spent on planning, growth, or improving operations.Get A Quote
Why This Is a Structural Labor Problem
Many factory owners try to solve cartoning issues by:
- Raising wages
- Offering incentives
- Hiring more people
These steps may help for a short time.
But the core problem remains:
Cartoning depends too much on manual labor.
As long as output depends on people staying,
turnover will continue to affect efficiency and cost.Get A Quote
What Happens If Nothing Changes
If cartoning stays fully manual:
- Turnover remains high
- Output stays inconsistent
- Management stays involved every day
Over time, this leads to:
- Conservative production planning
- Missed shipment opportunities
- Lower overall profit
The loss doesn’t happen all at once.
It happens quietly, year after year.Get A Quote
How a Cartoning Machine Changes the Situation
Here we are talking about secondary packaging—
cartoning after individual packs,
with no direct contact with food.
Because of this,
cartoning is the most suitable stage
to reduce dependence on manual labor.Get A Quote
Fewer people are required
- One machine replaces multiple manual positions
- Staffing becomes simpler and more predictable
Output becomes stable
- Daily speed no longer depends on who is on shift
- Performance stays consistent across weeks
Management pressure is reduced
- Less firefighting on the floor
- More focus on higher-value decisions
It’s not about removing people completely.
It’s about making production less dependent on them.Get A Quote
A Question Worth Asking
If cartoning workers keep leaving,
and training never seems to end,
how much profit is your factory losing every year
just to keep this one step running?
For many biscuit factories,
this is where cartoning automation
starts to make practical sense.Get A Quote
| Industry | Product | Packaging Stage | Main Issue | Solution Keyword |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Food | Biscuit | Secondary Packaging (Cartoning) | High labor turnover and instability | Automatic Cartoning Machine |
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