Manual Stacking Sucks: Automated Gantry Palletizers vs. Cobots for Beverage Lines

There are many challenges to packaging beverages, but one of the biggest and most overlooked is surprisingly common: using manual labor to stack cases on pallets.

Think about it this way: A fully loaded pallet of packaged beverages often weighs 1,500–2,500 pounds. A ton (2,000 lbs) is equivalent to a small car or, for our outdoorsy friends, a large adult moose. Building that pallet typically requires 50+ repetitive lifts per pallet, often involving awkward reaches, torso rotation, and sustained load handling. Over the course of a shift, this repetitive motion contributes to physical fatigue and increases the likelihood of cumulative strain and musculoskeletal injury. Chew on that!

Each pallet of product weighs about as much as this fellow

The Advantages of Robotic Palletizing Systems

Automated palletizing essentially eliminates the toll on human labor while delivering serious operational advantages:

• Superior Load Stability: Automated palletizing delivers perfectly square pallets every time, reducing product damage and ensuring loads are safe for transport.

• Continuous Production: Automated palletizers eliminate downtime and provide predictable throughput (typically in the 4–10 cases-per-minute range, depending on application) without the variability of manual labor or shift fatigue.

• Short Return on Investment: In many applications, labor savings alone can drive payback in roughly 12–18 months, with additional value coming from uptime, consistency, and redeploying skilled labor to higher-value tasks. But the real value is operational resilience—consistent output regardless of staffing and the ability to redeploy your team into higher-value activities like quality control and process optimization.

  
  

So what are the options for automated palletizing?

Gantry Robot vs. Cobot: Choosing the Right Palletizing Solution

There are two common options for end-of-line automation. Cobots—the articulating robotic arms that are fun to watch at tradeshows—get marketed as "easy automation," but palletizing exposes their limitations fast. Gantry robots, on the other hand, are not the "jack of all trades" that a cobot is, but they are simpler and purpose-built for the palletizing task.

Payload and speed: Cobots slow down significantly as load increases and struggle with heavy cases or full layers. Gantry systems are purpose-built for this; Flex Stack handles payloads up to 110 lbs without compromise, running at 4 to 10 boxes per minute to keep pace with real production lines.

Work envelope: In palletizing applications involving heavier cases, cobots often require expanded safety-rated separation distances and are constrained by arm reach and joint geometry. Gantry systems operate within a compact, defined envelope—often only slightly larger than the pallet itself—preserving valuable floor space.

Reliability and Total Cost of Ownership: Gantry systems use simple linear mechanics (X,Y, & Z axes) and proven industrial components. Fewer complex joints and reduced dynamic loading translate to higher uptime and lower long-term maintenance requirements.

Performance consistency: Cobots excel in flexible, variable tasks. Gantry systems excel in repetitive, high-duty-cycle operations—which is exactly what end-of-line palletizing demands.

Cobots aren't the right tool for the job.

Meet the Flex Stack Gantry System: High-Speed Beverage Palletizer

The team at Codi Manufacturing has been building material handling automation for over 30 years. We're excited to introduce the Flex Stack Gantry System—the purpose-built gantry palletizer and depalletizer designed specifically for beverage and packaging operations.

Flex Stack by Codi Manufacturing. The purpose-built gantry palletizer/depalletizer.

If this were a cage match between a gantry system like Flex Stack versus a cobot, Flex Stack would be known as:

• The Speed Demon: Operating at up to 10 cycles per minute, the Flex Stack can relocate that "moose" weight in roughly two minutes at peak cycle rates.

• The Heavy Lifter: The Flex Stack Pro is rated for a standard payload of 66 lbs. (and can be scaled up to a 110 lbs. payload capacity). At higher payload configurations, Flex Stack can relocate an entire ton of product in roughly 18–19 cycles.

• The Space Saver: No wasted floor space—the footprint is just slightly larger than the pallets it contains.

• The Smart Investment: Surprisingly affordable with typical ROI in a year or less compared to manual labor, and lower maintenance costs compared to cobots.

Built to Fit Your Operation, Not the Other Way Around

The Flex Stack is a configurable platform designed to adapt to how your line actually runs and not some idealized layout. Based on real production requirements, the system can be deployed as:

• Single-pallet skid-mounted systems for compact footprints (movable via forklift or pallet jack)

• Dual-pallet configurations with side-by-side conveying for continuous operation—when one pallet fills, the system immediately starts the next

• Triple-pallet layouts for higher throughput and buffering

• Integrated palletizer/depalletizer cells sharing common gantry architecture

• Variety pack systems with multiple infeed and discharge zones for mixed-SKU handling

We will build the Flex Stack to your production requirements because no two operations are identical. Container types, product weights, pallet sizes, stack patterns, conveying orientation, upstream integration—all of it gets tailored to your actual material flow.

That's the difference between automation that works and automation that just creates new problems.

The Bottom Line

Modern packaging lines run on changing SKUs, limited floor space, aggressive throughput targets, and constant labor pressure. Flex Stack was designed for that reality—gantry-based performance, application-specific customization, and modular layouts that actually fit your operation.

If labor is your constraint, the solution isn't more people. It's better automation, built for the job.

When choosing automation, match the tool to the task. Cobots offer flexibility for varied, lower-volume work, while gantry systems excel at high-speed, high-payload, space-efficient automation. The best solution is the one aligned with your production needs.

Ready to see how it works for your line? Contact Codi Manufacturing to see how Flex Stack could benefit your operation.