You are cordially invited to attend the PicknPack workshop which will be held at University of Salford, Media City UK, Salford on 4th September 2015, under the theme: Flexible Automation in Food Manufacturing.

This will be the fourth workshop in a series of dissemination events sponsored by the E.C F.W.7 PicknPack project consortium.  The event will be held in association with the launch of the Northern Robotics Network which is a branch of the Innovate U.K. Robotics and Autonomous Systems Special Interest Group and there will be an extensive exhibition of state of the art industrial robotics applications across sectors including food, aerospace, nuclear and transport. The delegates will mainly be from the manufacturing sector and thus this will be an excellent opportunity to network as well as to update on the latest international developments in robotics and autonomous systems.

The focus of the PicknPack project is to develop highly innovative automated adaptive processing and packaging for fresh and processed food products.  The programme of the workshop is designed to place the technical outputs of the project within the general context of current and predicted future trends both in the evolution of new technologies and in the market which will determine their application.

The programme will be very relevant to engineers and managers from food manufacturing and technology machine provider companies who need to be aware of current capabilities of and future trends in emerging technologies within Europe which will impact on their business. The programme will also be relevant to research and development engineers who are interested in opportunities in this rapidly expanding industrial sector.

Who should attend

  • Decision-makers: CEO, managing directors, Production, Purchase, Project and Development Managers
  • Advisory and technical staff:

    • Maintenance, IT and Engineering Staff
    • Research and Development
    • Security, Facility, Energy and Environmental staff
  • Governmental decision-makers and advisors
  • Students:  masters en bachelors (civil and industrial engineers, IT and specific orientations)

Speakers include:

  • Plenary Alan Norbury, Siemens UK: Advanced Manufacturing and the Application Industry 4 Technology
  • Plenary Edwin Booth, E H Booth & Co: Future Trends in the Food Retail Market and the Challenges for Food Manufacturing and its Supply Chain
  • Erik Pekkeriet, PicknPack Project: Innovative Automation for Adaptive Food Assembly and Packaging the PicknPack project
  • Mike Dudbridge, National Centre for Food Manufacture: Opportunities and Future Challenges in Food Manufacturing Food Factory of the Future  
  • Professor Wouter Saeys, KU Leuven: Innovative Sensors for Food Quality Monitoring during Manufacture
  • Professor Zhipeng Wu, University of Manchester: Informatics and Data Processing for Optimisation of Manufacturing Efficiency and Traceability

Registration is free but attendance numbers will be limited. An event registration form and further information is available in the attachment.