Case Study: Boulevard Brewing Co achieves 100% increase in palletized cases and doubles throughput to 500 bottles/min with Honeywell Intelligrated Alvey 780 palletizer

Kansas City, Mo. Brewer taps into automation with an Alvey palletizer from Intelligrated

Boulevard Brewing Co., a Kansas City craft brewer that grew from a five-gallon home setup to distribution across 19 states, faced a production bottleneck when its vintage equipment could no longer keep pace. The brewery planned a new three-story brewhouse and needed to automate end-of-line tasks—including closing light-protective cartons and palletizing fragile, thinning-walled glass cases—within a tight facility footprint to relieve backbreaking manual labor and support expanded distribution.

Boulevard installed an Intelligrated Alvey 780 mid-speed palletizer and integrated conveyor/stretchwrap cell to provide gentle handling, a compact 90-degree infeed, and dual-purpose operator functionality. The new system halved labor from 11 to five workers, increased throughput from 300 to 500 bottles per minute, palletizes 25–30 cases per minute (a 100% increase), supports future capacity growth and quick product changeovers, and has run reliably since installation while accommodating recycled and thinner-walled bottles.

Boulevard Brewing Co

Mike Utz

Plant Engineer