Case Study: Lorillard Tobacco Company achieves faster track-and-trace and consistent product quality with Honeywell robotic palletizing system

Robotic Palletizing System From Honeywell Intelligrated Enables Track and Trace to Ensure Consistent Product Quality

Lorillard Tobacco Company, a historic manufacturer producing roughly 40 billion cigarettes annually across 36 packaging lines, faced a traceability and maintenance challenge: its legacy multi-line palletizing system (two Honeywell Intelligrated Alvey® 880 palletizers) consolidated cases from many lines onto single pallets, making it slow and labor-intensive to locate and quarantine non‑conforming product while requiring extensive conveyor maintenance. Seeking a track-and-trace–ready alternative, Lorillard engaged Honeywell for a new end‑of‑line solution.

Honeywell designed and deployed 18 robotic palletizing cells (Honeywell Intelligrated solution), each serving two production lines with barcode scanning tied to Lorillard’s database, custom end‑effectors, Accuglide accumulation, Lock n’ Pop adhesive and CDLR pallet conveyors. Installed in a phased rollout to avoid extended downtime, the Honeywell system enables case-level traceability, keeps pace with ~8,800 units per minute, reduces conveyor footage and maintenance costs, and has cut the man‑hours required to track non‑conforming product while minimizing the risk of shipping defects.

Lorillard Tobacco Company

Daniel Walker

Staff Engineer