Fort Wayne is credited with the gasoline pump in 1885 and early refrigerator technology soon after, output of the same manufacturing base that still drives demand for packaging automation here. Fort Wayne built that base starting as a trade stop on the Wabash and Erie Canal, then as a rail junction linking Chicago, Detroit, Toledo, and Cleveland, and its industrial output expanded 747 percent between 1900 and 1930, from $11 million to $95 million in production value, as its workforce grew from 18,000 to nearly 50,000.

As of 2017, manufacturing led the Fort Wayne metro's $25.7 billion GDP at $8.1 billion, ahead of health care, retail trade, and finance and insurance combined. Manufacturers across that industrial base are who PLAN IT builds for: our Mars Series VFFS baggers handle high-speed bag-fill-seal runs, automatic case packers and case erectors move finished product from the packing line to shipping cartons without adding manual labor to a plant already running lean, and our PackMaster cobot palletizers automate the palletizing step after that, stacking finished cases for the dock door. One of our published case studies covers a co-packer that saw that same palletizing-driven throughput gain. Fort Wayne doesn't have a PLAN IT office, but our case erectors, VFFS baggers, and palletizing systems ship ready for manufacturers across Northeast Indiana, and our Toronto and Tampa teams install and service every line. Tell us your run rate, and we'll match your line to the right VFFS, case-packing, or palletizing setup.