Soy Sauce Filling Automation Success Story | Japanese Century-Old Soy Sauce Manufacturer Upgrades to a Customized Automated Filling Packaging Line, Increasing Productivity While Reducing Labor Requirements by 75%
Project Overview
A century-old soy sauce manufacturer located in Yuasa, Wakayama, Japan, sought to modernize its production by introducing an automated soy sauce filling and capping line. The project was driven by Japan's growing labor shortage, an aging workforce, and the need to maintain food safety standards while supporting multiple bottle formats within limited factory space.
Neostarpack designed and supplied a customized bottling solution integrating bottle rinsing, liquid filling, automatic capping, labeling, and conveyor automation. The production line was engineered specifically around the customer's product characteristics, existing factory layout, and long-term production requirements.
Following implementation, the customer successfully reduced production staffing from four operators to one, while enabling a single production line to handle five glass bottle sizes ranging from 90 ml to 720 ml. The new system improved production efficiency without compromising the traditional manufacturing standards that define the brand.
Project Snapshot
Item | Details |
Industry | Traditional Soy Sauce Manufacturing |
Location | Yuasa, Wakayama, Japan |
Product | Naturally Brewed Soy Sauce |
Packaging Format | Glass Bottles |
Bottle Sizes | 90 ml, 150 ml, 200 ml, 500 ml, 720 ml |
Production Challenge | Labor shortage, multiple bottle formats, limited factory space, food-grade production requirements |
Solution | Customized automated soy sauce bottling and capping line |
Integrated Equipment | Bottle rinsing, liquid filling, capping, labeling, conveyor system |
Primary Results | Labor reduced from 4 operators to 1 while improving production efficiency and operational flexibility |
About the Customer
The customer is one of the two best-known century-old soy sauce manufacturers located in Yuasa, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan. Yuasa is widely recognized as one of the birthplaces of traditional Japanese soy sauce production and remains well known for preserving its historic wooden-barrel fermentation techniques.
Committed to preserving traditional craftsmanship, the company continues to produce soy sauce using domestically sourced Japanese ingredients and natural brewing methods. While maintaining its long-established product quality and brand heritage, the manufacturer also recognized the need to modernize production in response to changing labor conditions and evolving market demand.
Rather than replacing traditional manufacturing practices, the customer's objective was to introduce automation that would improve operational efficiency while preserving the production standards that distinguish its products.
Manufacturing Challenges
Although the company's product quality remained highly regarded, its production operation faced several practical manufacturing challenges common across Japan's food industry.
The most significant issue was the increasing shortage of skilled production workers. As experienced employees approached retirement, recruiting younger operators became progressively more difficult. Manual filling and capping processes that had been reliable for decades gradually became constraints on productivity, staffing flexibility, and future production capacity.
The manufacturer also produced multiple product sizes, requiring frequent production changeovers. More than five different glass bottle formats ranging from 90 ml to 720 ml were in regular production. Under the existing manual process, each product change required considerable operator time and increased production scheduling complexity.
Food safety requirements added another layer of engineering considerations. Soy sauce is a high-salinity liquid, and certain formulations also contain sugar. Equipment therefore needed to provide excellent corrosion resistance while remaining easy to clean in order to maintain hygienic production conditions and long-term operational reliability.
At the same time, the available factory space limited the installation of conventional large-scale production equipment. Any new system would need to integrate efficiently within the existing production environment without disrupting plant workflow.
The customer therefore required an automation filling and capping solution capable of improving production efficiency, reducing labor dependency, supporting multiple bottle formats, and meeting food-grade manufacturing requirements within the constraints of the existing facility.
Project Requirements
Following multiple technical discussions with the Neostarpack engineering team, the customer defined several key objectives for the new production line.
1. Support Multiple Bottle Sizes
The production line needed to accommodate five different glass bottle sizes—90 ml, 150 ml, 200 ml, 500 ml, and 720 ml—while minimizing downtime during product changeovers.
2. Handle High-Salinity Soy Sauce
All components in direct contact with the product were required to provide excellent corrosion resistance suitable for continuous production of high-salinity liquids while complying with food-grade manufacturing requirements.
3. Simplify Cleaning and Maintenance
Because certain soy sauce formulations contain sugar, the equipment needed to be designed for efficient daily cleaning to reduce product residue, maintain hygienic conditions, and support stable long-term operation.
4. Integrate Within the Existing Factory Layout
The customer required a production line designed around the available factory space, allowing efficient workflow while preserving future expansion flexibility.
5. Reduce Labor Dependency
The primary automation objective was to reduce reliance on manual labor, improve production efficiency, and maintain consistent product quality despite ongoing workforce shortages.
Why Neostarpack
Before selecting Neostarpack, the customer evaluated several filling packaging equipment suppliers in Japan. While many offered standardized filling systems, the customer required a solution specifically engineered around its products, manufacturing process, and factory layout rather than an off-the-shelf machine.
The introduction to Neostarpack came through the customer's Taiwanese soy sauce distributor. After observing Neostarpack's equipment in operation at an exhibition in Japan, the customer began a detailed evaluation of the company's engineering capabilities, project experience, and long-term service support.
As is common among Japanese manufacturers, supplier selection was based on long-term reliability rather than immediate purchasing decisions. Over approximately one year, the customer reviewed Neostarpack's automation filling projects across multiple industries before selecting the company to design and integrate its complete soy sauce filling and capping packaging line.
Key Factors Behind the Decision
• Customized engineering tailored to the customer's products, production process, and factory layout.
• Proven capability in integrating bottle rinsing, liquid filling, capping, labeling, and conveyor systems into a complete automated production line.
• Flexible production line design supporting rapid changeover between multiple bottle sizes.
• Extensive experience in food filling equipment and liquid capping packaging applications.
• Comprehensive project planning, engineering consultation, installation, and technical support.
• Equipment designed for long-term operational stability and continuous food manufacturing environments.
Customized Soy Sauce Filling Solution
Rather than supplying a standard filling machine, Neostarpack engineered a customized automated soy sauce bottling line based on the customer's product characteristics, manufacturing process, factory layout, and long-term production objectives.
The project addressed several key operational requirements simultaneously, including support for multiple bottle sizes, food-grade production standards, simplified cleaning procedures, limited factory space, and reduced labor dependency.
The complete solution integrates botte rinsing, liquid filling, capping, labeling, conveyor transport, and centralized PLC control into a coordinated production system. Each workstation communicates through an integrated control architecture to ensure stable line operation while maintaining production flexibility for future expansion.
Beyond increasing production capacity, the primary engineering objective was to help the customer preserve the quality associated with its century-old soy sauce manufacturing process while gradually transitioning to automated production.
Solution Architecture
The customized filling production line consists of six integrated production modules.
Bottle Infeed → Bottle Rinser → Liquid Filling Machine → Automatic Capping → Round Bottle Labeling Machine → Conveyor & Product Outfeed
Each production station is synchronized through the PLC control system, allowing the entire packaging line to operate as one coordinated process rather than as independent machines. This solution architecture improves operational consistency, reduces manual intervention, and simplifies future equipment upgrades when production requirements evolve.
Production Equipment
| Equipment | Function |
|---|---|
| Bottle Rinser | Removes dust and foreign particles from bottles before filling to improve container cleanliness. |
| Liquid Filling Machine | Designed specifically for soy sauce production and supports multiple glass bottle capacities. |
| Capping Machine | Automatically places and tightens bottle caps to ensure consistent sealing quality. |
| Labeling Machine | Applies labels accurately across different bottle sizes while maintaining product presentation consistency. |
| Customized Conveyor System | Connects each workstation to create a continuous production flow throughout the packaging line. |
| PLC Control System | Coordinates all equipment, synchronizes production processes, and improves overall operational stability. |