SMART AND CONNECTED PACKAGING


& Empack 2026 (NEC Birmingham)— highlight how manufacturers are integrating digital systems to make packaging lines smarter, faster and more adaptable. For example, automation partners


like Autopack are demonstrating equipment that supports high-throughput packaging formats used across food categories including chocolates, cereals and confectionery lines, emphasising efficiency and bespoke solutions that can adapt to variable product forms. While the focus is on mechanical automation, the implications for smart packaging are clear: improved accuracy and data integration at the line level facilitate better supply-chain tracking and more consistent quality feeds into connected ecosystems.


Software platforms designed for


manufacturing excellence—like Nulogy’s connected manufacturing operating systems—further knit together production data, quality metrics and packaging events, providing contract packers and brands with visibility that can inform traceability systems and digital packaging features downstream. This integration of digital tools with


physical packaging machinery exemplifies what industry analysts describe as the shift from pilot projects to scalable rollouts of smart supply-chain and connected packaging technologies across multiple sectors in 2026. Also at the trade show will celebrate


‘failures’ in a unique and innovative way to showcase that being smart and connected,


54 • KENNEDY’S CONFECTION • DECEMBER/JANUARY 2025/26


comes often from the mistakes made in the process. The Museum of Failure will make its first-ever UK exhibition appearance in February at Packaging Innovations & Empack 2026, bringing its globally recognised collection of famous flops, misguided ideas, and misunderstood innovations to the UK packaging industry for the first time. The exhibition will invite visitors to


explore how mistakes, misjudgements, and unexpected outcomes are not the opposite of innovation, but often its starting point. From Kodak’s early digital camera to modern AI misfires, the Museum of Failure curates examples of products, services, and ideas that did not succeed, and asks a simple but powerful question: what can we learn from what went wrong?


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