Salas O’Brien provides innovative solutions for food and beverageW Packaging integrates divisions into a single entity to maximize innovation

Photo courtesy of Salas O’Brien

AUTOMATED SOLUTIONS — Automation and robotics solutions are core to Salas O’Brien as they improve clients’ manufacturing time, save money and increase sustainability. Zepnick Solutions is now fully integrated with Salas O’Brien, reflecting its name and branding, and bolstering the firm’s position as a driving force in the manufacturing sector.

Photo courtesy of Salas O’Brien

PRECISION PALLETIZING — A leading Midwest cheese and whey producer partnered with Salas O’Brien to implement a high-precision whey bag palletizing system like the one pictured above. This solution ensured a tight stack on standard pallets to optimize storage and transport.

By Alyssa Mitchell

IRVINE, Calif. — Salas O’Brien, an employee-owned engineering and technical services firm founded in 1975, delivers positive impacts for its clients’ operations by providing world-class facility planning, engineering, construction management, technology and commissioning services across North America. Following its recent merger with Green Bay, Wisconsin-based Zepnick Solutions — a recognized leader in engineering solutions and equipment for automation in the food, paper and consumer goods industries — the combined company offers customers even more quality solutions that deliver long-term value.

A new logo and tagline revealed in recent years — “Engineered for Impact” — conveys the progress Salas O’Brien seeks, the impact the firm’s work creates and the energy with which it is pursued. Everything Salas O’Brien does is with the advancement of the human experience and societal progress in mind, the company says.

The company now offers a complete array of services for dairy manufacturers from initial consult to final construction. Following the retirement of Zepnick Solutions founder Jody Zepnick, that division now is fully integrated into Salas O’Brien, bringing even more capabilities to its growing customer base.

“The merger has been fairly seamless over the last 18 months for our engineers and our clients,” says John Murphy, managing principal for the Green Bay, Wisconsin, office of Salas O’Brien and former president of Zepnick Solutions. “Salas O’Brien brings good, positive, collaborative people to the table, and when you have that culture, you’re going to have a good, positive, collaborative experience throughout the merger.”

Zepnick Solutions now carries Salas O’Brien’s name and branding, bolstering the firm’s position as a driving force in the manufacturing sector.

Murphy notes that prior to the merger, Zepnick Solutions was in the midst of its biggest year yet.

“We would not have been successful without having the additional resources — engineers and construction managers — that Salas O’Brien has brought to the table,” he says.

The merger encompasses a combined presence of over 90 offices and 4,000 team members across North America.

With these additional resources, the former Zepnick office has been able to meet the increasing and evolving needs of its customers, Murphy says.

He notes that the merger also has enabled the company to bring new offerings to the table, such as utility support, MEP (mechanical, electrical and process) support, process design and sustainability improvements.
“We’ve seen an increasing interest in our clients’ desire to leverage automation for capacity increases, while simultaneously looking to take advantage of opportunities to reduce energy use, material consumption and improve ergonomics,” he adds.

“With continued staffing shortages since COVID, making automation easier has been a huge driver for our business,” Murphy says, noting integrated automation solutions is at the core of the company’s client offerings.

“Now that we’re part of Salas O’Brien, we have some expanded capabilities in sustainability,” he adds. “We’ve seen more interest in manufacturing information systems, gathering data from production lines to be able to do better predictive maintenance and troubleshooting.”

The expanded footprint of the company also increases its reach across the United States, enabling it to provide more local support to customers in different locations — with decreased travel costs, Murphy notes.

• Thinking outside the cheese and dairy box

As customers continue to request more whole package solutions, Salas O’Brien has embarked on some major projects in the U.S. cheese and dairy sector in the past few years with remarkable results.

In 2022, the company provided detailed engineering and design for a new manufacturing plant for one of the largest cheese companies in the United States. Salas O’Brien’s review process made improvements to design, budget and schedule before completing the full design. The plant supplies cheese to consumers in over 50 countries.

Another Midwest-based leading cheese and whey producer partnered with the company in 2020 to implement a high-precision whey bag palletizing system, ensuring a tight stack on standard pallets to optimize storage and transport.

“Our turnkey solution covered concept development, budget planning, engineering, system design, integration, programming, equipment supply, installation and ongoing support,” Murphy says. “The system was fully assembled and validated at our Green Bay, Wisconsin, facility before deployment for seamless installation.”
This system’s tight pallet stacking minimized bag overhang, optimizing truck loading, reducing shipping costs and preventing product damage, he adds. Featuring conveyors, a robotic palletizing system, inkjet printers and scanners, the solution streamlined operations and improved efficiency.

Ryan Thiem, principal engineer at Salas O’Brien, notes that the company shines when it comes to custom projects, providing solutions that typical “off the shelf” original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) don’t necessarily provide.

At Wisconsin-based Mullins Cheese, Salas O’Brien earlier this year worked on a project to reduce waste and optimize space by eliminating cardboard wrapping around cheese on a standard 40-pound block line.

“This project has never really been done in the cheese industry,” Thiem says. “Traditional wraparound cardboard — that’s just the standard.”

However, Salas O’Brien came up with a solution to minimize packaging, saving costs and space.

“Our team has a lot of expertise that varies across different industries,” Thiem says. “So we came up with some unique things that you normally wouldn’t think of because of the constraints of the job. It was exciting to be a part of that team and that solution.”

He adds that this showcase project minimized waste not only for Mullins, but the end users as well by omitting the cardboard.

• Sustainable solutions

“When it comes to sustainability, a unique aspect of Salas O’Brien is not only that we have the technical expertise now, but we also have teams that are familiar with the regulatory and financial aspects of getting these big sustainability projects funded,” Murphy notes.

He adds that many engineering firms understand the process aspects, but Salas O’Brien also can navigate the non-process aspects such as civil, structural or architectural needs that are important for large plant expansions.

“We’ve been players in major expansions from the beginning, but now we have those additional capabilities in-house,” he says.

Murphy notes that for customers who worked with Zepnick Solutions, the company still has access to partners outside of Salas O’Brien to find the best solution.

“We’re still open to working with partners that aren’t Salas O’Brien; we work with non-Salas O’Brien partners all the time, just like we have historically,” he says.

“We’re still the same local engineering firm with the same expertise we’ve always had, but now we have some additional resources we can bring to bear and add value for our customers,” he adds.

Murphy notes that Salas O’Brien’s tagline — Engineered for Impact — recognizes the impact the company’s employees and clients have on the world and in society.

“We are not just getting machinery to work — we are making the world a better place by helping our clients produce food more efficiently, or helping to make it healthier and safer,” he says.

“It represents our team’s passion and our mindset. It shows that we are technical experts and we care,” he adds. “We are world-class engineers, and we work with world-class clients.”

CMN

© 2026 Cheese Market News • Quarne Publishing, LLC • Legal Information • Online Privacy Policy • Terms and Conditions
Cheese Market News • Business/Advertising Office: P.O. Box 24 • Sun Prairie, WI 53590 • 608/831-6002
Cheese Market News • Editorial Office: 5315 Wall Street, Suite 100 • Madison, WI 53718 • 608/288-9090