a packing box conveyor configured for conveying the packing boxes, wherein, in operation, the bottom of the packing boxes is supported on the packing box conveyor and the top side is directed upward;

an article conveyor configured for conveying articles in an article conveying direction over an article conveying surface, wherein the article conveyor is arranged adjacent and alongside the packing box conveyor, and each article has an associated article plane defined to be parallel to the article conveying surface when said article is on the article conveyor;

a pick-and-place arrangement configured and arranged, in operation, to pick articles, especially individual articles, from the article conveyor and place said articles directly in a parallel orientation into packing boxes on the bottoms of the respective packing boxes that are conveyed on the packing box conveyor with the top sides of the respective packing boxes in an open configuration, wherein the bottoms of the respective packing boxes provide a supporting surface for the articles placed in the packing boxes, and the parallel orientation of an article is an orientation of said article which has the respective article plane parallel to a respective supporting surface; and

a transverse packing arrangement comprising a cassette that is movable between a collection position and a transfer position, wherein the transverse packing arrangement is configured, in operation, to present in the collection position an open side of the cassette sideward for collecting articles from the article conveyor into the cassette in a stacked relationship of the collected articles in the parallel orientation on a supporting cassette side as the supporting surface, and to subsequently in the transfer position, in which the cassette is rotated with respect to the collection position, provide the collected articles from the cassette in a transverse orientation into a packing box having the top side in an open configuration directed upward, wherein the bottom of the respective packing box provides a supporting surface for the articles provided in the packing box from the cassette, and the transverse orientation of an article is an orientation of said article which has the respective article plane transverse to a respective supporting surface, wherein the packing box conveyor is arranged, in operation, to convey packing boxes to and from the transverse packing arrangement for packing articles by the transverse packing arrangement in the transverse orientation into packing boxes conveyed on the packing box conveyor.