The poultry industry increasingly embracing automation but before making the change, companies need to look at the pros and cons, explained Jack Teague, senior technical sales manager, CAT Squared.
Teague, offered his suggestions while presenting the TECHTalk, “Assessing a Business’ Readiness for Smart Automation and Winning Stakeholder Support” at the 2023 International Production & Processing Expo (IPPE) on January 24.
Advantages of automation
Teague pointed out the following advantages of automation at poultry plants. Those are:
- It addresses labor challenges such as unfilled positions and worker absenteeism
- Improved throughput and efficiency
- Utilization of new and better technology, such as machine learning, artificial intelligence and optimization
- Better data visibility
- Real time information for continuous improvements
Automation challenges
While Teague discussed advantages, there are also challenges. Those include:
- It isn’t always easy to get decision-makers within the company on board with automation
- When automation equipment is installed, companies must be very mindful of cybersecurity
- It is important when choosing an automation strategy that it is optimal for your particular business type
- Employees may be worried about the potential of having their jobs eliminated because of automation
- It is important to identify and use metric that measure the company’s progress toward the goals it established when adopting automation
- If insufficient time is allocated for change management and training, problems can arise.
Will there be a good return on investment?
Whenever any business decision that requires a substantial investment is made, an analysis on return on investment (ROI) should be done.
“We have to do this in a way that those costs are exceeded by return. … That’s obviously the real key here. If you can’t get good ROI within maybe a year, two years or three years, maybe it’s not worth it,” Teague said.
However, if it seems apparent that there will be a good ROI, then it is time to develop a business case to justify the investment in automation.
