FEATURE Food & Beverage
Feature sponsored by
Is automation always the answer?
By Roy Green, Managing Director, Harford Control W
ith PPMA once again upon us, we will no doubt see a never- ending display of
automation – many would agree that much of this automation will become normal during the next decade as so much has become commonplace during the past decade.
But is all automation either beneficial or desirable?
Last week, I saw a YouTube video of
a robot serving beer, which looked very hygienic but not very quick and not, may I suggest, the first choice of many social drinkers. As several commented, when this beer-serving robot reached LinkedIn: “Just because you can, it doesn’t mean you should?” Honestly, as a social drinker, how would you prefer your beer served?
Is automation going to achieve the desired ROI?
During the past couple of decades or so, we have seen many attempts at automation, some of which have been very successful, but many of which have failed or at least failed to achieve the anticipated objectives and return
44 September 2022 | Automation
on investment (ROI). This is especially pronounced within the food and drink industry, an industry in which I have spent more than five decades of my working life.
The lack of ROI seems to be on the
increase, though this might be due to an increased willingness to be open about actual outcomes, as opposed to expected improvements, and how the investment has simply added cost rather than value to the bottom line. At the same time, the expected reduction in personnel, which was part of the original cost/benefit analysis and justification, just hasn’t happened. One of the problems is that the
retailers (often the primary recipients of the manufacturers’ products) want more frequent deliveries of smaller quantities to maximise shelf life for them, but also to reduce their stocking levels. Automation, on the other hand, works best with long batch runs, rather than frequent product changeovers, clean-downs, or label changes.
Frequent product changeovers and short batch runs Naturally, short batch runs and
frequent product changeovers leave manufacturers looking for other ways to reduce costs and improve the bottom line. An obvious first step is to ask the retailers to pay more or take larger quantities, or both. This is especially poignant now with the increase in energy prices which, for many producers, have quadrupled during the past 12 months and, it seems, worse is yet to come. Such manufacturers were already coping with increased raw materials costs, mandated annual wage increases for those on minimum wage, the very sector usually responsible for product processing and packaging. When these manufacturing co- packers go to their large retail clients, in desperation, to agree an increase in the selling/buying in prices, if they are not told “no, we have our own enforced energy coupled with mandated annual increases to minimum wage”, they might be met with “show us what you have done to increase your efficiencies since the last round of increases and we might consider it, but we are certainly not going to pay for your continuing inefficiency”. ‘Caught between a rock and a hard place’ springs to mind.
automationmagazine.co.uk
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64
