Impact of Automation

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The Role of Automation in Modern Material Conditioning and Processing Plants

In modern manufacturing, material conditioning and processing plants rely heavily on automation and technology. From optical sorters to robotic palletizers, automation transforms raw materials into high quality products efficiently and consistently. When introducing automation into material conditioning facilities, clear communication about its benefits is vital for employee recruitment and retention.

Automation does not replace employees. Rather, it enhances their abilities. Robotic arms excel at repetitive tasks like picking, packing, and palletizing, freeing up staff for higher level responsibilities. Automated inspection uses cameras and sensors to catch defects faster than the human eye can, and intelligent networks analyze production data to optimize processes.

Most employees at modern plants don’t fear automation and appreciate working alongside smart machines. Automation alleviates the drudgery of manual labor, improves safety by handling dangerous tasks, and gives staff capacity to focus on continuous improvement. With the right change management, automation creates an engaging work environment that attracts top talent.

Investing in leading-edge conditioning and processing equipment shows employees you are committed to their success. Smooth integration and implementation of automation requires training and support to build capabilities. When employees are empowered to use automation as a tool to boost their productivity and skills, it becomes a recruiting advantage rather than a threat. Adopting smart technology demonstrates your plant is an attractive, forward-thinking workplace.

Implementing Automation

Even the smallest details matter when applying automation to boost recruitment and retention. Material handling automation solutions should be tailored to each unique facility. Conduct thorough assessments to identify those tedious, injury-prone, or inconsistent processes that are ripe for automation. By strategically targeting pain points with smart technologies, such as robotics, vision systems, and intelligent controls, facilities can integrate automation to enhance productivity, quality, safety, and working conditions. Examples include automating packaging lines, color sorting, and adjustment of equipment. A focused approach when implementing automating labor-intensive tasks creates an engaging, future-facing work environment that is extremely attractive to top talent. This allows automation to maximize benefits for both current employees and future recruiting.

Bagging & Palletizing

The bagging process starts with filling bags with products such as flour, grains, seeds, or feed. If done manually, workers must fill each bag one-by-one. The bags are then sealed, either by hand or with a simple sewing machine. Once bags are filled and sealed, they move to palletizing. Workers manually stack and organize the filled bags, often weighing 50 pounds or more, onto pallets. Full pallets then move to wrapping and storage. Workers manually apply stretch wrap to loaded pallets to secure them. The pallets are then moved, either manually or by forklift, to the warehouse for storage until they can be shipped.

Challenges of Manual Bagging & Palletizing

Manual bagging and palletizing lines require a consistent and dedicated team of workers due to the highly labor-intensive nature of these tasks. Workers have to repeatedly bend and lift heavy bags all day long, making them susceptible to overexertion injuries, muscle strains, and back pain from constant bending and twisting motions. From an organizational standpoint, manual bagging and palletizing is very labor intensive and can become a bottleneck if not properly staffed. Even with an adequate staff, pallet stacks can be inconsistent and unstable when built manually, especially if workers get fatigued. Additionally, it is challenging to efficiently scale up or down production as necessary when a facility relies on manual labor. Automated solutions can provide a consistent process that’s immune to labor fluctuations, injury, and fatigue.

Benefits of Automated Bagging & Palletizing Solutions

Transitioning bagging and palletizing processes to automated solutions enhances productivity, quality, and safety. For example, automated bagging and palletizing reduces injury risks from repetitive motion and heavy lifting for workers. The automated equipment is ergonomically designed to reduce the physical strain on your workforce. Employees also tend to be more satisfied and engaged when they are not required to perform mundane or tedious manual tasks.

These automated systems can bag and palletize considerably faster and with greater consistency than human workers speeding up production. As an added benefit, the reduced reliance on manual labor can lower personnel costs associated with these functions. Automated lines can be added easily when compared to hiring and training the additional staff necessary to increase capacity. Additionally, individual tracking and identification methods improve traceability so, if defects arise, sources can be isolated quickly and efficiently.

Bag Printing, Tagging, & Labeling

Most bags used for packaging flour, grains, seeds, feed, etc. need to be printed with product information, company branding, weights, manufacturing codes, and other details. This is often done by workers using handheld printers or other labor-heavy printing processes. Workers have to manually position each bag to print the right surfaces, then reposition the bag to print additional sides. Bags also need to have tags applied to specify SKUs, pricing, barcodes, and other variables. Workers typically take stacks of printed tags and manually attach one to each bag. Finally, most finished bags require date labeling and company branding stickers. Workers peel off stickers and manually apply them to the correct spot on each bag. Mistakes mean rework, which can cost considerable time and money.

Challenges of Manual Printing, Tagging, & Labeling

The repetitive processes involved with printing, tagging, and labeling bags are tedious, time consuming, and fatigue inducing. Mistakes in printing produces waste, causing bags to be discarded and reprinted. The repetitive nature of sticker application can be both inefficient and potentially damaging to workers' wrists and hands over time. From the company standpoint, manual printing, tagging, and labeling requires hiring and managing more labor and rotating workers frequently to mitigate fatigue and injuries. It creates more potential for printing and labeling errors and makes it difficult to scale production up or down as needed.

Benefits of Automated Printing, Tagging, & Labeling

Automated equipment has much higher throughput compared to manual processes, which lowers associated labor costs. Automated systems can apply print, tags, and labels consistently and accurately, with far less human error. This results in less waste from misprints, incorrect tagging, and other associated defects.

Automated systems also have data collection capabilities that can be used to identify areas for quality and process improvements. And, for increased safety, workers are removed from those repetitive manual tasks that can cause injuries.

24/7 operation is completely feasible with automated equipment, and production output can be more readily adjusted by adding or removing the automated capacity as needed.

Quality Assurance

In many older facilities, quality assurance on packaging lines is still done manually. Human inspectors visually check bags or containers of products as they move down the line to try to identify defects. This can include looking for things like improper seals or incomplete packaging, contamination from foreign objects, incorrect weight of contents, damage to packaging, and incorrect labels or printing errors.

Challenges of Manual QA Processes

Manual inspection on packaging lines is incredibly monotonous and tiring, which can lead to serious complacency issues. Mentally fatigued or zoned out inspectors can easily overlook issues, especially near the end of shifts. They must try to balance the speed of the line with diligent inspection, which can be very difficult, and the need for constant standing and visual focus can create physical strains. High turnover is common in these manual inspection roles.

For the company, manual inspection creates inconsistencies. Different people notice and catch different defects based on factors like eyesight, speed, training, etc. This leads to more products with flaws making it downstream or even to customers. The company also has increased labor costs associated with human inspectors.

Benefits of Automating QA Processes

Automating quality assurance processes with machine vision systems addresses these issues. Cameras and sensors are placed at critical points along the packaging line. Software analyzes images to identify defects or other criteria automatically, and the system can flag products that fail inspection for automatic removal. Data on each package can be tracked, providing consistent and precise inspection 24/7.

Automating quality assurance processes can increase production speed while reducing the need for personnel. Vision systems are consistent due to the use of precision cameras and other software, and detailed data can be captured for each and every product for deeper analysis. Any issues or defects are caught early, before more product can be impacted, and the creation of individual product histories improves traceability. By automating the quality assurance process, facilities can reduce variability, creating more consistent and reliable results. They can also free up staff to work on higher value tasks they didn’t have time to handle before.

Color Sorting

Color sorting machines are an important technology for many manufacturing facilities that process grains, seeds, foods, and other agricultural products. Color sorters, also called optical sorting machines, automate the process of removing defects and foreign materials from raw materials by color, size, shape, and other characteristics.

Before automated sorting, quality control steps like removing discolored, damaged, or defective product were done through less-efficient means or even by hand.

Challenges of Manual Sorting

Manual sorting is extremely tedious, inefficient, and inaccurate. Not only do extremely tedious tasks lead to boredom, fatigue, and inattention, but it takes a large number of labor hours to sort through raw ingredients this way, limiting throughput. Humans also tend to miss subtle defects, which can create inconsistent quality.

Benefits of Automated Color Sorting

Automated color sorters substantially reduce labor costs while increasing the effectiveness of the sorting process. Precision cameras and ejectors are used to detect and remove nonconforming items, providing reliability and repeatable accuracy that humans simply can’t. Automated color sorters enable throughput that far exceeds manual capabilities, and because multi-parameter sensing allows them to sense more than visible color, they’re more effective at removing hazards undetectable to the human eye. Unlike manual processes that discard whole batches, these machines reject individual defects, reducing waste.

Air Screen Cleaning

Air screen cleaners are high-capacity machines that sort products by size while removing dust and other lighter contaminants through aspiration. They work by running products across a series of screens to separate material based on size. This is a process that has been done for centuries, but modern cleaners do this much more efficiently and at high capacities. With routine inspection and maintenance, these cleaners are extremely reliable.

Challenges with Other Screen Cleaners

Many types of screen cleaners are unreliable and require a substantial amount of maintenance. Additionally, they rely simply on the screens to do all the work. Our cleaners offer aspiration both on the infeed and outflow of the machine to ensure that your product is free of lighter contaminants. Additionally, they are designed for easy access and maintenance, making them reliable for decades.

Benefits of Automating Screen Cleaning

Using our cleaners to automate and optimize your cleaning process will save you many headaches down the road. Well designed and built machines reduce labor and downtime costs, allowing facilities to put their people and money where it’s needed more.

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Effect on Current Employees

Implementing automation can improve overall employee well-being by preventing burnout, increasing job satisfaction, and improving morale. Automation provides an opportunity to address employee concerns about performing repetitive, unsafe, or unsatisfying manual tasks. Consider identifying the components of their jobs that employees cite as reasons for leaving, and see if automated systems can help bridge that gap. This will not only help prevent burnout, but it also gives employees the opportunity to learn new marketable skills as they begin to oversee the machines handling the labor on their behalf.

Addressing Employee Concerns

When transitioning to automation, it is vital to communicate to current staff that the goal is to enhance their skills, as employees may initially worry automation will take away their jobs. Make it clear that automation handles tasks deemed tedious, unsafe, or unsatisfying, giving employees the capacity to take on more meaningful quality assurance roles not possible due to their previous workload. In this way, automation becomes a collaborative tool to enhance staff abilities, not replace them. When employees understand automation as an opportunity to learn new skills, further develop their career paths, and remove unwanted tasks from their job duties, they can see automation as supporting their job growth, not restricting it.

Expanded Professional Development Opportunities

Automation can help give employees more chances to advance within the company by allowing them to transition into different jobs or areas of the plant where they can provide greater value. Because transitioning from manual labor to automated systems presents more opportunities to upskill current employees, it can also reduce hiring costs. A key competent of making an effective transition is clearly communicating the benefits of automation to your employees as it relates to their own workload and career path.

Improved Workplace Safety

When employees don’t feel safe on the job, or they think that your company isn’t prioritizing safety enough, they’ll leave. Automation can take on the tasks your employees say feel unsafe or too risky for them to perform efficiently. Instead, employees can operate and oversee programmable machines that do those risky jobs on their behalf. This not only decreases physical injuries or accidents but also helps give employees a sense of security and wellbeing while on the job.

Improved Job Satisfaction and Employee Retention

Automation improves job satisfaction by taking on the tedious or unsafe tasks employees don’t want to do. This, in turn, increases employee retention by addressing factors that previously caused staff to leave. In fact, according to Harvard Business Review, nearly 90% of employees stated that automated tools helped them feel more satisfied with their jobs.

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Effect on Recruitment

Automation provides a competitive advantage in recruiting top talent. Automating processes throughout the facility allows you to invest more in employee satisfaction and retention. Automation improves workplace conditions that impact recruitment, resulting in lower burnout, higher job satisfaction, and fewer safety risks. Current employees get more time for professional development and building relationships within the workplace. As a result, facilities get happier employees who enjoy what they do and where they work.

Attracting top talent using automation can be as easy as including it in job descriptions. This positions your company as a technology innovator and a forward-thinking workplace. Describe how the facility utilizes automation to attract candidates interested in developing skills in emerging areas. Then, once hired, employees experience the benefits of automation firsthand and refer others they know who are looking for work.

The improved well-being, security, and engagement stemming from automated processes does more than reduce turnover; it creates a recruitment advantage over competitors and allows facilities to focus more resources on additional training, benefits, and other initiatives that enhance employee satisfaction and retention.

Become an Employer of Choice

Your company must always compete against others that do what you do. It must stand out not only to customers, but also to the type of employee you want working at your plant or on your manufacturing floor. When a company invests in automation, it’s investing in an improved work environment and experience that attracts top-tier candidates.

Automation can enhance a company’s competitive edge in the labor market by improving the work environment for every employee. Automated material handling can be a cleaner process, leading to a cleaner, less stressful work environment. This can be extremely attractive to employees, especially if they are used to the laborious and dirty side of material handling.

As younger generations continuously enter the workforce, it’s important to know what they find valuable in a workplace so you can stand apart from competing employers. Right now, that valuable thing is technology. Automated processes can signal to potential employees that your company is dedicated to staying ahead of the curve, positioning you as a technology-forward, innovative organization that’s attractive to tomorrow's workforce.

Automation: A Competitive Edge for Recruitment, Retention, and Efficiency

Automation plays a pivotal role in not only enhancing efficiency but also recruiting and retaining top talent at material handling facilities. Implementing smart technologies to handle tedious, unsafe, or unsatisfying manual tasks can get those tasks completed more accurately and efficiently while showing employees that their well-being is a priority. This prevents burnout, increases engagement, and improves workplace conditions—all key factors in retention.

By automating packaging lines, quality control, sorting, and many other processes, facilities invest in the satisfaction of current staff and improve their ability to recruit fresh talent. The competitive edge that automation provides allows businesses to become employers of choice among top candidates. With the right implementation plan and management, automation can transform recruitment, boost retention, and strengthen a facility’s bottom line.