Tyson plans to automate

[shaz]

Tyson is going to automate some of the deboning process in it's chicken plants from the looks of things.
Gee, I wonder where they got the money?

Tyson Foods plans to spend $1.3 billion to automate meat plants

Tyson Foods Inc plans to spend more than $1.3 billion to increase automation in meat plants over the next three years, Chief Executive Donnie King said on Thursday, as a U.S. labor shortage has limited production while demand is booming.

www.reuters.com

Can't they just move to Mexico like everyone else?

 

[Named'em Tamed'em]

I bet they got a pile of covid $$

 

[J+ Cattle]

The machinery doesn't get sick or take days off, no benefits and can be worked without complaints 24/7. This will increase their profitability.

 

[simme]

The main chicken company in this area (small compared to the national companies) updated their processing lines a few years ago. Well prior to covid and covid money. Reason then was same as stated in this Tyson article - that they were having trouble getting enough workers to staff the processing lines. During the upgrades, they placed fewer chickens in the houses and increased the downtime between flock placements. Resulting in less money for the growers during that time.
Sixty or 80 years ago, lots of work was completely manual. Very little automation. Seems like we had plenty of workers then. We have automated quite a bit since then and seem to have a bigger shortage of workers than ever.

 

[sassafras manor]

As an employer, it's not the shortage of workers thats the problem. I'm sure there are plenty of workers out there but they just simply choose not to work thanks to the welfare state we have created. We used to have 60-65 local employees and now we have less than 15 local employees and 35 H2A Hispanic employees that actually "want" to work. The H2A's haven't displaced any of the locals because if it wasn't for them we wouldn't be able to stay in business. And before anyone unloads on me about Hispanics, please do your homework about the H2A program thru the Department of Labor.

 

[shaz]

As an employer, it's not the shortage of workers thats the problem. I'm sure there are plenty of workers out there but they just simply choose not to work thanks to the welfare state we have created. We used to have 60-65 local employees and now we have less than 15 local employees and 35 H2A Hispanic employees that actually "want" to work. The H2A's haven't displaced any of the locals because if it wasn't for them we wouldn't be able to stay in business. And before anyone unloads on me about Hispanics, please do your homework about the H2A program thru the Department of Labor.

What kind of business are you in?

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

What kind of business are you in?

Sassafras silly.

 

[D2Cat]

The machinery doesn't get sick or take days off, no benefits and can be worked without complaints 24/7. This will increase their profitability.

What you've said indirectly is....don't have to worry about help showing up. Once there it's bolted to the floor!!

 

[greybeard]

What you've said indirectly is....don't have to worry about help showing up. Once there it's bolted to the floor!!

Kinda like not having to go chop ice once you get a wind powered water agitator backed into the pond?

 

[wbvs58]

The machinery doesn't get sick or take days off, no benefits and can be worked without complaints 24/7. This will increase their profitability.

I don't know about it doesn't get sick, I'm sure they have their share of breakdowns though good preventive maintenance minimises it.

Ken

 

[shaz]

In reality automation is incredibly expensive and rarely justified unless volumes are huge and product is really redundant. Some of those little pneumatic cylinders can cost hundreds of dollars. May cost a million bucks to automate something pretty simple. robots price versus capability seems to have improved recently (last 15 years) but I haven't done a robot project in years.

 

[shaz]

Sassafras silly.

"Burger World manager: You don't get workers compensation for fighting, it has to be an accident.

Beavis: You mean we, like, need to poop in our pants?"

 

[J+ Cattle]

I don't know about it doesn't get sick, I'm sure they have their share of breakdowns though good preventive maintenance minimises it.

Ken

True and the machinery doesn't cough, sneeze or shed hair on the food. I view it as a big improvement.

 

[J+ Cattle]

As an employer, it's not the shortage of workers thats the problem. I'm sure there are plenty of workers out there but they just simply choose not to work thanks to the welfare state we have created. We used to have 60-65 local employees and now we have less than 15 local employees and 35 H2A Hispanic employees that actually "want" to work. The H2A's haven't displaced any of the locals because if it wasn't for them we wouldn't be able to stay in business. And before anyone unloads on me about Hispanics, please do your homework about the H2A program thru the Department of Labor.

It's especially difficult to find workers for hard labor or harsh conditions type of work, look at roofing crews and concrete workers. Not many born in America kids want those jobs.

 

[Buck Randall]

True and the machinery doesn't cough, sneeze or shed hair on the food. I view it as a big improvement.

No shift changes, lunch breaks, maternity leaves, strikes, workman's comp, sexual harassment, etc.

Demand for human labor is going to drop precipitously over the next 20 years.

 

[J+ Cattle]

Demand for human labor is going to drop precipitously over the next 20 years.

This is a trend that has already been going on throughout our lifetimes, ditch diggers were replaced with backhoes, is just one example. Watch a video of the Panama Canal being built and see how many workers there were, today there would be a fraction of the workers for a project like that, but the machinery would be much bigger.

 

[J+ Cattle]

 

[simme]

As an employer, it's not the shortage of workers thats the problem. I'm sure there are plenty of workers out there but they just simply choose not to work thanks to the welfare state we have created. We used to have 60-65 local employees and now we have less than 15 local employees and 35 H2A Hispanic employees that actually "want" to work. The H2A's haven't displaced any of the locals because if it wasn't for them we wouldn't be able to stay in business. And before anyone unloads on me about Hispanics, please do your homework about the H2A program thru the Department of Labor.

I would say that there is no shortage of people. (I think we actually have too many people.) But I do think there is a shortage of workers (people needing and willing to work). If they choose not to work, I would not consider them workers. If not for fairly recent immigrants, a lot of us might have to become vegetarians or eat more imported meat. Probably need some immigration reform that allows more working people in and ships out some non-working folks.

 

[J+ Cattle]

In order to automate the processing of a cattle carcass they will demand uniformity and anything that doesn't fit the size requirements will be discounted by the packers. It's coming, be prepared.

 

[J+ Cattle]

ships out some non-working folks.

Simme, run for office with that as your platform and you have my vote!