Industrial Automation Blog

By Dan Pan Demetrakakes, Senior Editor, Food Processing

Automation could, in theory, solve many of the food and beverage industry’s problems.

So why doesn’t that happen more often?

It’s clear that various forms of automation should be able to help with many of the challenges, both eternal and relatively recent, that the industry faces, such as staffing adequately, maintaining quality and safety, keeping product moving out the door, and satisfying demands for SKU variety. But food as an industrial sector has historically lagged in adopting automation, and that situation shows no sign of abating.

Experts consulted by Food Processing identified a variety of factors that may be slowing down adoption of automation, such as the nature of food and beverage production and the expense and uncertainty of both hardware and software. But they add that overcoming these concerns is both inevitable and vital.

“Automation is really the long-term investment ...