6 Ways To Augment Your Food And Beverage Workforce

By Todd Gilliam, Americas Industry Manager for Consumer Packaged Goods, Rockwell Automation

The food and beverage industry segment is severely impacted by workforce challenges and company leaders say finding and keeping talent are two of their top concerns. Without modern tools, technologies and work processes to drive efficiencies in their operations, producers will struggle to be successful and remain competitive in the future.

The good news for manufacturers is that by using innovation, technology and data to make decisions, employers can equip workers with the right tools while also supporting the path for success through learning and development. A few practical suggestions that can be immediately incorporate are to:

1. Support operators and your maintenance team with augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR)
2. Prepare with simulation and predictive modeling
3. Empower with information
4. Enable faster machine changeovers
5. Extend with robotics
6. Attract the next generation of workers