Employment at U.S. meat, beef and poultry processing plants currently stands around 500,000 and is expected to grow 0.4 percent by the end of 2021, according to Meat, Beef and Poultry Processing Industry in the U.S.,” a September 2020 market research report from IBISWorld.
A historically tight labor market and pandemic combined to test the meat industry’s workforce this spring. The result? A reckoning with long-ingrained challenges.
A new Mountaire Farms Inc. could emerge as a branded Eastern Shore poultry label with new labor standards after a major expansion and legal wranglings over compensation for line workers in processing plants, reports Delmarva Now.
To design a truly successful system, processors must expand their thinking beyond viewing robotics and vision systems simply as labor-replacement tools.
Every food-processing plant today is looking for new ways to automate their process. It seems the most common method of justifying any robotic or automation project (including inspection) is labor replacement.