The other aspect of labour is that there’s a significant turnover, which is also challenging. JF: How would you describe the labour and recruitment pressures currently facing Tyson Foods?ĬK: I know that some of the plants in poultry do have adequate labour but in some areas we don’t have adequate labour. JF: Has the pandemic and the related challenges around labour sped up investment in automation?ĬK: Definitely, the pandemic highlighted dependency that we realised could be very challenging for our business and it did bring urgency. We have a big challenge in staffing our plants. And we are in places where it’s almost impossible to hire people, that are in remote areas. Even though we’re reducing people, we’re also growing at the same time, right? And so, with our number of headcount, as a percentage of revenue, yes, it should go down and we want it to go down but a level that is increasing overall. Also, we are a company on a growth trajectory. The company is, however, seeking to emphasise this is an opportunity for staff to become upskilled?ĬK: That’s right. When Tyson Foods set out its $1bn automation investment, it detailed its labour requirement would fall by 3,150 positions by 2024. JF: That’s always the elephant in the room with technology. Of course, the number of people who work in our plants is going to go down with technology but we have enough attrition anyways for us to make that possible. To use technology, you generally have a higher pay grade to do that, so as we transition to a more modern workforce, technology allows us to pay more. The fourth, which is much more longer term, technology in our plants allows us to upskill our team members. Automation, machinery in general, has less variation and a more controlled environment should allow us to improve food safety.
Automation added appropriately improves the productivity of our team members. Removing the exposure to them is one thing that automation does really well.
Food processing plants are wet, they can be cold and there are sharp objects. Just Food: Given the amount of money Tyson Foods is investing in automation, what do you see as the principal benefits of the technology?Ĭhetan Kapoor: Team member safety is our primary driver for automation.
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