“The main trend we are seeing is a strengthening of the push for productivity and documentation across the spectrum of our jobs. More so now than ever before, there is a drive to take out the risk for error and to be able to manage peak seasons with the limited staff that our customers usually have.

“If it’s the fall rush, there’s usually more work than there are people. And so a lot of our jobs are looking now at really fully automating things all the way from scale into unloading and scaling out, so that once a truck’s weighed in and probed, it’s a seamless process.

“Using things like RFID tag readers, so that the customer is identified, is becoming very popular – and even using them throughout the facility, so that they could go into the right pit, they’re confirmed, they’re in the right place, and the facility essentially runs as a one-load machine.

“It knows when the truck gets there, what the product is, where the grain needs to go, and running the right conveyors to get it there. It takes a lot of risk away from the individual who is running the pit and really helps to make the facility run more smoothly.

“The key drivers behind the trend are the labor situation in the communities where a lot of these facilities are and the seasonality of the business. You’ve got a rush during a small number of weeks, so automation lessens the burden of finding additional people to run the facility and let’s you be more flexible in the skill levels of the people hire to do the jobs. Companies are considering these things when building. They’re tailoring facilities toward the significant use of automation. This allows your hiring practices to be more flexible to match the realities of the local labor market.

“I’ve talked about labor from the unloading and facility operations side of things. The other side of that is the documentation and the recordkeeping in the office. So being able to scale in and the trucks being identified through RFID, where the weights are recorded automatically, can also can save a lot of time and effort in the office.

“Along with that goes eliminating opportunities for error. It’s an accuracy trifecta, if you will. It’s accuracy, productivity, and the documentation that’s all done according to plan.”

507-235-6648 | www.kahlerautomation.com

Reprinted from Grain Journal May/June 2020 Issue