When labour is the cost, automation is an operating decision before it is a technology.
Hull, United Kingdom. Automated bench system, 16,580 square metres.
Situation Source record
An automated bench system to counter rising labour costs and reduce production costs.
Challenge
Take labour cost out of a nursery operation without taking capacity or quality with it.
What JYCO examined
Rising labour cost as the operating problem. An automated bench system treats movement, spacing, crop access and labour as connected variables, and was sized to reduce production cost rather than add capacity.
Issues identified
Labour was the cost line that governed the margin. Automation only earned its place if it could be sized to that line, and movement, spacing and crop access had to be designed together for it to work. Variables in play: automation, labour, operations, land and spacing.
Approach
Put automation on a cost line, labour, and size it to that line. A technology that cannot name the operating cost it removes is a capital purchase looking for a reason.