by Freedonia Industry Studies
December 20, 2021
We first discussed the trend of pandemic-related increases in manufacturing automation in 2020. At the time, meat processing – an industry that has long considered automation inferior to human activity due to inexact cuts and too much waste – was only just considering it and looking into how they could make it happen.
However, machinery innovations through the use of artificial intelligence, sensors, and cameras are resulting in machinery that is both increasingly better performing and less expensive. To that point, recently Tyson Foods announced plans to invest $1.3 billion to automate parts of its production lines over the next three years.
The need to implement automation has been spurred by a variety of challenges:
Tyson Foods stated that they expected automation will allow them to increase production volumes, produce more reliability, and reduce costs over time. The company expects to automate roles that are more difficult to do and where worker turnover is high.
This is a trend that continues to spread across a variety of other industries as well. For instance, Amazon has invested in robots to help fill orders in warehouses and smart machinery that makes right-sized custom boxes for each individual shipment.
The benefits of investments in automation in this era include:
Freedonia analysts continue to track the automation trend throughout our coverage areas, searching for key impacts and opportunities for growth.
For more information and discussion of opportunities, see The Freedonia Group’s extensive collection of off-the-shelf research, including Global Food Processing Machinery, Global Packaging Machinery, and Meat, Poultry & Seafood Packaging. Freedonia Custom Research is also available for questions requiring tailored market intelligence.