Fresh-Food Labor Crisis: Is Automation the Answer?

One of the biggest challenges faced by companies that are part of America’s fresh-food supply chain is a lack of workers needed to do the tough jobs in production and distribution facilities. Plant managers spend an inordinately large percentage of their time on efforts related to hiring and training those who are at the core of keeping the supply chain moving. Not surprisingly, these challenges – which existed before the COVID-19 pandemic but certainly were worsened by it – have led to calls from company executives to increase automation and, in doing so, decrease the reliance on increasingly hard-to-find human labor.

But is automation the right place to start? This paper examines the scope of the problem confronting those in key positions of America’s fresh-food supply chain today. It looks at increased automation and investigates why it might not be the best place to start to address problems created by the current worker shortage. The paper provides a guide for warehouse managers to follow into the future – whether or not large-scale automation is the right choice for their company right now.