Automation (CONT’D FROM PAGE 22)
Cohen: I think that's really on an individual basis. We have a high rack storage system. It goes from the corrugator to a high rack storage system — automatic delivery without being touched by a person. The forklifts were eliminated, we have those people operating in the high rack system. One of those guys sat on the forklift for 15 years and he's embraced it completely. On the flip side, we have automat- ic top sheet insertion, automatic pallet insertion, automatic unit doubling, automatic stretch wrapping, and we've had some old timers who used to operate an old school con- sole with push buttons, and they found it very difficult to embrace. Connell: What are the first steps when you want to decide and prioritize which tasks or processes require additional automation? Thomas: I think the first step is to look at your process and determine which of those functions you don't see people wanting to do anymore. We used to have people taking three-dimensional boxes and spotting them to a glued wrap before they go into a graphing machine. If we hadn't automated that process 20 years ago, we would need 32 of those people, and we still have a couple machines that operate in that manner and we're having trouble finding two people who can do that, so I think it's about survivabili- ty. We don’t want people to be the machine, we want them
attrition. We're certainly not any place near getting rid of people. We will need to upskill people. We'll find places for those people for sure. Connell: Are employees threatened by automation or can it be used as a recruitment and retention tool? Cohen: I would say a little bit of both. I think when you roll out automation, and we've rolled out a boatload of it in the last 18 months, it all depends on how you sell it to your people. When you have good people, you want to repurpose them. You want to put them in some other spot and that's what we've done. When you're transparent with people and you tell them a position won't be there, but we think you can do X, Y and Z, I don't think the threat exists and I don't think people are threatened by it. On the flip side, I think it can be a recruiting tool for the young- er generation when you have stuff like touchscreens and computer interfaces as opposed to hand cranks and the old school way of operating a corrugator. Connell: What about the veteran operator who under- stands the process intimately and he knows he's driving the machine. Do you find that those guys are getting scared off by some of the automation you implemented?
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