“Foot traffic from the receiving area represents a potential for bringing pathogens into the feed manufacturing plant,” the guidance states.
LIGHTS OUT MANUFACTURING DRIVERS
According to Guidance for Developing Biosecurity Practices for Feed and Ingredient Manufacturing, humans - employees, visitors, drivers and customers - are all potential pathogen spreaders by way of soiled clothing, dirty footwear or on their person. The advantages of lights out manufacturing cited across industries include improved worker safety, reduced accidents, optimal operations efficiency, higher productivity and better manufacturing space utilization.Īdditionally, it addresses problems feed manufacturers face with staffing shortages and offers biosecurity advantages by reducing pathogen transmission via humans.įeed mills in the United States are required to have a written biosecurity plan to control the potential spread of animal diseases through feed and feed ingredients.Ī main component of this plan involves identifying potential hazards and risks throughout the manufacturing process. In the next 30 years, however, it is possible that automation technology and feed manufacturing equipment may be ready to rise to the challenge of lights out feed manufacturing. Lights out production also has limitations and works best with simple repeatable tasks - not complex ones (like feed mixing, batching and routing) or small production runs that would require reprogramming. Most mills today do not possess the facility automation, data exchange capabilities or maintenance-free equipment required to operate a mill without on-site staff.
Its prevalence in feed manufacturing is likely years away from reality, according to industry experts. While it’s far from commonplace, it has been implemented in a few instances around the world - most notably at FANUC, a manufacturer in Japan that makes robots and manufacturing systems at its lights out factory. This concept is called lights out manufacturing and utilizes fully automated technology for all aspects of production, requiring little to no human intervention. In fact, you wouldn’t even need to flip on a light switch (automatically - from the command center, of course.)
The mill would be buzzing with productivity, but not human activity.