Danish Crown aims for competitive edge with patented automation
Danish Crown suggests automation can create growth and new jobs.
“Danish Crown is really making its mark as a significant developer of automation. By developing the solutions ourselves and patenting them, we in Danish Crown will turn the automation agenda from challenge to competitive advantage,” the company said in a statement.
In August, the business applied for an equipment patent – its first in more than 20 years – in its home market and another is in process.
“Our foreign colleagues have a competitive advantage in the form of lower wage costs and we must make automation our competitive advantage,” Henrik Andersen, Danish Crown’s technical director, said. “We do this best by developing and patenting solutions for work tasks that can be solved just as well or better with technology, so that the employees are used where their expertise is best used.”
Other investments in the next 12 months include new “palletising” systems at the Danish factories in Vejle and Horsens.
Danish Crown is adamant that jobs will be created rather than lost through automating some processes. The company suggests automation will not “significantly affect the number of jobs, and the jobs that will disappear will be the very physically demanding jobs where the group already are under pressure from a high employee turnover”.
Simon Harvey / Just Food
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