"It makes absolutely no sense," Alex Dubois said into his cell phone. Dubois was chief operating officer for Manditer Bottling LLC. "Even in a recession with high unemployment we can't find qualified people who will pass a drug test, show up for work every day and stick around for more than a week."

 

"I know. And compared to what else is out there, we've offered some pretty creative incentives," replied Manditer's v.p. of human resources.

A 35-year-old, family-owned company, Manditer operates three bottling plants that produce bottled water, carbonated beverages and fruit drinks. Energy drinks have been their fastest growing product line over the past three years. Many of the company's employees have been with them for 10 years or more, but entry-level positions are another story. High turnover is contributing to excessive costs, management fire-fighting and quality issues.

"Sure, the work is repetitive, but we've eliminated the ergonomic issues," Alex added. At a cookout last week one of his neighbors who worked in the automotive industry told Alex they should try automating more of their labor-intensive handling processes. She said robots are much more affordable today compared to 10 years ago, and more flexible, easy to program, and reliable as well.

More automation might solve some of their labor challenges, Alex thought. But the family members on the company's board of directors were leery of any new capital investments in this economic climate, especially technology that their competitors weren't using or that they weren't familiar with from their days in the plant. And they had all worked in the plant before moving up in the organization. The company's founder and CEO, Carl Manditer Senior himself, had made sure of that.

 

Should Alex push the CEO into more automation to deal with Manditer’s hiring and training woes?