I recently attended my daughter’s FFA awards banquet at a local high school where she teaches agriculture. Like most kids, everyone of the students had their cell phones in their hands, typing away. After a failed attempt to get the kids to practice one more time before the event started, the teachers confiscated all of the phones from the kids on stage — and it was like taking one of their arms away to give them up. The awards ceremony went off without any interruptions, at least no one could be seen texting anyway.
The reason I bring up this anecdote is because you see it happening everywhere. Everyone is always on their smart phone — from texting to talking with someone to browsing the Internet for “stuff” — what did we do before the invention of the mobile phone?
Mobile technology also serves as a valuable tool in the workforce. As one of my co-workers stated in a meeting: “[Smart phones] have become a news delivery device.” In this industry, we rely on it for so much more than communication between one person and another. Consider how much time it took to communicate between employees at a plant 10 years ago. They had to go to a desk to jump on a computer to enter any type of data, maintenance, production or safety related information.
Today’s younger generation is very “techie.” They rely heavily on their smart phones — they can find any information with Google, retrieve data, manage personal accounts, take a picture of a piece of equipment that needs some attention, text or call a supplier for some help on fixing a problem out in the plant. As our cover story explains, it cuts downtime and improves accuracy on record keeping for maintenance in eight of Southern States Cooperative’s plants.
There is definitely a generation gap between the folks that work in the plants and manage the plants; however, in this day and age, the older generation is being forced to get on board with smart technology at our workplaces. The list of benefits is endless — and it makes our jobs so much easier.
Here at Feed & Grain magazine, we will continue to deliver information anyway you want to receive it — in print, on our website and on our mobile site as well. Feed & Grain is there when you are looking for information, and we aim to serve all generations.
