Published: October 23, 2025

Five Questions with Richard Rookes

Richard Rookes
President and CEO, MHM Automation

What are the biggest challenges you face in demonstrating the value and advantages of automation to food processors?

Our systems usually represent large capital projects, typically part of a larger capital investment program or annual capital expenditure budget. Especially for larger customers, we need to meet corporate capital expenditure cycles and ROI requirements as well as plant demands. These are the key issues we see:

1. Upfront costs & ROI concerns. Our systems always need to meet expected ROI in the form of return hurdles. We often need to work with a customer to base ROI on yield improvements, labor savings, improved food quality, and better health and safety. In seasonal businesses such as the vegetable and fruit sectors, this expectation poses a particular challenge.
2. Layout issues and brownfield vs. greenfield installations. Rather than integrate our solution into a new facility that’s built for automation (greenfield), we’re usually allocated a small space in an existing plant, one that was not designed for automation (brownfield). This leads to design issues related to footprint and access.
3. Concerns about service. We often supply production-critical systems, so their uptime and reliability are paramount. The skills required to maintain automated solutions generally differ from those available on the factory floor. Our customers need to feel certain that they will have access to skilled operators, that parts will be available as needed and that we are there to help them when they need us. Increasingly, we need in-market service capabilities to support our systems, which is leading the growth of our aftermarket business.
4. Variance in raw materials. Automated systems struggle with inconsistent food inputs (e.g., size, shape or texture variations in produce, soil, stones, etc.), which makes some processors doubt the reliability of automation for their specific needs.
5. Resistance to change. Workplace cultures and organizations may resist the shift from manual or semi-automated to fully automated operations. Employees may fear job loss or the technology itself, and leadership may be wary of disruption.

Which of those circumstances do you consider to be the most important to your customers?

1. ROI. It’s the primary basis for customer decisions and the reason we need to work with each customer to prove our value. ROI is difficult to sell when it’s solely based on labor costs – even when skilled labor is scarce and expensive. ROI based on yield improvements provides a much more compelling incentive.
2. Reliability. Technical staff are unlikely to be available on customer sites, so we need to ensure that our systems are reliable and easy to operate. We also need to provide aftermarket service and spare parts to eliminate major downtime.
3. Labor. Globally, the food processing industry struggles to attract staff to jobs that can be repetitive, low skilled, in cold environments and with manual handling of heavy items. The nature of the work increases health and safety concerns, results in high turnover and raises total cost of employment beyond hourly wage costs.
4. Food safety and traceability. Food safety is of increasing importance. The fewer human hands touch food products, the better. Automation improves food safety in plants.

What roles do you see AI playing in the food processing industry?

1. Predictive maintenance. Today, AI can monitor equipment health and predict failures, which reduces downtime and repair costs. We now build our systems with the connectivity and sensors for remote monitoring.
2. Quality inspection, defect and waste detection. We use vision systems and machine learning to detect defects or quality issues (e.g., discoloration, size inconsistencies) faster and more accurately than human inspectors can.
3. AI. We are discussing AI technology with our customers for supply chain optimization. Our systems must use the right software to connect to plant-wide systems that optimize throughput through the facility.
4. Process optimization. In real time, AI continuously analyzes and adjusts processes such as cooking, freezing or packaging to improve energy efficiency, throughput or yield.

What are the three biggest wins that food processors can expect from updating their technology?

At a macro level, we believe that automation will future proof our customers’ operations and reduce their business risk through three factors.

1. Improved yields. Our systems raise yields for a direct and positive impact on margins.
2. Reduced reliance on labor that is scarce as well as unreliable, compared to an automated solution that poses less health and safety risk.
3. Improved food safety and compliance. Automation limits human interaction with food and improves product traceability. The increasing use of vision systems boosts quality control.

How do you approach sustainability through food processing automation?

Among our current product developments – including a Wyma-developed water recycling system – we specifically target sustainability. Our customers prioritize water monitoring, and this system can reduce fresh water use by up to 70%.

Our plate freezing systems typically use 20%-25% less energy than blast freezing.

Our approach to customers and the product development pipeline focuses on sustainability at the customer plant level. Automation includes obvious benefits: reduced reliance on labor, improved food safety, and improved health and safety. If we can improve the sustainability of our customers’ operations at the same time, then that is another key win.