No matter what disruptive technology a farm decides to implement, Jon Hoek says customer experience is paramount.

Ann Hess, Content Director

December 12, 2018

6 Min Read
Several of the technologies the Summit team is either testing out now or have plans to implement soon.
Summit Precision

If you ask Jon Hoek, director of Summit Precision Production, why disruption needs to happen in the swine industry, his first answer would be because we have tremendous variation in our production systems. His second? Disruptive technologies could reshape our industry and even help us to potentially eradicate diseases and change the way we lead people in swine production. After all, look how technologies such as the smartphone and Uber have changed society today.

“How will we do that as pig producers? How do other businesses do that? How do we go after that change, that is significant, that leads to the future of our businesses in a way that we will stay viable and effective?” Hoek says collaboration is the key to innovation.

Last week Hoek, who hails from Remington, Ind., shared what he believes is “The Future of Disruptive Technology in Pig Production” during his presentation at the Midwest Pork Conference in Danville, Ind. Several of the technologies the Summit team is either testing out now or have plans to implement soon.

Disruptions tapped into today

Summit powered by Cloverleaf
Discovering an innovative technology often requires an ecosystem of different companies working together, that often have opposite skill sets. That’s why Hoek says Summit offers to the industry Summit Human powered by Cloverleaf, a comprehensive personal and team development tool, to help their employees connect professionally.

Cloverleaf cross-maps the team’s personality, skills and culture, and reveals insights that can help individuals make better decisions within their teams. The program creates an assessment dashboard, allowing managers to monitor the dynamics of their teams, to identify potential strengths within the team and to place people in the various categories that fit their skills, goals and culture.

QPS process mapping
QPS stand for Quality Performance Systems. This system employs lean manufacturing and process control technologies to standardize processes within the farm. The goal of QPS is to bring consistency to biological manufacturing. The QPS process creates training tools to standardize human tasks within the farm. This standardization creates training documentation that helps in the leadership of people and the care of animals. The outcome of QPS implementation is to lower variation in biological manufacturing.

pTRACK
Breaches of biosecurity can happen in swine systems and sometimes it’s hard to tell where the problem originated. Summit has installed a kit that follows tracing risks associated with pathogen carrying agents. A collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim, p-TRACK (pathogen TRACing Kit) traces and monitors multiple risks associated with pathogen carrying agents in the farms such as tools, farm staff, visitors or other fomites. Using p-TRACK, veterinarians and farmers can measure in real time risky events related with movements.

In addition to tracking biosecurity issues, the p-TRACK beacons that are placed throughout the farm can transmit to the manager’s smartphone when staff are moving outside their normal work zones. Hoek says this type of information could help more farms with labor optimization and the execution of tasks and standard operating procedures.

“We think at some point or time we will start developing farms that have better logistics for both animals and people,” Hoek says.

Disruptions in progress

Central managed wean-to-finish
Currently being tested at an 8,400-head site in Warren County, Ind., the wean-to-finish project allows Summit to get more visibility on multiple sites and create a central location monitor site that creates algorithms and give alarms when problems occur.

TellTail is a collaborative partner. A data analytics startup within Enterpriseworks, a technology incubator at the University of Illinois, TellTail is creating predictive and forecast algorithm technology to improve the management of wean-to-finish pig production systems. Additionally, Summit is working with SoundTalks, a monitoring tool that detects coughs and assists the producer and the veterinarian in their daily decision making. Hoek says it’s been demonstrated in places such as Belgium and elsewhere, by using SoundTalks, some barns have been able to treat disease issues seven days before a human detected there was a problem.

Central managing finishing is also beneficial to humans. Hoek compares it to a flight, where you can use auto pilot.

“There’s still intense management the first few weeks to get the pigs started, but once they are on their way, you have limited human surveillance,” Hoek says. “You are not in there 24 hours a day — these technologies afford us 24-hour machine surveillance.”

Hoek says this could lead to more weekends off for staff and the ability to reallocate labor to sow farms. By third quarter 2019, Summit hopes to launch the first revision of the central managed wean-to-finish model.

Humatec employee development system
A pilot project at a 10,000-sow farm in central Indiana, Humatec is an initiative aimed at creating an irresistible workplace by understanding both cultural and production bottlenecks within the farm. The initiative analyzes data from human intelligence products such as SUMMIT HUMAN powered by Cloverleaf and SIFTHR. Justin Wiegand is Summit’s director of Human Strategy and Organizational Fit. Summit also has two full-time employees imbedded in the farm for one year to implement HUMATEC.

“We want to understand the cultural development of people and the culture dynamics of the farm,” Hoek says. “Peter Drucker said ‘culture eats strategy for breakfast.’ You have to develop culture first before the implementation of strategy. QPS comes in behind culture. The two together drive production optimization.”

Now in its sixth month, Hoek says the trends are going in the right direction for the project.

Wean-to-finish precision technology
Through an ongoing partnership with Swiss company, Ingenera, Summit is currently investigating how image processing and smart sensors can not only help take livestock weight measurement, but also assist in bio surveillance efforts. For example, if a pig gets sick, the infrared cameras would pick up the heat patches on the animal and send signals that something isn’t right. The camera may also help to more effectively measure effective environmental temperatures and adjust barn controllers accordingly.

“Humans will never be completely out of it, but this allows us to dial in ventilation to what the pig is telling us,” Hoek says.

Summit is exploring other technologies like this that may work in their system as well.

Cutting out human stress
With employee turnover continuing to be an industry issue, and costing operations anywhere from 20% at the slat level to 100 to 150% for losing an executive or mid-level manager, Hoek says Summit realized this was an area they wanted to explore more.

BioRICS, a Belgium-based company, has developed algorithms to monitor stress levels at work. First tested on Formula 1 race car drivers, the technology measures stress levels and what sets them off. Hoek says while some stress is good, this type of information will be useful during certain events on the farm.

No matter what disruptive technology a farm decides to implement, Hoek says customer experience is paramount. With so many companies entering the space, it can get complicated and confusing.

“In many cases protein production is the new frontier for disruptive technology,” Hoek says. “The tremendous production variation provides a seed for innovation to grow. We are excited about entering the space.”

About the Author(s)

Ann Hess

Content Director, National Hog Farmer

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