Consumer goods manufacturers—especially food and beverage processors—have enough problems: the high cost of energy, escalating cost of commodities, short product lifecycles, intricate and difficult supply chains, regulatory issues, inefficient processes and so on. But another issue looms: finding qualified engineers and production workers/operators to keep plants operating. Part of the problem is that factory work just isn’t attractive to young engineers who see the glory in R&D, product design and software. In addition, plant efficiencies in the food and beverage industry are simply not up to those in the automotive industry, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics.