Robot coffee?

Today, we went to CINNO at Veritas and participated in an activity in the FabLab. One of the most notable things today was all of the 3D printers in the lab. I'd never actually seen one print something before so it was fascinating to watch.

Technological advances could certainly revolutionize the coffee industry, but it would be at a cost.

The traditional way of producing coffee in Costa Rica is a long process involving many hours of difficult, manual labor. During one part of the process, workers must rake the beans every hour during the day. There could be process enhancement through automation, but it would cause the workers to lose their jobs to a machine.

During the manufacturing process, technological advances could also be utilized. 3-D printing is a very efficient way to create packaging (from both economic and environmental standpoints). 3-D printers don't create a lot of waste and the input materials are inexpensive, so they could be used to improve the coffee manufacturing process.

In the distribution process, drones could be useful as well. Drones could make distribution more efficient by bringing the coffee directly to the retailer or the customer themselves. Unfortunately, this could also result in the loss of jobs as a step in the supply chain could be skipped or made obsolete.

However, there are some instances where the traditional methods are better than the new, technologically advanced ones. For example, when harvesting coffee beans, it is best done by hand. The beans ripen at different rates, so if a machine was used to harvest all of the beans at once, many would go to waste because they weren't ready. The traditional method is actually better in this case because it provides a way to harvest only the beans that are ripe, even though it's a time consuming process.