Charlie Hall on Innovations in Lean Flow, Automation, and More
October 20, 2022 
Charlie Hall
Dr. Charlie Hall of Texas A&M University, who will be speaking at this year’s GROW Executive Summit on the Economic Climate and Forecast for 2023, accepted Greenhouse Grower’s Industry Achievement Award during the Medal of Excellence event at Cultivate’22. Virtually every grower in the horticulture industry knows Dr. Hall, whether it’s from his industry presentations, or his in-person or virtual educational focus. Now, here’s your chance to learn even more about him. Greenhouse Grower’s six-part series on Dr. Hall’s legacy continues with a look at what he considers to be the greatest innovations the horticulture industry has experienced over the years. Check out Part 1 of the series (why growers need to understand horticulture economics) here and Part 2 (how Charlie’s background has shaped him) here. Watch for Part 4 next week!
Greenhouse Grower: What are some of the most influential evolutions and innovations that you’ve seen in this industry since you’ve been a part of it?
Charlie Hall: You guys do an excellent job of writing about a lot of those changes, and I can list a handful of things. Lean flow is definitely one of them. Labor has been such a challenge for the industry, not just now, but for over two decades. The whole field of developing lean flow and lean manufacturing techniques within our nursery and greenhouse businesses has been one of the biggest changes and the biggest benefits that I’ve seen.
Dr. Charlie Hall is one of the featured speakers at this year’s GROW Executive Summit. Click on this image to learn more and to register!
The allied trade has been very proactive in developing the best plant protection products. What we have today to grow plants, fertilize plants, and treat weeds, mites, insects, and so forth, the artillery that growers have in terms of plant protection products, is by far the best that it’s been ever since I’ve been associated with the industry.
Automation and mechanization have also been important. Look at the robotics and the climate control systems. Now we have artificial intelligence with the new Luna technology and cameras and so forth. We have tools for inventory control and big data capabilities through software and ERP systems that we didn’t have back in the day. We had some smaller software packages that were available, but it couldn’t combine the accounting functions with plant production and inventory information. We still struggle with that a little bit, but the systems now work so that instead of having to take a non-green industry software and make it fit into our industry or do our own programming, we’re seeing a lot more ERP types of systems that are being developed and making a big difference.
Those changes are just from the production standpoint, But I think the capabilities of distributional logistics is night and day compared to what it was. We’re literally able to get plants where they need to be within a matter of hours. We saw how delicate that balance is during the pandemic with the supply chain. Over four decades, we developed a supply chain that was just-in-time in nature. The pandemic showed where the breaking points were, and now we’re metamorphosizing that supply chain to reduce the risk. We still have a ways to go, but I think the end result will be an even better supply chain for the green industry.
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