Members of the current and future Centralia City Council, as well as city staff, Port of Centralia officials and Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce leaders, toured the United Natural Foods Inc. (UNFI) distribution center in Centralia Tuesday, Dec. 16.
Centralia councilors Norm Chapman, Sarah Althauser and Max Vogt were in attendance, along with Councilor-elect Kevin Curtis and Councilor-elect Ray Chapman-Wilson. Centralia City Manager Michael Thomas, Centralia Police Chief Andy Caldwell, Port Commissioner Julie Shaffley, Chamber Executive Director Cynthia Mudge and Chamber Board Chair Coralee Taylor, who also owns The Chronicle, joined the tour.
The visitors had the opportunity to witness the live operation of the UNFI distribution center, which covers approximately 1.2 million square feet and is located at 4002 Galvin Road. UNFI is one of the nation’s largest publicly traded wholesale distributors of healthier food options, according to its website.
Staff from its Rhode Island headquarters answered questions about the distribution center’s impact on traffic, how the company distributes to local grocers, and the relationship between its employees and automation.
After the tour, Norm Chapman called the distribution center a “very well-oiled, professional business organization.” He echoed the same sentiment from numerous community leaders regarding how clean the massive facility is, and he learned that UNFI has strong rodent control tactics despite its proximity to farmland.
Chapman’s primary interest was in the truck traffic the distribution center is responsible for. Truck impacts on Centralia’s roads, most notably on Harrison Avenue, were a chief reason for the Centralia City Council declaring a temporary moratorium on the development of warehouses and distribution centers exceeding 250,000 square feet in September.
Chapman noted that the UNFI distribution center has about 150 inbound trucks and 90 outbound trucks per day, with the majority traveling at night. He said about 70% of their 590 associates work in the evening.
Thomas said UNFI operates the facility 24/7, 365 days per year and operated continuously through this month’s rain events and flooding. UNFI staff told visitors that zero jobs at the facility, including its in-house commercial drivers, have been lost to automation. Although automation is present within the facility’s operations, staff have been retrained into new jobs to monitor and operate robots and machines in the plant.
“They said they haven’t reduced the number of workers because they had job shifts,” Chapman said. “They’re working alongside the robotics to optimize the distribution network. There were a lot of workers that were feeding the conveyor belts with forklifts, and then the automation process took place in terms of how it’s all packaged up. The automation process was impressive how they were picking items off of the shelving and putting them on the pallets. I felt so overstimulated.”
Chapman got the impression that the symbiotic relationship between employees and automation is here to stay for the long haul and that automation will not replace humans.
“I don’t see it going in the opposite direction. I think, currently, what I saw with the workers working in conjunction with the robots is pretty much going to stay like it is,” he said.
Vogt had a differing opinion on the future of the company, as well as automation in general, than his seatmate. While he noted that he was amazed by the efficiency of the technology in the UNFI facility, he believes “technology will not be stopped” and will replace humans in jobs.
“There’s a desire to be innovative and to make things easier and more convenient, but we’re participating in our own demise. It’s destructive,” Vogt said. “It’s not a good direction where it’s trending.”
UNFI’s Centralia distribution center is one of 49 such facilities the company has nationwide. At the Centralia location, Chapman said UNFI faces very little job turnover, as the company only has 37 openings. Compensation begins at $23 per hour, Chapman said.
Attendees visited the facility’s cold storage unit where frozen foods are kept at 20 degrees below zero or colder.
During the Dec. 17 Port of Centralia meeting, Shaffley called the tour “extremely impressive” and expanded on the role automation plays in the facility.
“The jobs changed from picking items and getting orders together to mechanics, robots, computer techs and forklift operators. It was amazing to see this,” she said.
Additionally, Shaffley praised the work UNFI does in the Centralia community. She said the Centralia staff has 1,700 volunteer hours this year, ranking first among UNFI’s distribution centers nationwide. Some of that volunteer work includes cleaning roads, donating 1.7 million pounds of food to area food banks and donating food to the veterans museum.
“They’re very involved with the community. I was very impressed with the whole community of UNFI, and they were very welcoming and very generous,” Shaffley said.
The Chronicle’s newsroom requested to join the tour, but a company spokesperson said there was no room for the media.
