According to Kusumawati's research in 2017, manual picking resulted in low PMS due to the lack of pickers' skills in picking tea shoots. In machine picking, the quality of shoots produced is quite high. This is possible because machine picking uses a flat-picking system so that the quality and quality of shoots depends on precise picking shifting settings and operator skills.

From the experience at the Gambung Tea and Quinine Research Center (PPTK), it was found that the skills of machine operators are one of the important things to pay attention to in picking because machine operators are required to be consistent in maintaining the height of the picking machines above the picking plane during picking.