If you imagine lettuce as a crop planted in a field and tended by farmers, you're behind the times.

Kyoto-based vegetable factory operator Spread Co. said it will begin construction of what it calls a fully automated large-scale lettuce factory in spring 2016, which will be able to produce 30,000 heads of lettuce per day with “a push of a button.”

The company isn't quite finished with the factory's development. According to Spread, there are six stages to growing a lettuce at a factory: seeding, germination, raising the seedlings, transplanting them into a larger bed, raising the vegetable and harvesting. The company said it is still working on a machine that can handle the seeding process. And it still requires human eyes to confirm germination. Beyond that, every process is automated, it says.

Stacker cranes are to carry the lettuce seedlings and hand them over to robots which will take care of transplanting them. Once fully grown, they will be harvested and delivered automatically to the factory’s packaging line. The automated process will not only handle the lettuce but also control the temperature, humidity, level of carbon dioxide, sterilization of water and lighting hours, the company said.

Spread has seven years of experience in growing lettuce in its factories, with the produce being sold in 2,000 stores in Japan. While the lettuce is sold for about the same price as that grown in regular farms today, the company hopes to bring down costs. It says the factory lettuce tastes the same as lettuce grown outdoors.

Shipments from the fully automated lettuce factory are expected to begin in summer 2017.

While still not fully automated, Japanese electronics companies are also looking into growing vegetables and fruits in some of their idled factories. Fujitsu Ltd., Toshiba Corp. and Panasonic Corp. are among those that have expanded their business to vegetable-growing.