Kayem Foods

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} METAphor for efficiency   Two years into the process of continuous improvement, Kayem Foods is reaping the rewards. Vice president of operations Peter Monkiewicz talks to Gay Sutton about gearing up production and substantial growth.   We are what we eat, or so the saying goes, and if the maxim is true then we put a great deal of trust in the manufacturers of our foods. Family-run Kayem Foods of Chelsea, Massachusetts, has been manufacturing natural casing frankfurters, brats, sausages and deli items for the New England states for more than 100 years, focusing on quality products and healthy ingredients.  However, a new phase of expansion began eight years ago with the introduction of the al fresco product line. Created for the modern marketplace, this range of chicken sausagesÔÇölow in fat, preservative-free and full of flavorÔÇöhas been distributed nationally from the very start. Today the brand has carved a place for itself in kitchens across the US.   ÔÇ£For the past five years weÔÇÖve been exceeding 20 percent growth year-on-year for the al fresco brand,ÔÇØ explains Peter Monkiewicz, VP operations, one of the third generation that currently runs the business. ÔÇ£Our strategy is to expand on that national platform and then decide which categories of the Kayem brand we can also take nationally.ÔÇØ  To meet the demands of this dynamic growth, the company has been updating and improving its manufacturing capability and increasing capacity for future growth. Employing over 500 people, the company runs two manufacturing plants: one in Chelsea that produces cooked ready-to-eat products and the other in Woburn, which produces fresh sausage.┬á   A major $10 million technology upgrade is currently in the final stages of planning for the Chelsea cooked-meats plant. ÔÇ£This will allow us to double our capacity within the same footprint,ÔÇØ Monkiewicz says. The existing production lines are to be reorganized and a new line introduced into the space. ÔÇ£Our plan is to have it up and running by January 2011. Based on growth projections, it will run at about 60 percent capacity, which leaves room for future growth.ÔÇØ The company is also in the early stages of implementing a new ERP system from Lawson that will provide the IT backbone for the expanding business.  Perhaps the most far-reaching change to take place across the manufacturing sites over the past two years, though, has been the introduction of the principles and practices of continuous improvement. From the very beginning the program was designed to appeal to the workforce. ÔÇ£One of our supervisors came up with the term META, from the Spanish word for a journey of improvement,ÔÇØ he explains. With a workforce comprising around 80 percent Spanish-speaking employees, the choice was perfect.  The first step in the introduction of META was a program of training to familiarize the staff with the concepts of quality. It covered issues such as the cost of quality and making sure you do things right at an early stage in the process, having the ability to stop and identify when problems occur, the need to communicate cross-functionally from within departments, and knowing and identifying internal and external customers.  ÔÇ£We started with the executive group,ÔÇØ Monkiewicz says, ÔÇ£then went down to the supervisory groups and involved them in devising some of the initial projects. Then we took those supervisors and created trainers out of them, and they took it to the hourly teams.ÔÇØ  One of the early projects was to iron out a bottleneck in the cooking operation. ÔÇ£If the products didnÔÇÖt arrive in a specific sequence and time, we would either overload the queue or starve the packaging machines,ÔÇØ Monkiewicz explains. ÔÇ£So we formed a team, led by Belsar Gonzalez, with key members from each department and asked them to develop the workflows and tools to communicate the status of products within the operations. Now each department knows what products are being produced and when, and they are able to coordinate them through packaging in a consistent flow of product.ÔÇØ The improvement quickly demonstrated the power of META: production time was slashed by around 30 percent.  Since then, improvements across the plants have been numerous and varied. ÔÇ£ItÔÇÖs an incremental process; every day weÔÇÖre moving to a new level,ÔÇØ Monkiewicz says. Many improvements, however, have been aimed at reducing changeover times. With some products, such as the sausage range, the lead time from order receipt to shipping is less than a single shift, which means the production line has to be very nimble and flexible to respond quickly to the variety and immediacy of customer orders.┬á┬á   Today, the workforce on each production line has weekly meetings to air issues and discuss ways of reducing waste or improving process efficiency. And while many continuous improvement initiatives are driven from the supervisory and management level, many result from these shop-floor meetings. The benefit to the company has been significant. Over the past six years the fulfilment rate has risen from 96 percent to 99.7 percent. ÔÇ£Our process predictability has improved greatly, and this has enabled us to continue improving on our scheduling and forecasting. But one of the greatest things itÔÇÖs done for us is to create a sense of ownership for our employees.ÔÇØ  Alongside META, Kayem is also focusing considerable attention on reducing waste and cutting costs across the business. The company currently uses around 300,000 gallons of water a day, largely for rinsing and cooling products. ÔÇ£The waste then goes right down the drain,ÔÇØ Monkiewicz says. ÔÇ£We will soon begin installing a system that will recycle around 50 percent of that wastewater, running it through an ultra-filtration and reverse-osmosis system, and then taking it to our boilers and evaporators.ÔÇØ This project was engineered and managed in partnership with the project management company Aqualine.  Costing just $250,000, the system should be up and running by June this year and is projected to achieve payback in less than two years. Monkiewicz is planning to expand the system and will soon begin studies to purify the water to potable standards and identify further uses for it.   Waste is also being tackled across the business. Where previously the company had been segregating and recycling cardboard and sending waste animal scraps to be rendered, switching to a new waste management company, Casella, has opened up two exciting opportunities. First, Casella uses zero-sort technology that will sort and recycle much more of the general waste. Second, the company will shortly be commissioning a new digester that will convert the scraps into methane, which can then be used to generate electricity.  Looking to the future, Kayem will continue expanding its range of healthy foods and marketing them nationally. ÔÇ£We have a number of new products for our al fresco line,ÔÇØ Monkiewicz says. ÔÇ£One is a line of all-natural meatballs, and another is a super-secret project not yet ready to be revealed.ÔÇØ Meanwhile, plans are in place to take elements of the Kayem brand onto the national stage. But of equal importance will be the continuation of the META program to build on the manufacturing improvements that have already been achieved. *┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á *┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á *