Food Processing - December 2007 - (Page 23)

The practice of global transfer also has broadened that general base of experience and has the added benefit of cross-fertilizing operations with global best practices. The company is trying to leverage the experience and harmony of existing work units to develop its largely homegrown work team concepts. “(The team concept) is working well in the (M&M’S) coating room,” says Dodge. “The people there have worked together for a long time. It’s a worldclass and best-in-industry team, highly skilled and operating some of the more complex assets (in the plant). We’re trying to take that spirit and pride and build from it.” “As our factories evolve and become more efficient and effective, we look to more engagement of our employees,” adds Emberger, noting Mars’ employment of Kaizen techniques – continuous improvement “quality-control” strategies – to add value to products and to improve the supply chain. Emberger also identifies environmental and sustainability issues among Mars manufacturing priorities – specifically eliminating waste generated by changeover or process inefficiencies. Reducing the amount of time that lines generate unusable product also reduces energy consumption. “As a corporation, we take best practices across the globe. We can transfer our knowledge to other plants in the system,” says Emberger, noting there are 100 Mars manufacturing plants around the world. “We’re after the low-hanging fruit first in areas like electrical usage. With our boilers, heat generators and compressed air, we try to re-use energy. We use the heat from our air compressors to pre-heat boiler water. And we track our energy usage by line closely and run some motors only when required.” Mars culture long has demanded strong in-house engineering support for its home-grown systems and equipment. Although the company incorporates more off-the-shelf equipment today than it has in the past, it claims not to have sacrificed engineering strength in the process. The engineering organization is divided into three levels: global, North American and factory level. Engineers may be assigned to long-term projects, mid-term projects or support and implementation roles. “(This division) helps us develop new processing and packaging machines,” says Emberger. “And STAINLESS STEEL BELTS* Designed For Today’s Food Processing Needs. Complete Conveyor Systems Freezing Baking SPECIAL FEATURES • Teflon® Coated • Perforated • V-Belt Tracked • Smooth Surface • • • • VERSATILE Sanitary Durable Heat Transfer Casting, Frying more on THe web several ancillary mars manufacturing stories are available only on our web site. search “mars” at www.foodprocessing.com to find a close-up look at the m&m’s peanut manufacturing process and interesting facts about mars snackfood’s U.s. plants. www.foodprocessing.com www.BeltTechnologies.com 11 Bowles Road, Agawam, MA 01001 • Tel.: 413-786-9922 • Fax: 413-789-2786 800-732-2358 *Available in Stainless or Carbon Steel Belts which meet FDA and USDA requirements. Teflon is a registered trademark of DuPont. ISO 9001 Registered december 2007 food processing • 23 http://www.BeltTechnologies.com http://www.BeltTechnologies.com http://www.foodprocessing.com http://www.foodprocessing.com http://www.foodprocessing.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Food Processing - December 2007

Contents Editor's Plate NewsBites Rollout Food Biz Kids Processor of the Year: Mars Snackfood U.S. Mass Production Meets Custom Manufacturing Product Development: Bone appetit! Show Report: Pack/Process Expo and Worldwide Food Expo New Product Profiles Toops Scoops

Food Processing - December 2007

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