Meat+Poultry - July 2017 - 16

COVER STORY

Kafer leads eight team
members at Smithfield's
Engineering and
Environmental Affairs
office, located near the
company's corporate office
in Smithfield, Virginia.

"We've divested
companies
and added
companies,
but I've
always tried
to maintain
collaboration
with the other
engineers."

16

each roaster at the plant produced different
results in color, yield and flavor because they
were operated like a temperature-based oven.
"I figured out that we were probably over
roasting; probably wasting energy; probably
losing yield," says Kafer who utilized a
Texas Instruments-based control system for
heating the beans to a certain temperature
and letting the beans self-roast once they
became exothermic. His theory created plenty
of skepticism among many coffee industry
veterans. "I took reams and reams and reams
of data," evaluating and recording cycle
times, yields, moisture analysis, flavor profile
assessments and more. "It took months," Kafer
says, "but we proved that we would shorten
cycle time and improve yield. Eventually, they
(the roaster operators) saw the benefits of it."
Another valuable lesson was learned
from this exercise, Kafer says, one that still
applies today: "If you want to introduce new
technology, you have to learn it and be willing
to teach it. I had to show them, 'I know how
this works and I am going to teach you how it
works and show you what the benefits are.'"
While still working at General Foods, Kafer
went back to school to hone his operations
skills by enrolling at Fairleigh Dickinson
Univ. in a two-and-a-half year MBA program
specializing in industrial management. After
earning his Master's, Kafer's career focus
shifted to operations, and while still at General
Foods he advanced in management roles in
that capacity.
After about eight years, Kafer left Maxwell
House and went to work at a small privately
owned coffee company in Secaucus, New

MEAT+ POULTRY | 07.17 | www.meatpoultry.com

Jersey, as a vice president of operations for
about one year and then was recruited by
a snack company, also in New Jersey, as a
director of operations of two plants where
trail mix and nuts and seeds were made. After
eight years working in all facets of the snack
food company, Kafer had established himself
as a well-rounded food industry operations and
engineering professional.

VEERING TO VIRGINIA
After years of living with the long commutes,
traffic and occasional crime of big cities began
to wear on the family. His wife got a job offer
to work in Fairfax, Virginia, that was too good
to pass up and at a time when the couple and
their family were ready for a change of scenery.
Kafer left his job knowing northern Virginia
wasn't known for being a manufacturing hub
but optimistic about new opportunities. Within
a couple of months in 1991, Kafer took a job
with a Washington, DC, gourmet food retailer,
Sutton Place Gourmet (later acquired by Dean
& DeLuca) as the director of maintenance
and engineering. There he was able to utilize
his coffee background and experience in all
facets of his food industry background, which
included maintenance, engineering and more.
That stint lasted about six years and taught
Kafer even more.
"It was great because it gave me exposure
to retail, to marketing, to a lot of things that
engineering and operations people normally
don't get to experience firsthand."
Then Kafer's yearning to get back into
manufacturing became a reality when he got a
call from a recruiter seeking a plant manager
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