Supply Chain World - Volume 7, Issue 3 - 123

conagra brands inc. food & beverage

that represented our people,"
Biegger recalls.
This has allowed employees
to break down barriers between
them and take more ownership of
the process. "We developed this
great commitment and it drove a
higher level of engagement from
the organization," he says. The
commitment continues to this day
with employees holding sessions
to discuss next steps.
"There are no silos in the supply
chain or across the company," Biegger says. "You'll hear people making
comments like, 'Because of our approach, I've gotten to know people
and processes from other functions
and in a way that I would not have
otherwise.' That's an example of
behavior change."
Biegger notes the company has
made sure to engage people at the
plant level, as well. Although plant
environments can be traditional,
"We're very progressive at some
of the plants and are taking steps
to become more so at all of our
plants over time," Biegger says, explaining that Conagra Brands has
started implementing high-performance organizations. "It's more
of a structured approach to design
how our hourly people work in the
plants so they become skilled in
multiple areas."
This helps the company develop autonomous teams that can
take ownership of tasks and make
their own decisions. "It creates a
culture of ownership and offers a
more fulfilling experience in the
workplace," he says, noting that
Conagra plans to roll this structure
out location by location.
This approach will not only improve efficiency and performance,

but also reduce employee turnover.
"Most people tend to stay at plants
where we have high-performance
work system approaches because
they feel a stronger sense of ownership," Biegger explains.

'A Great Session'
O'Rourke and his team have been
part of the integration process
since Conagra acquired Pinnacle
Brands. This gave Conagra iconic
brands such as Birds Eye, Duncan
Hines and Wish-Bone, as well as
emerging brands like Gardein,
Earth Balance and EVOL. O'Rourke was at Pinnacle's Parsippany,
N.J., facility every week before the
end of December to help with the
transition and determine each
company's best-in-class operations and how to deliver value
through them. Again, communication, learning from each other and

getting input from a lot of people
really helped the transition for the
two companies. Not only did they
find a big price harmonization on a
key material, but they found many
other opportunities for synergy.
"My team was one of the first
to meet with the Parsippany team
after the close, and we spent two
days in a workshop learning about
them, understanding how they
were organized to work, and what
their strategies and systems were,"
O'Rourke says. "We spent a lot of
time helping them understand
our spend categories, how we go
to market, what's our strategy and
who the key relationships are.
"We had a lot to learn because
some of those brands were very
unique to us," he adds. "It was a
great session, and we came up with
natural teams that would focus on
synergy, integration and knowledge

"We try to be agile - that is
another value of ours - and we
have a refuse-to-lose mentality,"
Jim O'Rourke says. "We have a
go-get-it-done mentality."

VOLUME 7, ISSUE 3 Supply Chain World

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Supply Chain World - Volume 7, Issue 3

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Supply Chain World - Volume 7, Issue 3
