Baking&Snack - August 2012 - 46

TYSON MEXICAN ORIGINAL

up waiting because the distribution area has only six loading doors. The plant mostly ships full truckloads. Some customers pick up their products at the plant, while others rely on Tyson transportation or outside carriers. Tyson also shuttles products to its distribution centers for customers who will be picking up only a pallet or two. While many products are shelfstable, the plant also makes items

that are kept in the freezer, in the refrigerator or at ambient temperatures, depending on customers’ needs. Because on-site freezer space is limited, this Mexican Original’s facility stores frozen products at a warehouse in Fort Wayne, IN, approximately 50 miles north.

Hitting leadoff
Increasing and fluctuating commodity prices have presented the greatest challenges to the company in recent years, according to Mr. Irvin. To address these issues, Tyson Mexican Original worked diligently at improving the quality of products so its customers received better yields. “We spent money on microingredient systems, training and people, automated equipment, and vision systems to do 100% quality checks,” he said. The plant also recently installed an enterprise inventory management (EIM) program, as part of a companywide effort to accurately track products through its production and distribution processes. The program also improved its ability to trace, by

Taco shells collate into counted stacks after cooking. Workers hand-load stacks of shells into corrugated boxes for food service customers.
Tyson Foods, Worth Sparkman

key indicators such as supplier and batch number, all ingredients that are a part of a finished product. As the second-largest US tortilla producer, Mexican Original has helped shape the fast-growing industrial tortilla processing business during the past couple of decades. In the first five minutes of Baking & Snack’s recent interview, Mr. Irvin said, “It’s been fun,” three times while explaining his roles within the company over the past several decades. After serving as a quality assurance manager for his first year with Mexican Original, Mr. Irvin, whose degree is in industrial engineering, was promoted to project manager. In this position, he helped automate much of the production at the Fayetteville, AR, plant, which the company acquired when it purchased the Dallas, TX-based Mexican Original, Inc. in 1983. “I kind of joke about it, but we have half the people and produce three times as much product today as we did back then,” he added. Because of Mr. Irvin’s work automating operations at the plant,

Safe in the heartland

“If your plant is not safe, then your plant is not running well at some level, in my opinion, said Dee ” Farra, plant manager of the Tyson Mexican Original facility in Portland, IN. Employee safety is a top priority for its parent company, Tyson Foods, Inc., Springdale, AR. Richard Irvin, Mexican Original complex manager, said that at corporate meetings, Donnie Smith, Tyson’s president and CEO, as well as Jim Lochner, COO, often start out by addressing this very issue. The Portland plant received recognition as the second safest Tyson plant companywide, and it holds voluntary safety meetings every week with workers on each shift. “We review everything that happened, no matter how small, and how can we prevent those issues in the future, Ms. Farra said. ” Dwayne Davis, the Portland plant’s safety manager, leads these meetings and has contributed greatly to the plant’s clean record. “He is a great communicator and one of the first people I can remember that makes you want to stay awake and listen during these meetings, Ms. Farra added. ” Employees’ taking ownership for personal safety has created this successful record. “No one can make you safer than yourself, she said. “It is an obligation for companies to provide a safe environ” ment, but as a team member, it is your responsibility to point out things that may not have gotten noticed, to have a voice in the area that you are working in and to just watch each other’s back. I think we have grabbed on to that philosophy and really rolled with it. “Our goal is for every person to come to work and leave in the same condition every day, Ms. ” Farra continued.

/ Baking & Snack / August 2012

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Baking&Snack - August 2012

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