Articles
The Lead
The Ruling Glass
May 17, 2012 | by Krystal Gabert, Editor | Comments
As craft beers continue to make headway in the beer industry, gaining market share year over year, small brewers are making big waves with new ideas about flavor and processing techniques that are changing the way consumers think about beer.
Testing, Testing… The Emergence Of Test Facilities
May 15, 2012 10:05 am | by Krystal Gabert, Editor | Comments
In an effort to save customers time and money — and to showcase their own equipment — food...
Q&A: Consistency Is Key
May 15, 2012 9:37 am | by Jonathan Sabo, Vice-President of Marketing, Cardinal Scale Manufacturing Co. | Comments
Consistency is key in the food industry. A food product’s recipe must continually be accurate...
Pay Practices A Key Concern For Food Processors
May 14, 2012 8:30 am | by Helen N. Baker, Freeborn & Peters LLP | Comments
Compensation practices of meat and poultry producers have been closely examined by courts...
HACCP Update: Developing A HACCP Plan
May 18, 2012 12:18 pm | by Krystal Gabert, Editor | CommentsHACCP plan development has evolved with the changing economic and regulatory environment in the food industry. Food Manufacturing surveyed its readers to find out how manufacturers are trying to do less with more while meeting new demands from customers and from federal regulations.
The Deceptive Nature Of Metrics
May 18, 2012 10:18 am | CommentsMost of us can’t, won’t, and don’t operate our businesses, or our specific corners of a business, without metrics. Metrics are important. However, we must remain vigilant against the misleading potential of metrics and should establish behaviors to guard against metrics-driven mistakes.
Educating Tomorrow’s Supply Chain Leaders
May 16, 2012 1:10 pm | by William Gindlesperger, Founder, ABC Advisors & e-LYNXX Corp. | CommentsThe status of supply chain management has risen on college campuses because corporate America has recognized the strategic importance of the procurement and delivery of goods and services. Students also are noticing that C-level supply chain management posts are being created.
Sweet Tradition
May 16, 2012 9:59 am | by Frank Jansen, Product Manager, Bosch Packaging Technology | CommentsOne candy company increases quality and conserves energy by updating its confectionery production lines.
Accurate Measurements Play Key Role In Productivity
May 14, 2012 9:24 am | by OHAUS Corporation | CommentsIn order to ensure precision and efficiency during its weighing processes, a specialty food supplier utilizes five checkweighing scales in combination with a specialized proprietary software system to collect the weights of each individually wrapped cheese package and generate the corresponding label.
Fine Line Between Greed & Groundbreaking Discovery
May 11, 2012 10:11 am | by CHRIS FOX, Associate Editor, Product Design & Development | CommentsHave you seen the price of gas lately? This is what happens when large corporations get involved in things that we demand or desperately want. They corner the market and rack up the price.
Shoot From The Hip, Shoot Yourself In the Foot
May 10, 2012 12:58 pm | by Eric Egeland, CPCU, AU, President, Capacity Consulting, Inc. | CommentsHave you ever wondered how many times you have tried to do something half-way, only to discover that it would have been easier if done the right way from the very beginning? The Small Business Administration has done multiple studies that say approximately half of new businesses fail. I have also read dozens of top 10 lists outlining the reasons that new businesses fail. Every single item on those lists traces back to poor planning and preparation.
Early Warm Weather May Increase Pest Activity At Your Facility
May 9, 2012 10:00 am | by Zia Siddiqi, Ph.D., B.C.E., Director of Quality Systems, Orkin, LLC | CommentsFood processing facilities are already attractive to pests, and with this year’s nearly nonexistent winter and early spring, pest activity has greatly increased. As a result, pests such as flies, rodents and Indian meal moths may seek out your facility for food and survival at a greater rate than usual.
Think About Never Failing, Not How To Recover
May 9, 2012 8:00 am | by Dennis Wenk, Symantec | CommentsOperational resilience is the economical balance between an organization’s requirements for service availability and the consequence of an interruption to that service. The likelihood that your organization will experience a catastrophic loss from a material service interruption caused by an IT operational-problem is far greater than any service interruption being caused by some disaster or "black swan" event.
The Crisis Management Playbook
May 8, 2012 11:17 am | by Annie Searle, Principal, Annie Searle & Associates LLC | CommentsA little detective work often shows that emergency management plans are, by and large, lifted from another organization, resulting in a poor fit, or perhaps the plan was created by former staff members who took a couple of FEMA courses.
Q&A: PBS Show Finds U.S. Manufacturing As Strong As Ever
May 7, 2012 3:12 pm | by Yul Kwon, Host, 'America Revealed' | CommentsThe last episode of PBS’s series “America Revealed” aired on May 2, and unveiled surprising facts about the state of manufacturing in the United States. Instead of documenting what most people think is an industry in serious decline, the series producers and host Yul Kwon found reasons to be exhilarated and optimistic.
Q&A: What’s Trending in Inventory Management
May 7, 2012 1:27 pm | by Meeta Kratz, Senior Director, Customer Business Issues, Grainger | CommentsMore than ever before manufacturers are moving to “just-in-time” inventory as much as possible to reduce excess spend on items that do not turn quickly. Manufacturers now better understand the cost savings and efficiency gains that come from stocking only what inventory is critical to have and leveraging supplier partners to deliver all other items as they are needed.
The Comeback Kid: Manufacturing’s U.S. Renaissance
May 7, 2012 9:56 am | by Adam Beckerman, Partner, Habif, Arogeti & Wynne, LLP | CommentsThe U.S. manufacturing renaissance is off and running, there is no denying that, as more and more manufacturing jobs are being brought back to the U.S. and companies are ramping up innovation by incubating new products, services and internal processes.
The Dangers Of Process Automation
May 4, 2012 12:41 pm | by Alan Nicol, Executive Member, AlanNicolSolutions | CommentsWhen attempting to improve process performance, automation is a tempting solution. While automation can be very effective, otherprocess problems should be addressed first in order for an investment in automated systems to pay off.
Q&A With Paul Humphreys, Atlas Copco
May 4, 2012 9:50 am | by Industrial Maintenance and Plant Operation | CommentsAtlas Copco's Paul Humphreys talks with IMPO about the worrying maintenance trends we've seen since the downturn — and how we can fix them.
