Combination Scale System Slashes Labor, Doubles Throughput

摘要

Protein is the center of the production bullseye for Sugar Creek Packing Co., a Cincinnati-based co-man/co-pack that serves both retail and foodservice industries, mostly for brands or in-store private label. Bacon was the core competency upon which the company was founded, but in the last five years, it has expanded to include a range of meats, mostly ready-to-eat, including a line of meatballs. Sugar Creek now operates six manufacturing and packaging facilities with four in Ohio, one Indiana, and another in Kansas. It stands to reason that in the thin-workforce era, these past five years of expansion must've relied heavily on automation. But Alex Hauck, VP, Engineering, at Sugar Creek, says that shift has been slow largely due to the artisan culture and variability inherent in proteins. "I would say in the last three to four years we've become more automated," he says. "Our industry traditionally didn't lend itself to a lot of automation, but there definitely have been advances in the last several years and we've strategically taken advantage of those opportunities. It's just with the way the labor force is these days, you really have to get into more automation. Investment in automation definitely is worthwhile, the ROI is there for sure."