Baking & Snack - May 2008 - 35

36
pany's collaborative innovation process bolsters
this assignment. 1Lance established Charlotte as its
center for branded product R&D. "But new product
development actually involves a much larger group,
with people from all our locations participating,"
Mr. Christensen explained.
There's more involved. "Our job is not only new
products but also current products," Mr. Brooks
stated. "If we do our jobs right, then our customers will prefer our products and will buy them
more often. And our shareholders will benefit."
The R&D group reports to Mr. Brooks, who has
responsibility as well for QA, regulatory matters,
packaging and consumer affairs. He answers to
Blake Thompson, senior vice-president of supply ᮡ Bob McDowell, analytical and inspection services, Charlotte, NC; Ron Blaschke, quality
manager, Columbus, GA; and Christine Schieckoff, quality assurance manager, Cambridge,
chain, who reports to Mr. Singer. "It's a very short ON, listened intently to the discussion of Lance's new innovation strategy and its results
path and works great for keeping the company's in new products and consumer testing.
ear to the ground," Mr. Brooks observed.
Lance's R&D is integrated with QA/QC activities in "and I'm part of that change," Mr. Christensen noted. He
close collaboration. When working on new products, joined the company slightly more than a year ago, bringing
R&D sets up the specs and readies them for bench, con- his background in consumer sensory work.
sumer and plant tests. "QC is also heavily involved with
"One of the new Lance fundamentals is that we rely on
the testing and process control," Mr. Brooks said.
consumer testing of new products and current products,"
The Charlotte R&D department consists of Mr. Chris- Mr. Brooks explained. Consumer-based sensory testing is
tensen and two associates, Deborah Anderson and An- something new for Lance, he continued, and is essential to
drea Andrason. Physically, it occupies a fourth floor area support the product development work of the innovation
within the 1-million-sq-ft headquarters plant, a space group. He observed that if you rely only on a captive audiconverted from manufacturing. The lab has smaller-sized ence of internal staff for sensory commentary, you almost
processing equipment such as a Hobart vertical mixer always get positive feedback. Consumer reaction can be
and a small Bolling revolving-rack oven. Besides the usu- very different.
al instruments to measure moisture, sugar, salt and other
"The R&D department supports the sensory testprocess variables, the lab is also set up to screen flavors.
ing activities," Mr. Christensen said. An outside vendor
The skill sets for Lance R&D personnel are changing, sets up and conducts the tests with consumers, and then

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BAKING & SNACK / May 2008

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