Meat&Poultry - June 2012 - 24

HORMEL FOODS

every employee to go home at the end of the day as healthy as he or she was when arriving to work earlier each day,” Schweitzer says. Turnover is around 7 to 8 percent in the Austin facility, Schweitzer says. “And that includes all separations,” he adds. “We all have the same goals from corporate all the way through the organization. When someone on the line feels a part of that success, then they’ve bought into it. It’s, ‘I can make a difference, I am adding value,
During the last six years, the plant has operated a high-speed robot to palletize loin boxes, which weigh about 80 lbs. each.

redesigned drying room...significantly better than we had before,” says Brandon Koehler, lead supervisor of dry sausage. “We no longer have to continually rotate products to make sure our variation is under control and we’re now about 15 percent faster in pulling out moisture compared to our other three drying rooms.” Fritz says plans are in the works to do the same conversion to other drying rooms in the next three months. Effective preventive maintenance is essential to keeping this facility running safely, consistently and smoothly. “We track the performance of every piece of equipment within our operation to understand what needs to be done, what the cost-out is and when we need to maintain and replace those items before they break down during the process,” Schweitzer says. “You have to be committed to preventive maintenance.”

I am important’ and ‘I am critical to the success of the company.’”

Patented technology
Many technological advances in the Austin plant are Hormel Foodscreated and proprietary. “We have something few people know about – an in-house engineering development facility based in Hayward, Minn.,” Schweitzer says. “This team develops equipment for our needs. Many times they patent it just for Hormel.” In the Hormel Bacon Bits production area, Hormel Foods engineers designed and pioneered a proprietary vision system that locates foreign material and ejects it from the line. “Anything that isn’t brown is automatically removed,” Fritz says. The in-house engineering development team and Austin plant employees also collaborate to redesign work areas. For example, the plant’s dry sausage area includes four drying rooms. One room was recently redesigned to drive out inconsistencies in drying. “We’re drying and heating that air throughout the room to the exact requirements we want now,” Fritz says. “We’ve seen an improvement in drying variation of 30 percent in this

For example, during the last six years the plant has operated a highspeed robot to palletize heavy loin boxes, which can weigh between 76 lbs. to 81 lbs. per box. “We have plans to use a lot more of this technology,” Fritz says.

Many technological advances in the Austin plant are Hormel Foodscreated and proprietary.
In dry sausage manufacturing, an automated hydraulic stick assists line workers in lifting the pepperoni sticks to the trolley. And trim blend room employees who rack boneless butts for pulled pork use pneumatic lifts to raise and lower the racks for easier loading. “We use a lot of ergonomic-based technology,” Fritz says. More t han 50 percent of t he plant’s employees have more than 10 years of service in the plant. “We’re quite proud of that,” Fritz says. “Our employees are at the heart and source of our success as a company.” Maintaining and enhancing worker safety is very important. “We want

New products
New products are the life’s blood of the Austin plant. “We just went through a rejuvenation process with regards to Cure 81 hams,” Fritz says. “We’ve seen sales flatten out in recent years, so we redesigned that ham and recently introduced new variations.” Hormel Foods original Cure 81 ham was available in one flavor, slightly dryer and not quite as sweet as the new offerings, had a slight smoky f lavor and the outside texture was smooth. Four new Cure 81 hams include the Classic, which is sweeter than the previous Cure 81; Brown Sugar; Honey; and Black Pepper in shrink-wrap packaging. These new products are selling better than anticipated, Fritz says.

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Meat&Poultry - June 2012

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