MEAT+POULTRY - July 2015 - 23

COVER STORY

giving plant supervisors the ability to generate
production, yield and labor reports remotely
and around the clock.
Suppliers and advances in equipment
technology are vital to the success of the Bar-S
plants too, according to Dupree. Diagnosing
problems with equipment is another value
suppliers offer when maintenance issues
exceed the expertise of plant mechanics.
"The suppliers train our mechanics," either
on site or at the supplier's location. With the
ability to utilize online tools to plug into more
modern processing equipment, productivity is
improved and troubleshooting more effective
compared to how things used to be in
Dupree's early years in the industry.
"It has dramatically helped in reducing
downtime," he says.

SELECTIVE AUTOMATION
In 2010, with the acquisition of Bar-S by Sigma,
Dupree's role grew even more, adding the operational
oversight of Sigma's then 2-year-old Seminole, Okla.based processing plant to his responsibilities.

Dupree has earned plenty of credibility
among the people he leads, right down to the
clothes he wears to work each day. "People are
a whole lot more comfortable with you if you're
dressed like them and if you're down there
working with them," Dupree says, "instead of
showing up in slacks and a tie. Bar-S isn't a
coat-and-tie company. It never has been."
Among his contemporaries in the industry,
Dupree is far from a gadfly and doesn't go out
of his way to rub shoulders with operations
executives working with other processors,
although he'll run across other operations
execs at industry events on occasion.
"I honestly don't know my counterparts at
the other companies very well; I just don't," he
says. "I'm sure a lot of them don't even know
who I am. I'm just a western Oklahoma boy."

TECHNOLOGY ADVANTAGES
Improvement in plant operations is made
easier thanks to technology that was not
available when Dupree first started with the
company. Clipboards and paper-based logs
that were used to track production decades
ago have been replaced by electronic tools,

Automation is an integral part of operations at
Bar-S, but it isn't a feasible solution for certain
products and to serve certain customers'
needs. "There's technology out there that we
don't use," says Dupree, pointing out that the
Clinton plant operates on a batch basis.
"There are some products that don't fit into
an automated system. Automation is great,
but you can't be changing over every three
blends and have technology work for you. It
[automation] works great when you have largevolume SKUs [stock keeping units] that you
can put into long-run, automated processes.
"When I started 33 years ago, you never
would have imagined running product at the
speeds we're seeing now and what has made
that happen is automation," he says. "We'll
continue down that path because that's what
drives operational efficiencies."
One of those automated plants is the
Seminole facility, which utilizes an ArmorInox system that has taken a lot of labor out
of the cooking process via an immersion
technology for packaged products. When
a new process is undertaken, automation
is utilized whenever possible. In these
cases, "our suppliers are great at drawing
up processing lines," based on production
requirements and product specifications,
Dupree says. Given the consolidation in
the supplier community, more equipment
companies are able to offer a wider variety

"Besides being
analytical,
he is very
creative and
can envision
how to change
plant layout
or equipment
to get more
efficient
throughput of
production."
- Tim Day,
Bar-S Foods founder

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MEAT+POULTRY - July 2015

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