Manufacturing journalist, Thomas R Cutler discusses the benefits of reduced material costs accrued by a leading flavor manufacturer after availing solutions of one of the leading data service providers, Hertzler Systems, in the current issue of Times Food Processing Journal.

According to Cutler, saving money from expensive audits and material cost reduction influences the funding of quality standards. "This should be the standard," was the comment of an auditor made during a recent audit of the McCormick Flavor Division (South Bend, Indiana) of McCormick & Company, Inc. The auditor was referring to the way his supplier (the McCormick Flavor Division) presented their data for review. The presentation of the data and facts that the supplier made available online in the conference room during the audit was appreciated, yet must become the quality standard for all food companies.

According to John Campbell, Quality Manager, McCormick & Company, Inc, "The auditor really appreciated how open we were with our data and overall system. Having the system online and available during the audit let him know we have nothing to hide. However, just as important, we can pull the charts and data that he asks for in a few minutes. All of this adds up to a huge time saver for us - probably on the order of a couple man-days per audit." Like every company, customer satisfaction is important to McCormick. They make sauces, dressings and condiments for the world's largest restaurants and fast food chains.  According to Campbell, the smooth audit is just the tip of the iceberg of the benefits the company has seen from using Hertzler Systems' GainSeeker Suite of products.

 "This new technology system helped us reduce material costs by 10-30% on an annual basis," noted Campbell. "Of all the plants in the McCormick Flavor Division, our plant is consistently at the top of the list for efficiency of material usage and by a substantial margin. We trace that directly back to our use of the Hertzler software," added Campbell. "One application that has generated substantial savings has been on our fill lines. Reducing over pack by as little as one tenth of a gram per line had a huge impact on our material costs. We have achieved reductions of up to three tenths of a gram across all our fill lines. I can't tell you how much money that is (because it is proprietary information) but it is a big number," suggested Campbell.

According to Hertzler's CEO, Evan J Miller, "McCormick uses control charts to listen to the voice of the manufacturing process. As the company has learned to understand the natural variation in their process, they have been able to adjust the process so that it is closer to target the fill weight. They also better understand the variation in the system, which makes the process tighter."

The entire feature can be read at http://trcutlerinc.com/July%202008%20Times%20Food%20Processing%20Journal.pdf.

Hertzler Systems (www.hertzler.com) provides seamless, accurate data acquisition solutions that drive business transformation. The company provides the leading real-time data acquisition and analytics software, the GainSeeker Suite.  This powerful and flexible system is best used by lean and progressive companies. Gainseeker Suite allows companies to connect with devices and other information systems, collecting data and alarming key personnel when problems arise; this technology allows organizations to analyze data for root cause problems, converting data into knowledge.

Hertzler Systems Inc.

www.hertzler.com

Adrienne DePew

Communications Manager

info@hertzler.com

800.958.2709