BACKGROUND
A mid-sized, privately held company with a portfolio of beloved food and beverage brands, The Krusteaz Company has built a culture of making dry bakery products with pride and expertise. Coleman Consulting Group was hired at the Hopkinsville, KY facility to work with managers and employees to identify, develop, design, and implement alternative schedules. The Hopkinsville plant had moved from a Monday-Friday operation to a 24x7 schedule several years previously, but employees complained of fatigue on this schedule. Dealing with the health and safety implications and a five-year trend of increasing turnover, there was great interest from the management team from the outset of the engagement.
CASE STUDY:
The Krusteaz Company
INDUSTRY: Dry Bakery Mix Products
WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES: over 550
CORPORATE OFFICES: Tukwila, WA
WORLDWIDE SALES: $700+million, increase of 7.5% annually over the last 20 years
THE CHALLENGE
One of the challenges was preconceived notions by some employees and supervisors that alternative options would be too difficult to work and to manage. The CCG team provided additional communication and support to ease these concerns. Approximately half way through the project, results showed that both employees and supervisors were supportive of an alternative schedule option on night shift.
THE RESULTS
CCG was able to identify several potential areas the facility could use to improve production downtime. The management found the business findings insightful and planned to utilize the data to make process improvements. The implemented schedules will provide greater quality of days off for night shift employees. While still early, there is an indication that retention will be improved. The unbalanced schedule implemented in the warehouse led to reduced overtime and the elimination of almost all demurrage.
THE SOLUTION
The majority of night shift production employees moved to a schedule that allowed for increased quality days off and better recovery periods. Some groups did elect to stay on a version of their current schedule. Another major change included shifting the day-on-day-off pattern to provide for a more preferred three-day weekend pattern. In distribution, the 24x7 schedule never matched the workload demand in the warehouse. New unbalanced options were implemented that better matched the workload pattern.
“Approximately six months after implementing the new schedules, we’re seeing clear improvements: night shift employees report better alertness, turnover has decreased, and feedback on longer recovery periods has been positive. In the warehouse, we adopted schedules that align better to our business needs, and overtime has dropped significantly. Krusteaz is grateful to have the experts at Coleman Consulting Group on speed dial, ready to help us fine-tune operations at other sites as needed.”
Kevin Maynard, Plant Manager
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