Annual Manufacturing Survey: Safe and secure

Recognizing how integral people are to the safety and security equation, Loftis continues, “Food manufacturing owners and operators should include, and seek advice and recommendations from, production, sanitation and quality control personnel before making major changes. Sanitation, production and quality-control education need to be raised to a higher level. All food manufacturing owners and operators also need to establish more uniform guidelines on bonuses and pay raises, with salaries increased according to training and experience levels.”

Gesundheit!

Food allergies are a serious concern. (The survey was closing just as new agencies reported a teenage girl died of anaphylaxis after being kissed by her peanut butter-eating boyfriend.) When asked how concerned they are about food allergens, more than 82 percent answered at least “somewhat concerned.” (The breakdown was evenly divided among “somewhat,” “very” and “extremely” concerned.)

How to control for allergens? More than half (53 percent) are opting for improved washdown/clean in place and nearly one-fourth are devoting dedicated lines. From the other direction, 38 percent are going to improved labeling.

For food safety and allergen control, as well as overall security, track and trace is important. It comes as no surprise, then, that more than three-quarters of respondents have such a program in place. Other solutions include timing operations so that allergenic ingredients are processed only at the end of the day or on a dedicated day of the week.

Whether due to dedication or plain old fear of litigation, one manufacturer is taking allergen control to an extreme: “[We] plan to move our nut production to an isolated area outside the main plant.” In light of the tragedy of the aforementioned teen, this might not be a bad idea. Even immediate countermeasures (an epinephrine injection) and rapid medical intervention failed to save the girl from succumbing to this secondary contact with peanuts.

Shocked by energy costs

Energy placed second in this year’s survey, moving up from fifth place last year. Labor, last year’s second place, dropped to fourth, and automation, although still in third place, came in within little more than a point on labor issues (15 and 14 percent, respectively).

Energy could have been more of a concern than it was. Oil prices doubling over the past year meant across-the-board impact on costs of manufacturing, packaging and shipping. While this may have netted Exxon-Mobil humongous jumps in profit, the jump in importance to manufacturers from last year’s survey was just 2 percentage points (we expected more).

METHODOLOGY Our fifth annual Manufacturing Trends Survey was an e-mail survey taken during the month of November. There were 465 respondents in the following food categories: bakery (11 percent), beverages (9 percent), confectionery (4 percent), dairy (7 percent), fruits and vegetables (6 percent), frozen products (5 percent), further-processed foods and specialties (8 percent), meats and poultry (14 percent), snack foods (4 percent) and companies producing several of these product types in equal amounts, or making other products, comprised the remaining 32 percent. Included within these groups, 48 percent manufacture at least some type of wellness food.

This was probably just a case of “We thought things were bad last year, but…” because nearly 97 percent of respondents were at least somewhat worried about the high price of energy and 87 percent claimed to have been moderately to severely impacted by the leap in costs. One can only confess curiosity over the 3.2 percent who claimed to be “not worried at all” about energy costs.

So how is energy management to be approached? With more than two-thirds of manufacturers taking steps in energy conservation, energy audits (33 percent) will be used as a control with recycling/redirecting energy and seeking alternate energy sources (such as biogas) making up almost another third. Co-generation and inside-the-fence generation complete much of the remaining picture at about 12 percent.

Automation, consolidation, expansion

Beginning last year, production edged out packaging when it comes to automation. The margin is still narrow, but this year’s 3 percent gap is twice as wide as last year’s. Fewer than 6 percent of manufacturers surveyed have their entire plant automated.

The best news this year is that — in spite of safety and energy concerns plus economic woes — more than three-quarters of manufacturers plan on expanding production this year. About 77 percent -- a 10 percent increase over last year’s survey -- anticipate production increases of at least 5 percent, with figures divided somewhat evenly among increases of 5, 10 and 20 percent ore more. Twelve percent will consolidate, while 24 percent foresee a flat year.

The above translates into prospective capital spending figure increases for nearly 40 percent of companies responding. Another third will try to maintain status quo and less than 10 percent intend to reduce capital spending.