Company
Odom's Tennessee Pride Sausage, Inc. (http://www.tnpride.com),
based in Madison, Tennessee outside of Nashville, is a whole hog sausage
producer with plants in Little Rock, Arkansas, and Dickson, Tennessee.
Douglas G. Odom, Sr. and his wife Louise S. Odom founded it in 1943, and
it is still a family owned company.
Odom's
manufactures both retail and food service products with a retail market
of 25 states and a food service market of 38 states plus nationwide coverage
through a major retail chain. Retail products, sold under the Tennessee
Pride label and a number of private labels, include a variety of link
and patty sausage products, sausage gravy, microwave biscuits, country
souse (a regional food) and sausage rolls (a one pound package of sausage
in a roll available in the meat case). Food Service products include fully
cooked and fresh sausage products, sausage sandwiches, and gravy.
Odom's
is a specialty house, processing whole hogs into specialty sausage products.
The hogs they process are considered by-products of the hog business,
since they only use hogs that have been fattened up for breeding purposes
(Sows) and therefore are larger than most. These hogs provide better quality
meat (lean fat percentage) and produce higher yields. Since it cost Odom's
close to the same cost to process a small hog versus a large hog, they
get a higher margin, higher yield product.
Company
Issues
Odom's objectives included operational and customer service improvements.
Operational objectives included the handling of substantial losses and
business challenges in the areas of shelf life, out-of-spec production,
lost material, wrong cuts being produced and returns due to "sell-by"
or "use-by" date issues. Government regulations were a major factor with
Odom's wanting to improve their lot tracking, data collection in order
to do a better job of HACCP (Hazards Analysis and Critical Control Points)
compliance including biological sampling.
Customer
service objectives included a reduction in out of stock conditions, shortening
customer order cycle times and faster delivery. They also wanted to minimize
the lost sales represented by orders not placed due to poor stock visibility.
Solution
Odom's considered a number of options. A basic challenge in selecting
a solution was the very nature of their business, meat processing. Few
vendors could show Odom's reference installations which reflected some
of a meat processor's basic needs like catch weight, ageing, disassemble
and others. They finally selected iProcess.sct from SCT
(www.sctcorp.com)
for execution, scheduling and planning. Beginning in December 1999, the
new system was fully implemented within 15 months.
Value
Chuck Odom, owner, discusses the project's payback period, "We saw savings
that pay for the applications within the first three years."
Chuck
reports that Odom's operational objectives have been met. The top operational
benefits cited by Odom's include:
- Reduced
inventory levels across the entire supply chain
- Reduced
production costs by decreasing changeovers
- Increased
utilization in the kill, cut, and packaging operations
- Decreased
scrap rates by not producing out-of-spec material
- Optimized
distribution by better planning their distribution centers and warehouses
- Greater
confidence in their HACCP compliance with a reduced compliance workload
"Our project
has driven a roughly 20 % reduction in inventory levels, production
costs and scrap and we've optimized distribution substantially by being
able to plan our DC's and warehouses better."
Chuck reports
another win with Odom's customer service objectives. The top customer
service benefits include:
- Increased
sales by not having out-of-stock conditions on finished goods
- Increased
customer satisfaction by shortening cycle times and faster delivery
- Increased
total sales by not missing orders (capable to promise)
The financial
return on the customer service effort has pleased Odom's. Chuck states,
"We have increased sales and customer satisfaction by at least 15%."
Lessons
Learned
Chuck says he would do it all over again. The returns to the business
more than justified the investment and effort required. But he does counsel
others on a few key points.
Chuck
emphasizes that this type of project cannot be an IT project. "This was
the biggest project the company has ever done (outside brick and mortar),
both in cost and human resources. This was not an "IT" project it was
much bigger than that. It was very difficult to do your day job and the
project at the same time. Never underestimate the problems of major change
in the organization, we are talking about what people do for a living
it's personal."
The
supplier you select is critical. Go beyond the sales pitch and look at
the details that are critical to your specific situation. Talk to the
vendor's customers who are in your kind of business. This gives you insight
into the vendor's abilities and the effort required before you begin the
project.
