Campbell Company of Canada: Plant Tour Assignment

GMS 401: Plant Tour Assignment Campbell Company of Canada [pic] Date: March 12th, 2012 Ryerson University Executive Summary As students of Operations Management, we were charged with visiting a manufacturing or service facility and to present and report on our observations. Since all of the members of our group have either worked in or visited a service facility, we were excited with the opportunity to visit a manufacturing plant as part of this project.

A few emails and phone calls later, we had organized a tour of The Campbell Company of Canada’s manufacturing facility, in Etobicoke. As a result of our tour, we are able to report on the following key elements: ? Company profile ? Details of the manufacturing process ? Plant layout ? Inventory control systems in place ? Quality assurance techniques ? Maintenance practices ? Ergonomics on the assembly line What they do well: The tour was an invaluable way for us to learn about and see first-hand the challenges faced by the modern day manufacturing plant.

Work crews have been divided into teams motivated to seek improvements in the manufacturing process and the workers are non-unionized. With a daily output of approximately 1. 5 million units, it’s key that the plant minimizes downtime. As such, Campbell’s has transitioned over the years from reactive maintenance to preventive maintenance, and follows predictive maintenance as a best practice. Productivity and workplace safety have increased with the automation of processes in every area.

SAP inventory systems have improved operations in supply chain management.

In addition, Campbell’s has done well incorporating ergonomic lessons into all of its training sessions. They’ve also recognized that a healthy workforce consistently performs at high levels, and they have made a point to provide employees with amenities which focus on health and well-being. Recommendations for Improvement: Despite the strides made with employing predictive maintenance techniques, onsite technicians aren’t fully trained to deal with problematic equipment and thus Campbell’s is regularly bringing in external personnel to fix this.

Since replacing the equipment isn’t a cost effective option, training onsite technicians to better address problems on this machinery when they occur could help reduce the downtime on the line. The threat of production bottlenecks may also be diverted by more general purpose equipment in the packaging area to accommodate sized containers.

Our group felt there is an opportunity to improve the comfort, health and motivation of employees by improving ventilation in the packaging area. Table of Contents Executive Summary1

Section 1: Company Profile3 Appendix A: Floor Plan …………. ……………… ……………………………. 4 Appendix B: Thank You Letter …… ………………………………………….. 5 Section 1: Company Profile Campbell Soup Company (referred throughout this report as “Campbell’s”), a multi-national corporation headquartered in New Jersey, USA, has been delivering products with an exceptional taste and food experience for over 140 years.

Founded in 1869 by Joseph A. Campbell and Abraham Anderson, the company has grown into a global manufacturer and marketer of high-quality onvenience-branded food products with a particular focus on canned tomatoes and vegetables, jellies, soups, condiments and minced meats (Campbell Company of Canada, 2012). Over the last century Campbell’s has developed into the leading house-hold brand name, not only domestically in North America, but globally. At present, Campbell Soup Company is the number one maker of soups in the world and dominates its domestic markets of North America with a market share of 69 percent (Forbes Canada, 2011).

In addition, Campbell’s Company of Canada represents a 60 percent global market share of the $4 billion soup market (Wikinvest, 2010). The wholesome goodness of Campbell’s products entered the Canadian markets on November 28, 1930; where a manufacturing plant was opened up in Toronto, Canada (Funding Universe, 2012).

Hired locally from the Toronto area, many generations of families have since contributed to Campbell’s immense success within the soup industry (Funding Universe, 2012).

Of the many products offered by the Campbell Soup Company, this report focuses on the soup production and manufacturing operation of Toronto-based Campbell Company of Canada (also referred to Campbell’s throughout this report). Being the sole provider of Campbell products to the entire Canadian market, Campbell Company of Canada runs production 5 days a week on 20 hour work cycles. Conveniently located just north of Lake Ontario, the Campbell Company of Canada plant encompasses 550,000 square feet of property; with 500,000 sq. ft designated for the actual plant and 50,000 sq. t for administrative offices.

This plant employs 580 staff members, 430 of whom work within the physical plant, with the remaining 150 working in the offices. To get a better feel of the plant’s functionalities our group engaged in a plant-tour led by Mr. Gord Kirk, who is a Senior Manufacturing Engineer at Campbell Company of Canada. The Toronto-based plant produces a variety of canned aseptic soup & sauces. Of the aseptic soups, 5 types are primarily produced: Vegetable, Tomato, Chicken Noodle, Cream of Mushroom and Beef Broth. According to Mr.

Kirk, roughly 1. million products are produced at this plant each day. These products are then shipped to third party retail food chains, mass discounters, mass merchandisers, club stores, convenience stores, drug stores and other retail, commercial and non-commercial establishments (Wikinvest, 2010). Currently, Campbell Company of Canada’s largest retail customer is Wal-Mart Inc. , which contributed to approximately 18 percent of the company’s consolidated net sales during the 2010 fiscal year and 16 percent in both 2009 and 2008 (Wikinvest, 2010).

Appendix A: Plant Layout [pic]

Appendix B: Thank-You Letter Monday, March 12th, 2012 Attention: Ms. Bertha Walls and Mr. Gord Kirk On behalf of my team, GMS 401: Operations Management, I would like to take the opportunity to express my sincere gratitude for assisting us with our team project. Each team member contacted numerous companies in order to arrange a plant tour of the facilities, but the policies of these firms prohibited tours due to health and safety concerns. We were quite fortunate to have stumbled upon Campbell’s as a tour option and were delighted when an opening became available. Ms.

Walls, from the initial telephone conversation through the two weeks leading up to the day of the tour, you were extremely receptive and helpful. In addition to booking our tour promptly and providing us with important details such as plant regulations and safety codes; you took the initiative to provide us with a layout scheme of the Campbell’s plant and a framework of questions and answers which related directly to the key topics of our report. Ms. Walls, my team and I are very thankful for everything you did for us. Your professionalism, knowledge and kindness were phenomenal. Sincerely, Operations Management Team Ryerson University