Choosing the right equipment, technologies, and logistics approach in convenience frozen foods production
— 2005-10-17 —
With our fast-paced lifestyle, the demand for convenience foods is growing, while the competition for business continues to rise. Given this fierce competition, few companies are capable of sustaining a profitable market share. But after only 10 years in the market, Produkty Pitania has become Russia’s largest convenience foods manufacturer – thanks to state-of-the-art equipment, a highly coordinated production process, and an effective logistics operation.
The Equipment
Produkty Pitania produces a wide range of products, including frozen meat and vegetable entrees and side dishes, hot snacks, lasagna, pelmenis, and canned goods. All of our production lines are equipped with the most advanced technology from such reputable foreign producers as CFS, Stain Company, VEMAG, Frigoscandia Equipment, Dominioni, FMC Food Tech, Ruhel, ELPACK, SEAT, and KOMETOS.
As such, our factories are fully automated for high-capacity production, with the latest processing and packing equipment, including elevators, conveyors, electric doors, hoists, and loaders – most of which requires almost no manual operation. And by minimizing the human factor, we can ensure the highest quality convenience foods. What’s more our technicians receive specialized, onsite training in equipment operation and maintenance. We also provide regular professional development for our maintenance and technical staff, with periodic exams to test their knowledge.
The Production Process:
Natalya Galanova serves as Produkty Pitania’s Chief Research and Development Technologist. Under her able guidance, we have greatly expanded our product line to include more than 45 different items. Her staff not only tests new recipes, but also improves upon old ones.
For many Russian consumers, the Zolotoy Petushok and Domashnaya Skazka trademarks have come to symbolize high quality. And to ensure that quality, Produkty Pitania has implemented careful planning and tight production controls from start to finish. These controls include:
· Input control for all raw and auxiliary materials delivered to the plant, including product packaging.
· Production process control under the constant supervision of our well-trained technicians
· Output control to guarantee the final product, which includes maintaining the proper temperature and storage conditions.
Although each production stage is a separate process with its own parameters and conditions, it is part of a larger production chain, which is fully automated to save time and maintain quality. The production laboratory in turn controls every link in the chain, constantly measuring each technological parameter (temperature, weight, form, appearance, fat content, pressure, speed, sensor calibration) and checking data output.
Take our chicken Cordon Blue (Zolotoy Petushok TM) production chain, for example:
1. Receive raw poultry materials.
2. Send to the defrosting area.
3. Unpack
3.1 Package and polyethylene utilization.
4. Warm raw materials.
6. Manually de-bone, removing skin, as well.
7. Cut poultry into small pieces.
8. Mix the minced meat, adding appropriate spices.
9. Cool minced meat.
10. Mould into shape.
11. Add filling.
12. Bread with dry flour.
13. Add liquid breading with priming.
14. Add final layer of dried bread crumbs.
15. Fry.
16. Shock-freeze.
The final frozen product is then delivered either loose or in packages.
Beginning in May 2005, we installed a more effective production practices system, which includes personal hygiene and labor discipline standards. As such, specialists in each production area have formed a HASSP group to monitor and document the system in accordance with international HASSP system requirements. By developing these standards, Produkty Pitania will upgrade its product quality and obtain EU certification.
Logistics – Organizational Principles.
According to Konstantin Belov, head of sales to retail outlets and markets, “The specific features of our products dictate the need for a sound logistics strategy. Because frozen convenience foods are very sensitive to temperature change, they require optimal storage conditions. So every time we transfer raw materials and convenience products – both within and outside of the factory - it must be done efficiently and precisely by the plan, without any delays or slip-ups”.
Constant air temperature is critical to proper storage. Produkty Pitania currently operates two storage areas for auxiliary materials; but given our growing production rate, we need additional storage facilities. In the meantime, we have economized storage space by combining products in pallets and stacking them by product type for inventory control. All materials are logged in or out of our facilities using special software, with a tracking report generated at the end of each workday, which is then forwarded to our Accounting and Planning Departments. Under this system, bookkeeping omissions can be identified and corrected at one of the accounting stages.
Once the finished product leaves our plant, it is taken by rail through Lithuania and Belarus and into Russia, where it ends its journey at the Staraya Kupavna railway station. At the station, products are transferred on to one of our company trucks (Produkty Pitania oversees a fleet of 18 Gazelle vehicles and 3 ZIL trucks) or on to one of 35 trucks owned by local distributors, and sent on to a storage facility or retail outlet. What’s more, to ensure safe transport, all of the trucks we use are equipped with high-tech refrigerators for storage and cell phones for easy communication.
Generally, the company works with over 1,500 independent retail outlets in Moscow. But future plans call for regional market promotion; a step we believe is key to successful distribution. In fact, we plan to replicate a distribution model that has proven effective both in big cities and larger regions. So in 2006, we will begin implementing this model in cities with populations of 500,000 or more.
As Produkty Pitania’s Vice-President Damir Imamovic puts it, “The company’s logistics capacities depend on the work performed by a team of professionals who are experienced in meat products delivery. Proper logistics not only provides for prompt and regular deliveries, but also assures that our retailers receive high quality products.
“We have worked with Russian consumers for more than 10 years now and they are the most objective opinion leaders for our products. Russians are becoming far more experienced and demanding as the market environment grows still more competitive. And we can fill that demand by carefully managing our production process at every stage, using the most advanced equipment, and putting a good logistics program in place with a broader sales network”.
Damir Imamovic, Produkty Pitania Vice-President:
Produkty Pitania uses one of the most advanced high-tech production plants in Eastern Europe. Our production floor space totals 6.8 hectares, with state-of-the-art infrastructure that comprises electric and gas networks, boiler-rooms, artesian wells, a diesel power plant, and treatment facilities. We have also designed an efficient logistics strategy with which to deliver our products to the consumer through centralized distribution centers. Today, with efficient production and distribution in place, we are changing our investment priorities, notably in the area of marketing support for our strategic brand, Zolotoy Petushok.