Scratch & Peck Feeds Leverages Lean Principles to Increase Efficiency and Reduce Costs

Company Profile

Scratch & Peck Feeds is a family-owned company that manufactures Certified Organic, whole-grain, non-GMO, soy free, and completely raw chicken feed produced through a limited processing technique. Since launching in 2010, the company has added organic feeds for ducks, turkeys, pigs, and goats. Originally based in Bellingham, Washington, Scratch & Peck Feeds recently moved its plant to Burlington, Washington — more than doubling their production space to meet the needs of the fast-growing demand for their products.

Situation

While Scratch & Peck Feeds’ new, larger plant allowed for the opportunity to expand its business, the company quickly realized that the facility posed key layout challenges that could adversely affect production and worker safety. Given the long-range goal to build a thriving regional food network in which Scratch & Peck provides an integral link, management sought to adopt the appropriate tools to assist them in elevating their business practices through an emphasis on both production and customer service.

Solution

Scratch & Peck Feeds first met the Impact Washington team when some of their employees attended a publicly offered course on FSPCA Preventative Controls for Animal Food. Following this event, they received a formal introduction to the Impact Washington team from the Bellingham Economic Development Council, who recommended them as a partner to help achieve their company’s vision for the future.

After conducting a thorough assessment of Scratch & Peck Feeds’ needs, Impact Washington identified the tools necessary to enhance a Lean and continuous improvement culture within the company. Impact Washington managed and facilitated the project, including the securement of a JSP (Job Skills Program) grant. The team  strategically partnered with key trainers to systematically guide the company’s employees through each step of the Lean techniques and methodologies including Principles of Lean Manufacturing, Value Stream Mapping, Project Management, Kaizen Workshop, Toyota Kata Workshop, and Excel Training.

Value Stream Mapping: Impact Washington’s partnered with an outside expert to study Scratch & Peck Feeds’ business and manufacturing processes, developing measurable targets, and selecting priority areas for improvement (including activities currently required to transform raw materials into finished goods). The training included not just Production employees, but also those within the Sales, Marketing, Logistics, Operations, and Accounting departments to help evaluate what they do and why they do it. Concurrently, it identified any cross-over of departments to help streamline work flow. This exploration covered the following areas: People Travel, Information Travel, Workplace Organization, Changeover Time, Overall Equipment Effectiveness, Work-In-Process Inventory, Lot Size, Just-In-Time, Pull Systems and Kanban, Flow, Throughput Time, and Value-Added vs. Non-Value-Added Time.

During this phase, the team observed, analyzed, and mapped the existing production process (Current State VSM) to help visualize organizational flow, demonstrate link between material flow and information flow, establish equipment effectiveness, and identify “waste” or non-value-added activities. This also helped form the basis of a future implementation plan (Future State VSM) for overall facility operations based on a Pull System for controlling the flow of resources based on demand.

Project Management: Impact Washington’s team worked with Scratch & Peck Feeds to identify the difference between projects and an on-going process leading to an end goal, while developing structure for change (i.e. cutting costs and hours for production/processing). This introduced the employees to several tools to assist them in staying on course and created a great learning environment where the team felt comfortable enough to openly share their thoughts and ideas.

Rapid Improvement Workshop (Kaizen): Impact Washington conduct a Kaizen Rapid Improvement Workshop, comprised of training, implementation, and transformation of identified areas with the goal of establishing a continuous improvement mentality. This phase addressed challenges flow around shipping lanes and how to organize them to ensure a quicker and more simplified process. To solve for this challenge, the team introduced a series of visual boards with numbers and magnet tags that are used to track staging and shipping. A magnetic Order Picking Board allows employees the ease of shifting order sheets around and displaying upcoming orders based on priority. A magnetic white board was adopted for real-time, visual management of delivery process and schedules. This Bulk Ingredients Receiving Board, playfully referred to as B.I.R.D., enlists the 5-S system to visually track delivery of the Mill’s bulk loads and providing a greater visual of what and when product is arriving, while preventing employees from over booking deliveries. Lastly, a controlled Kanban Pull Card System was implemented to track all scheduling of the Mill’s production of finished goods, alerting plant supervisors to when additional replacement product needs to be ordered, ultimately minimizing over production issues.

Toyota Kata Workshop: Scratch & Peck Feeds employees were trained in the Improvement Kata and the Coaching Kata to establish a culture that inherently drives advancement and builds competence and clarity throughout the organization.

Excel Training: Lastly, off-sight training (at Skagit Valley Community College) was coordinated for Scratch & Peck Feeds employees to help elevate their Excel skills for ease of inventory tracking spreadsheets and other internal programs.

Results

• Reduced processing costs and increased worker safety of facility layout.
• Greater automation and shorter order to shipment time to fill orders — improved lead time from 5-days to 4-day lead time. By continuing to implement the Lean training tools, employees are currently working toward a 3-day lead time.
• Conserved time and hours throughout the scheduling process.
• Minimized stress on the business (i.e. production and fulfillment process) and provided cost savings and more efficient inventory tracking.
• Improved overall productivity and cash flow.
• Unified cross department teams by simplifying the overall operations process.
• Improved morale, stimulated teamwork, and generated positive impact on internal culture.
• Instilled a greater sense of trust, leading to employees feeling empowered to propose recommendations for additional time and money saving processes across departments.
• Nominated (by Impact Washington) for Seattle Business Magazine’s 2018 WA Manufacturing Awards, and won First Place in the Small Firms Food/Bev Processor of the Year category.