Feed Management Systems (FMS) hosted its second Feed Mill Forum in Brookville Ohio on November 20, 2014. The forum brought together 11 organisations and represented more than 2 million annual tons of capacity. The purpose of the forum was to discuss industry issues such as preparing for the upcoming Food Safety Modernisation Act (FSMA), identifying, measuring and reducing shrink and other manufacturing efficiency best practices.
Jessica Feldmann, Cargill Food Safety Quality Supervisor, shared updates on FSMA and the implications the new regulation will have on all sizes of businesses when it is implemented August 30, 2015. “I appreciated the chance learn about FSMA as the regulation develops and how everyone will manage the upcoming changes”, said Virgil Wilker of Mercer Landmark. “The group here is a tight community and appreciates how FMS is gathering and sharing information that will affect us all.”
Attendees shared their primary causes of shrink and how they compared to industry standards. Bill Rosenstiel, FMS Manufacturing Specialist demonstrated how eliminating just a fraction of a percent of shrink produces substantial savings. For example a mill producing 100,000 tons of feed a year with 3% shrink and an average cost of $350 per ton represents $1,050,000 in lost profit. If a plant’s net margin is $10 a ton, 1% of shrink requires 35,000 tons of new business to make up for lost profit.
A global update of the feed market was provided by Charles Shininger, Managing Director of Cargill Premix and Nutrition. Shininger gave insights on long term industry megatrends such as consolidation, integration, sophistication and complexity as well as more recent developments with direct impact on feed mills (bio-fuels/ethanol, higher feed prices, profitability, antibiotic growth promoters being pressured and increased interest/use of additives). In this complex environment mills must be innovative and efficient. Embracing advice and best practices as well as technology solutions is key.
Mill Modelling was also a forum focus. Rosenstiel and the group discussed how feed mills benchmark internally and against competitors. Additional Feed Mill Forums are being planned for 2015.
