Food & Drink Process & Packaging Issue 9 2016 | Seite 5

And so, a large operation like The

“We were having a hard time measuring

The company wanted to move to a

Maschhoffs must contend with a

all the impacts of our space decisions,”

distributed leadership model, with

continuous flow of pigs between

said Dugan, who oversees the transport

smaller geographic territories, to

different types of farms – from sow

of 700 to 800 trailer truckloads of live

give managers a better line of sight

(or breeding) facilities, to weaning,

pigs each week.

into the business’ leased assets and

feeding and finishing facilities.

The company’s logistical system

contracted farming operations.

“We have 73 different sow farms, and

consisted of Excel spreadsheets,

The problem? Without modeling and

when piglets grow to about 21 days

providing only a small window into

predictive technology, they couldn’t

old, we need to start looking for the

how many pigs were flowing through

reliably determine the optimal number

best space to house them,” explained

their system at any one time. Without

of divisions, or which facilities should

Morgan Dugan, director of supply chain

more precise analytical tools, they

be included in each region.

management and logistics for The

couldn’t project how much farm space

Maschhoffs.

they’d need in the next month, for
instance, or compare the costs of their

“We could ask a flow planner to project
our flow to sites for the next 52 weeks,

owned and leased facilities.

but that would require somebody three

can accommodate the sows and the

The Maschhoff’s analytical and

can’t really ‘war game’ different options

piglets. In six to 10 weeks, the young

predictive limitations became even

if you have to wait that long,”

pigs are moved to finishing facilities

more apparent when company

that can accommodate the larger size

leaders decided to reorganize the

animals.

business from a national to a regional

Weaning farms are specially equipped
for young pigs, with pen sizes that

days to complete,” Dugan said. “And you

management structure.

FDPP - www.fdpp.co.uk 5