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Lead time latitude goes far with McCormick & Company

In an industry based on freshness and steadily growing product catalogs, McCormick & Company's processing and packaging needs are anything but static.

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Improving the universal experience of eating is a common thread throughout the history of McCormick & Company. For more than 125 years, the Maryland-based herb and spice manufacturer has sought to perfect both the art and science of flavor. In an industry based on freshness and steadily growing product catalogs, its processing and packaging needs are anything but static. Phil Dryden, North American engineering director and Michael Okoroafor, vice president, Global Packaging Innovation, collaborated to provide a seasoned perspective to OEMs seeking to do business with this type of end user.
Phil Dryden, (left) North American engineering director, McCormick & Company; 
Michael Okoroafor, (right) vice president, Global Packaging Innovation, McCormick & Company

 

PP-OEM: What does McCormick look for in prospective OEM partners?
Phil Dryden: There is so much focus on internal costs and ways to optimize our overhead. We don’t have unlimited funds for our engineering staff anymore. To be able to partner with an OEM that not only knows their equipment, but also understands our business, is a big part of what we need going forward. Some of our OEM partners proactively come in and learn what we need, and what challenges we are facing with our customers and the challenges that our customers are putting on us to always give them something unique. They want to be different in their marketplace. For our OEMs to know that and be a part of that with us is a plus.

Also, our partners know our internal challenges. For instance, McCormick runs thousands of SKUs per plant in our network. That is made up of hundreds of SKUs per line with varying packaging formats, materials, and flow characteristics. We’re always facing those types of challenges, too. I had an engineer that came to us from [a brewer that is a household name] and was more familiar with running liquids. The first time he had to install a filler, he became quickly covered in garlic powder and we both got a good laugh. He didn’t know our business in that case; but we need our OEM suppliers to know our business.

Michael Okoroafor: One of the things we ask OEMs is to approach us with the idea of driving both growth and productivity. That means that even though they are bringing us new technology platforms, they have to think about the most cost-effective way to deliver that platform. There is a frugal mindset that has really permeated the entire consumer landscape. Making sure that you’re bringing things at the price point that the consumer can afford is very important. I think if you combine that with what Phil articulated, it tells you how McCormick approaches things.

PP-OEM: Do you view processing suppliers and packaging suppliers people as an integrated idea when going out to look for new capital projects?
Dryden:
Absolutely. I think when you’re executing a project, you’re bringing both of those OEMs to the table at the same time and having everybody in the room together talking about how the systems interact.

Okoroafor: We just had a situation that illustrates this dynamic. We were installing an herb grinder and our team—from start to finish—was involved from the product filling, straight through to the packaging. That’s an excellent example of our approach of processing and packaging as one concept.

PP-OEM: How do you select OEMs that you’re going to use? Do you base it off of people that you’re already comfortable with, that you’ve used in the past or are you opening it up to new suppliers? 
Dryden: Generally, we like to have primary suppliers that we work with repeatedly. The goal is to find a partner that you can go back to time after time. Again, they know your business. It also helps standardize your equipment throughout your facilities, and it helps on your training and your operations groups. You do want to try to build that relationship, and you want to go back to that original OEM out of the gate. Still, you always need to keep the door open and look at what’s new out in the marketplace, get those competitive bids just to make sure everybody’s staying honest. That way, you sometimes find there are new technologies.