Meat+Poultry - July 2018 - 22
COVER STORY Arkansas City and back in the morning with another in the evening running back down to Arkansas City and back to Wichita. DRIVING THE BUS Creekstone Farms' carcasses grade higher than many beef processors' beef. 22 and poultry processing industry. Beef packing facilities have yet to catch up with the pork and poultry industries in terms of implementing automated processing systems to offset the industry's labor shortage. Currently, automation in the beef processing industry consists of material handling, palletizers and robotics that run on PLC (programmable logic controllers). Manufacturers are experimenting with automation for the line. Mathew Trowbridge, director of operations at Creekstone, mentions a split saw from Jarvis that uses 3D imaging to hit the same spot on a carcass every time, but that technology has yet to hit the market. "After it's in a box, putting it away and then picking an order, you can do some automation on that side of it," Rogers says. With no real automation available to apply to actual production of the animal, Creekstone sought and found alternative ways to deal with labor issues it faces in beef processing. Similar to the way it handles the ever-changing daily fabrication schedule, the company works hard on innovative ways to incentivize employees, make its workers' lives less complicated and make the company easier to appreciate. According to a Creekstone report, 15 percent of Creekstone's fabrication team lives in Wichita, Kansas. Creekstone worked with the city of Wichita, and starting on Feb. 26, a charter bus began to run from Wichita to MEAT+ POULTRY | 07.18 | www.meatpoultry.com The city of Wichita used the addresses of Creekstone's fab team members in a GPS simulation to figure out the best bus routes for pickups and drop offs. Creekstone educated team members prior to the start of the project so everyone involved could be on the same page once the bus started running. "From the first day it started, it was sold out," Trowbridge says. "We have another bus coming online over the next couple of months as well and that one will be sold out too." Christine Tanner, marketing and brand manager at Creekstone adds, "It's an advantage to us too that those team members were already driving, but a lot of times they were carpooling. So, if the person driving the carpool was sick or wasn't going to work that day, then you might have six people not show up instead of one. This helps that continuity of labor as well." This program not only helps Creekstone and its employees, but also serves a need in Cowley County (Arkansas City and Winfield, Kansas). Once the bus from Wichita drops off in Arkansas City in the morning, it then travels to the Walmart in Arkansas City for a pick up, and then another in Winfield before heading back to Wichita. This serves a need for Cowley County residents in need of transportation to Wichita for medical appointments. "Because of Creekstone they now have a bus that goes up to Wichita in the morning and then comes back in the evening," Trowbridge says. Creekstone subsidizes some and provides bus vouchers to team members before taxes. The bus program from and to Wichita provides a value to Creekstone employees that transcends a monetary raise. While employees always welcome a raise, sometimes other options and benefits provide a greater value and more incentive to stay with the company. "Everybody is paying more money. Money is a short-term solution," Rogers says. "We have to look at doing things different or offering services that have a greater perceived value to that team member than a dollar an hour pay raise does." The executive team at Creekstone makes it