Edy’s Ice Cream: Continuous improvement is not a ‘project’
While ice cream is also a pretty mature market, volumes at the Edy’s Ice Cream factory (which is owned by Swiss food manufacturing giant Nestlé) in Fort Wayne have nevertheless gone through the roof in recent years following the installation of new high-speed cone lines capable of churning out four times more cones per minute than their nearest rivals.
Indeed demand for the round top cones is such that Nestlé is “selling everything we can make”, says plant manager Sheila Brojeck, who is currently driving a re-modeling of the facilities area in the factory, which has benefited from more than $21m of investment over the past four years and now employs 550 people.
The Fort Wayne facility - which is the sole supplier of Li’l Drum, a mini version of the Nestlé ice cream drumstick - is also recognized within the Nestlé business as a leader when it comes to continuous improvement, which has helped Brojeck and her team save more than $15m in the past four years, she claims.
“Continuous improvement is not a project. It’s how you do things, an identity. It’s something that becomes you, not something that you pull out when you need it.”
