From the Ground Up - McCain Foods Limited

LEFT: The control room in the
Matougues, France, factory.
rIGhT: State-of-the-art
machinery optimizes raw
material use.
Making the most of a potato means converting the highest possible amount of
it into french fries. It also means that as much as possible of the rest gets converted
into other saleable potato products. To give every plant a model to strive for, Morris
and his team designed the perfect factory on paper. It was called Plant X. “We took in
the very best of every facility we had and the very best of all the knowledge we had,
and we designed this plant on paper that could give us certain recoveries and certain
costs,” Morris explains.
To implement the program, Morris formed a committee consisting of him, Neil
D’Souza, David Rogers, and Lloyd Borowski. By comparing each existing plant with
Plant X, the committee was able to come up with a capital budget to bring all of them
up to state-of-the-art level. At the same time, each plant would be standardized in
its processing procedures, so that all the plants around the world would receive, cut,
process, and package potatoes in the same way.
Implementing RMU requires that every factory, old or new, has the latest technology
and methodology. “It was basically the handling of that raw material to cut it in
the most efficient way so that everything is used for finished product,” says Morris.
RMU didn’t really include anything that wasn’t already well known within the company
– it was just a matter of putting it all together in one package and taking it to
each factory. By giving each factory help in its areas of weakness, the average level of
productivity was raised.
It’s a matter of applying knowledge in a systematic and comprehensive way.
“Through RMU, we upgraded the shortcomings in all our factories,” says Morris.
“Even though there were many changes during my time at McCain, that is probably
our most rewarding operation.”
how french fries are made
In the fifty years since McCain started making frozen french fries
at Florenceville, the manufacturing process has been constantly
improved, with the aim of producing the best french fry at the
lowest cost with the greatest efficiency. In 2007, it takes one hour
to transform a raw potato into frozen and packaged french fries.
3. Workers near the start of the line pick
out bad potatoes and remove foreign
matter.
7. After drying, the potato strips are put
on the equilibriation belt to balance the
moisture within the potato strip.
11. The machine then folds, seals, and
cuts the bags into packages for the
food service market.
4. Potatoes are shot by a water gun
through knives that cut them into
strips.
8. After equilibriation, the potato
strips are fried.
12. Machines pack the bags into
cardboard boxes and then onto
pallets, which are stored at -23°
Celsius until shipped.
1. McCain plants are located near
potato farms. Here, fresh potatoes are
unloaded into storage bins.
5. Automatic defect-removal
machines rid the cut potatoes of any
remaining imperfections.
9. In the freezing tunnel, fries are kept
for twenty minutes at a temperature
of -39° Celsius.
13. McCain fries being transferred
from a cold storage room to a waiting
delivery truck.
132 f rom the Ground up
the home front 133
2. After stone removal, high-pressure
steam loosens the skins. Automated
brush peelers remove remaining skin.
6. Blanchers remove sugars that
would cause the french fries to
discolour.
10. The packaging machine weighs
out batches of french fries and drops
them into plastic bags.
14. Wastewater from the french fry
production process is treated behind
the factory.