Hardware Podcasts

211: How Vertical Integration Helps Kwik Trip Achieve Manufacturing Excellence with Paul Blank and Scott Schiebel

Manufacturing Happy Hour · 12 Nov 2024 · 45m

What this episode covers

Paul Blank, Director of Operations, and Scott Schiebel, Automation Manager, explain how Kwik Trip’s vertical integration model—spanning five food production facilities, distribution, and trucking—allows them to control pricing, quality, and food safety. They detail the automation of their 2018 bread and bun facility, which uses continuous mixing for buns and batch processes for bread, integrated with SAP, MES, and SCADA systems to drive order-based production. The guests highlight how predictive maintenance via a CMMS program minimizes downtime, while a strong culture of employee ownership, including a 40% profit-sharing plan and partnerships with Western Technical College, ensures that automation enhances rather than replaces jobs.

Most relevant to

large enterprises

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Kwik Trip
Tools
SAP, SCADA, MES, CMMS
Also
Paul Blank, Scott Schiebel, Western Technical College, Fortnite

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