Meet
Chris
The Supply Chain Changemaker
“With a little bit of focus, we could see that there was a major cost and environmental saving to be made. No one person can undertake these projects alone, it’s all about working as a team. If you look hard enough, you will see the efficiencies.”
I’ve been with Cranswick for 27 years, becoming more and more experienced with production, operations, raw materials and processing. In my current role, I bring together my skills and experience to link the purchasing of raw materials with technical and processing knowledge.
We undertook a supplier engagement project to find out what packaging was being supplied to us. It was a big task, taking around 6 months, and involved a lot of perseverance. When the data was in, we could see a quick win was eliminating cardboard from our beef suppliers – it wasn’t being recycled, caused inefficiencies in delivery, hindered quality assessment and caused rejections.
By collaborating with our beef suppliers, together we replaced the cardboard containers with plastic returnable crates. This was a great result for all involved, saving 543 tonnes of cardboard a year - 100% better for the planet, both businesses and our product. My biggest advice is not to give up on your quest, and work as a team.
Chris, Divisional Purchasing Operations Manager, Convenience Division