ABOUT NORBEST
Norbest specializes in providing good, healthy turkeys for consumers and retailers across the nation. Norbest is headquartered in Moroni, Utah and has nearly 500 employees.
THE CHALLENGE:
Norbest, Sanpete County’s largest employer, is looking to expand its feed production operations to keep up with growing demand. They have a robust goal of 100% expansion in the next 5 years and are excited to increase production and keep pace with the consumer’s growing appetite.
MEP CENTER’s ROLE:
Recently the local Small Business Development Center held workshops at Snow College. It was there that Norbest met with MEP Utah, a NIST MEP affiliate. A follow-up call resulted in two MEP Engineers meeting with the two Feed Mill Superintendents. The two groups began to work on a plan to help Norbest determine how to best accomplish their additional production needs. Norbest has a long tradition and history. Early on, the MEP Engineer realized that Norbest is extremely important to the county and surrounding areas. The MEP Engineer felt that Norbest was the expert at making feed, but MEP Utah could work with some of their processes to assist them in reaching their goals. Mixing feed is the lifeblood at the mill. MEP’s first task was to visit with the mixing team to learn more about that function. MEP was impressed with the hard work, knowledge, and skills they saw, and felt their mixers were doing a tremendous job. One of the main tasks that the MEP assisted Norbest with was the creation of a training manual for the Feed mixers. This allowed Norbest to hire an additional Mixer who will use the new manual in his job. This lowered the labor cost of getting another mixer up to speed and will assist Norbest in meeting their expansion goal of increasing business 100% in the next five years.
Results:
- Creation of new feed mixer training manual
- Hired additional mixer
- Lowered labor costs
- Training will help attain goal of 100% expansion in the next 5 years
