US: Kent Nutrition Group’s Michigan feed facility wins top industry award
Gary Huddleston, director of feed manufacturing and regulatory affairs, the American Feed Industry Association (AFIA) presented the facility’s leadership with the award during the AFIA’s Feed Education Program at the International Production & Processing Expo (IPPE) in Atlanta.
“With low staff turnover and great teamwork, this facility has made improvements that have led to greater production efficiency and safety of its products,” he noted.
As part of a recent initiative to improve production efficiency and ensure product safety, in 2018, KNG said it upgraded its mixing system from the Aceco system, which had been in operation since 1989, to the new, extremely precise Repete Mixing System. This system, it continued, has allowed the plant to streamline its mixing process and put in place safeguards to reduce opportunities for human error, such as proceeding with a manufacturing run if the sequencing and flushing procedures are not properly followed.
Following on from this upgrade, the facility can stack runs seamlessly and has extensive lot tracking and traceability capabilities, allowing each ingredient to be traced back to the original supplier’s lot code, a valuable tool in everyday operations, reported KNG, which is a division of the family-owned Kent Corporation.
“With less downtime between runs, our team gets more production out of our workday,” said Dave Earl, the Mason plant manager. “We are able to produce our quality Kent products more effectively and efficiently, creating near perfect products every time, on time.”
KNG Mason Plant’s comprises 11 employees.
The AFIA has been recognizing innovation in feed manufacturing through its feed facility of the year program since 1985, with 2021 marking the first year that the association began issuing top industry awards to facilities in four categories: commercial dry, liquid feed, premix and ingredient, and integrator.
