A named inventor on twelve patents, Gerard Insolia, is a seasoned expert who creates value through invention and delivers top and bottom-line results via strategic investment and flawless execution. He engages and aligns teams, motivating members to achieve exceptional results. In the past, Insolia and his team have delivered valuable results to organizations such as Coca-Cola Enterprises, Bottling Investments Group, NASA, and IBM.
In an interview with Food Business Review, Insolia touches upon some of the emerging trends in the industry and the best practices to stay abreast of the latest practices.
What are your primary roles and responsibilities at Mizkan America?
My role is operations-oriented and involves bringing a wealth of experience to the position. I oversee a billion-dollar division of a larger corporation. I am responsible for producing pasta sauce for the Ragu and Bertolli brands, branded vinegar products such as Holland House Mizkan Nakano, and private-label vinegar for numerous customers. I am also in charge of introducing new processes to create products and managing the capital plan for the company, which involves investing in 12 factories across the United States to update production equipment and ensure that environmental standards are met.
What are the challenges commonly encountered across the board regarding service design and consulting?
Disruption in the supply chain of our trusted equipment suppliers is our biggest challenge. They have been struggling to meet their delivery commitments due to various factors, like labor and supply chain disruptions. This has had a cascading effect on our operations as we cannot get our equipment serviced or upgraded promptly.
Despite having long-standing relationships with these suppliers, we have faced significant challenges in securing service technicians to upgrade equipment. The primary reason for this is the lack of availability of skilled labor. In some cases, we have had to engage technicians from other countries to address the issue, which has led to significant delays and impacted our operations.
The challenges we face are complex and require a multi-faceted approach to address them. We must work closely with our equipment suppliers to find solutions for both parties and explore alternative sources of skilled labor.
We are facing stiff competition from other industries, which has made attracting and retaining the right talent for our organization challenging. The cost-push inflation associated with this situation has added to the complexity of the problem.
The challenges we face are complex and require a multi-faceted approach to address them. We must work closely with our equipment suppliers to find solutions for both parties and explore alternative sources of skilled labor.
Any valuable insights on best industry practices that you gained during project implementation?
To ensure our success, we strongly emphasize establishing explicit scopes of work at the outset of each project. This involves spending time with various stakeholders to fully comprehend the project's objectives, assumptions, and possible constraints. After the scope of work, we expeditiously move forward and refer back to it in the future when necessary.
We follow this up with a design phase and thorough stakeholder reviews to ensure alignment before approving capital for the project. This practice engenders stakeholder buy-in, as they often provide insights that enhance the final solution. We facilitate smooth project execution by incorporating their input and proactively communicating any potential impacts on cost and time.
Additionally, we conduct post-project evaluations to identify lessons learned and improve our processes for future endeavors. This is not intended to assign blame but rather to identify areas for improvement. These best practices have been instrumental in our success, and we are committed to refining our approach.
Are there any trends that Mizkan has adopted to optimize results?
We must minimize waste and energy usage to maintain our competitiveness and provide value to our stakeholders. We recognize the importance of sustainability and are constantly exploring ways to optimize our production processes while reducing costs. As part of this effort, we are working on a project to minimize shipping costs.
We closely monitor consumer trends and preferences to drive changes in processes and identify engineering challenges that require creative solutions, such as finding ways to use recyclable packaging or labels.
If you were to give a piece of advice to your peers and aspiring professionals, what would it be?
Understand your long-term objectives when planning your capital and production strategies. Without proper planning and clarity on where you want to be in five or ten years, it's easy to make mistakes and end up wasting resources. Take the time to develop a clear strategy and involve a cross-functional team to develop your tactics to get more eyes on the project and ensure everyone is aligned with the company's objectives. While it may be tempting to be creative and incorporate everyone's input, it's essential to remain focused on your original objectives and be transparent about changes, if there are any.
By involving the right people early on and remaining true to your objectives, you can ensure that your project will succeed and deliver what's important for the company.
