In their own words: Pam Furman (Consumer Products Lab Lead Tech): Well it really does not seem like 20 years have gone by. While I have been at Crest I have been fortunate enough to wear many different hats. My first job here was 3rd shift sanitation. I then went to 3rd shift production, line worker, then line operator working for Randy Reuter. After they stopped having third shift production I became a 1st shift line operator. They then built the Karlin warehouse and I went there with Ken Drew to work in the shipping and receiving office. Ken had never run a warehouse and I had never worked in shipping/receiving office, what a pair we made but it was fun learning the logistics of a warehouse. After leaving Karlin warehouse I went back to the plant as 1st shift floor supervisor and worked with Jeff Roop. I felt sorry for Jeff because I knew nothing about that job, but he was very easy to work with. I went from sitting in an office to being on the plant floor, which was quite a change but I really enjoyed being back with all my coworkers. From there I went to the North Plant to work in the R&D lab for Herb Wykoff, which was another new experience. I found I really enjoyed working in a lab and now I am in the Consumer Products lab working for Joyce Meiners. They are both labs but very different environments. I actually first started working for Crest about 38 years ago. Then it was only the Main plant and the North plant. Back then Crest was running two lines in the basement of the North Plant where the workout center is now. One line was a glass coffee creamer line and the other was a bag filling line. Ken Drew and Gary Meyers were the line operators. It is really nice to watch Crest Foods grow. The Main plant has grown over and over. The North Plant has grown and no longer has lines but has labs, offices and a work out center. Crest now has a Mix Facility and Warehouses out west. Shortly we will be moving the Consumer Products lab across the street to the building first used by Crest Foods (most r ecently the Laundromat). When I started at Crest the first time I was just a couple years out of high school. I worked here about 4 years until my first son was born. Then after my youngest son started school I thought it would be a good time to return to Crest Foods. Both of my sons have worked here and my youngest son is still working for Crest. In 20 years a lot of good and bad things can happen in life and I am very lucky to be working for a company that is always there for their employees in both times. Thanks Crest Foods for being such a great place to work. Randy Reuter (Ingredient Division Production Manager): When I started in 1994 I worked the C- shift packaging division mix crew. I worked that shift for a couple years. In that time I also had the opportunity to be a section leader for a production crew in our packaging division on the c-shift. I was there for about a year and then I was moved to C-shift Ingredient Division. I worked on the C-shift for about a month and was given the opportunity to be the Production Manager on the A-shift. At that time we were working 2 shifts with 1 bag line per shift. I think we prob- ably produced 20,000 pounds per shift for 40,000 pounds a day. We now have the capabilities to produce 130,000 pounds per day. Some things about how we did packaging then were that we hand scooped our seasonings from a 47 gallon drum into a 5 to 25 pound bag. We now package our seasoning using a bag line. We had 2 bag lines until we renovated a break room and made a bag room out of it. We now have 3 bag lines. We used to have to catch all of our bags at the fill station and lower the bag onto a conveyor then hurry to stack the filled bags on a pallet before the back reached the end of the con- veyor and fell onto the floor. We now have semi -automatic bag lines that lower the bag once the bag is full and a bag stop at the end of each line. We had a major renovation in 2005 that gave us individual mix and dump areas. This renova- tion has enabled us to be compliant with all current food manu-facturing demands required in the food industry. Our most recent change is we started another production shift to enhance our production capabilities. I have made many new friends in the last 20 years. I feel I am a part of a huge family. In the last 20 years I have been blessed to have a work crew I respect. They have helped build the Dairy Ingredient Division to what it is today. They have spoiled me by working continuously to accomplish schedules, many times beyond 8 hours a day to meet customer demands. I have also
2 Crest Ink January, February & March 2015
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