FP 2022 Manufacturing Survey

Welcome to the 2022 Food Processing magazine Manufacturing Outlook Survey. It takes only a few minutes to complete. All answers are confidential. However, if you do provide your name & contact information at the end, you will be eligible for the drawing for one of four $100 gift certificates -- either Amazon or a Visa gift card, your choice.
* Questions marked with an asterisk are mandatory.

1. For the coming year, please rank, 1st place through 10th place, the importance to your plant of EACH of the following manufacturing issues: *This question is required. Order the items from the following list. First select an item with the spacebar to show a menu of possible ranking positions. Next, click a ranking position to order it in the ranked list. Note the menu will display more ordering options as you add items to the ranked list.

Automation
Capacity expansion
Cost control
Sustainability issues
Food safety
Various changes due to COVID
Worker recruitment
Sanitary design of equipment
Better traceability, up and down
Worker safety

2. What vital manufacturing issues will you face in 2022 that are not above?

3. Which statement accurately describes how your company has dealt with the COVID crisis on the plant floor? *This question is required.

Comments

8. What are the specific practices your facility implemented in 2020-2021 or will implement in 2022 for better sanitation and food safety? (Please check all that apply; multiple answers OK) *This question is required.

Third-party certification
Employee training
HACCP plan
Improved pest control program
More/improved sanitary equipment
Rapid microbial detection system
Improved sanitary design of equipment
Outside consulting services
Other (please specify in box below)

Comments

10. If your company has any big capital projects planned, what are they?

11. Ranking the following areas in terms of where capital spending will occur, with 1 or first representing the largest dollar amount. *This question is required. Order the items from the following list. First select an item with the spacebar to show a menu of possible ranking positions. Next, click a ranking position to order it in the ranked list. Note the menu will display more ordering options as you add items to the ranked list.

Control systems
Digital field devices (sensors, meters. etc.)
Electronic records (for track & trace, quality management, etc.)
Laboratory equipment
Packaging equipment
Plant and worker safety
Process equipment
Robotics and automation
Software

12. Automation has created demand for high-skills workers. How is your organization addressing staffing needs? (check all that apply)

Recruiting maintenance technicians
Adding in-house engineering capabilities
Expanding in-house technical training
Working with schools to develop electromechanical curricula
Outsourcing more job functions
Hiring more line operators for semi-automated tasks
Not addressing the issue
Other (please specify in box below)

Comments

13. Maintaining production and packaging systems in today’s food and beverage plants is essential. What strategies, tactics and tools does your organization use to optimize asset use? (check all that apply)

Additional maintenance technicians are being hired
Condition monitoring tools are being used to drive preventive maintenance efforts
Personnel skilled in electro-mechanical systems are being recruited
On-the-job training programs are being added to expand maintenance workers’ skill sets
Routine maintenance duties are being assigned to machine operators
Third-party maintenance services are complementing in-house personnel
CMMS and asset-management programs are playing a larger role in managing maintenance activities
Responsibilities for replacement-part inventories have been outsourced

14. Digital technology is changing how factories operate. How is it impacting your facility? *This question is required.

Shifting from local servers to cloud computing
Providing more remote access to machine controls
Replacing analog devices with digital sensors and meters
Replacing paper records with electronic records
Granting OEMs access to machine controls
No action/taking a wait-and-see approach
Other (please specify in box below)

Comments

15. What have we forgotten? We want to know the top manufacturing concerns or challenges you're facing in the coming year. If we haven't brought them out in this survey, please write them in below. (Multiple answers are OK.)

17. Which one of these best describes the primary end product of your facility? *This question is required.

19. Please enter the following contact information for the $100 gift certificates drawing (all must be included to be eligible):

Name
Email address
Phone number

FP 2022 Manufacturing Survey

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