Western’s Smokehouse Increases On-Time Delivery with MaintainX

Overview

Preparing, packaging, and shipping individually wrapped snacks for suppliers nationwide is no easy feat. Western’s Smokehouse relies upon strategic maintenance management, equipment reliability, and team communication to keep customers happy.

However, as with any well-oiled operation, there is always room for improvement. In 2020, the premium meat manufacturer found a competitive edge in MaintainX. Western’s Smokehouse uses the mobile-friendly computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) to optimize on-time delivery (OTD), reduce downtime, increase efficiency, and ensure customer loyalty.

Results

After launching an improved O&M management system with MaintainX, Western’s Smokehouse significantly increased OTD—a crucial metric for manufacturers across industry lines. On-time performance is now at an all-time high because of streamlined organizational systems.

Today, using MaintainX, the manufacturer has cataloged 500+ parts, 150+ assets, and 60+ vendors in support of 2,000+ work orders. Now, Western’s Smokehouse more accurately forecasts parts’ demand, optimizes inventory, and predicts equipment behavior.

”With MaintainX, we got our maintenance staff up to par with the needs of our company. The app makes it easier to streamline communication between everyone and complete work orders in a timely fashion.”
^{—Aaron Speaks, Raw Team Lead}

Challenges

• Enhance quality-control measures that support suppliers in their missions to bring sustainable, ethical, and healthy products to consumers.
• Streamline communication between multiple in-house teams—IT, Maintenance, Quality Assurance, Raw Side, and Critical Parts Escalations—to prevent time-sensitive updates from falling through the cracks.

Solution

Workers are assigned work requests directly on their smartphones. Digital work orders include attached procedural checklists, parts needed, and asset locations.

• Recurring Work Orders
• Asset Management
• Procedures
• Parts/Inventory
• Vendors
• Team Messaging

Spotlight on the Customer

Western’s Smokehouse prides itself on producing high-quality, ethically produced, and healthy jerky sticks. The company manufactures a variety of individually wrapped products from its Grentop, Missouri headquarters. As stated on its website, Western’s Smokehouse strives to “delight consumers as the preferred manufacturer of premium, crafted meat snacks.”

Western’s Smokehouse was originally two separate companies, Western’s Smokehouse and Thrushwood Farms, both founded in 1978. Coincidentally, entrepreneurs Kevin Western and Doug Hankes started making meat snacks around the same time. After crossing paths, the men became fast friends and continued to share best practices over the years. Eventually, the manufacturers merged to become Western’s Smokehouse.