Innovating industry: Choosing work hours. Creating balance. Inside a Land O’Lakes manufacturing facility.

We're rethinking the norms of manufacturing by offering flexible work environments at our facilities. In this episode learn how flexibility supplemental income, and simply choosing your own hours to work can impact consumers, which is better for our cooperative, is making a difference. Guests are Yone Dewberry Chief Supply Chain Officer at Land O'Lakes, Inc, and George Weathermon, a Land O'Lakes flex-worker from St. Joseph Missouri. 

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Transcript

 Tomorrow. It's never a guarantee unless we take care of today. We are a cooperative, grounded in 100 years of forward thinking ever since our beginning in 1921. It's the pursuit of a reliable food supply, a sustainable future, and vibrant communities for all of us. Rooted in the promise of a brighter future.

This is rooted in Tomorrow, the podcast by Land O'Lakes, Inc. I'm your host, Kim Olson. Join us for stories of innovators, change makers, and the modern entrepreneurs who work the land.

The pandemic thrust many of us into remote work or work from home positions. We all seem to be human with pets and kids and life happening in the background of our work days and our Zoom calls. But the essential and frontline workers like medical staff or food production and manufacturing, we're not all afforded that option.

They showed up while many of us stayed home. We all owe those workers a debt of gratitude for their sacrifice during that time. But coming out of the pandemic, we also thought there was an opportunity to rethink their traditionally rigid shift work dynamic by adding some flexibility that would allow full-time and part-time workers to choose their own hours.

As a cooperative, we are in this together, a vibrant, productive, and flexible workforce is. Good for the farmer, rural communities, and ultimately the food we put on our tables. So how does this help the farmer and ultimately the consumers? Well, my guests today are Yani Berry, chief Supply Chain Officer at Land O'Lakes, and George Weatherman, who works in St.

Joseph, Missouri at one of our Winfield United Manufacturing facilities.

Good afternoon, Yone and George. Thank you guys so much for joining me. Really appreciate it. Glad to be here. Glad to help you. Thank you. Thank you. Um, now we've got a really interesting, uh. Topic today. Um, and I have to kinda harken back. I'm gonna, um, gonna start with you Yani. We, uh, when we started, um, getting media inquiries at, uh, land O'Lakes and everyone was, can I talk to Yani, your chief, uh, supply chain officer over and over and over again.

I knew we had, uh, had a new, um, wave of interest now that was at the, uh, start of COVID and um. For us at Land O'Lakes, I think that pandemic really kind of thrust supply chain into the consciousness of consumers and, you know, otherwise they might not have been thinking of it in the same way. But when we were all trying to get toilet paper and stockpiling, and I think it really, uh, it really raised, uh, a little bit of an awareness about it.

Um, so let's, let's kind of go back to that time if we could, uh, Yani kinda. Can you talk a little bit about the, um, the ups and downs of, of that period of time during the pandemic and COVID? The ups and downs were really interesting and, and the ups and downs really occur anytime there's any disruption in the supply chain.

Um, in this case, this was a major disruption to the supply chain. And the, the downs were really around, you know, the inability of whether it was US or other organizations, our inability to. Fill the demands of the customers on a consistent basis as a supply chain professional for the last 30 some years.

It's, it's what we want to do. We wanna make sure that we fulfill the customer's expectations at all times, and, and we know it's very disappointing and it was extremely disappointing. The up was during the way that because it was such a disruption to everyone's supply chain, the way that different supply chains across companies came together to work together to try to make it better.

And that to me was the biggest up. Hmm. And is that something that, uh, this y you know, has sort of held on even to this day? Are you seeing, um, that that up sounds like something that we hear certainly in media all the time. Is that the case for you? It is the case for us that up is something that's continuing, that people recognize it's something that's gonna help supply chains today and in the future.

So organizations are, are actively trying to find ways to, to help each other put less friction in supply chain. Hmm, that's terrific to hear, uh, especially if we, uh, if we get into another toilet paper situation. Um, so let's, uh, let's take a step back, Yani and kind of frame this up for our listeners. So what is the role of manufacturing facilities when you.

Kind of take that. Let's, let's take Land O'Lakes specifically. When you take the journey, um, from the farms to the grocery stores, um, what, what does that journey look like and where do manufacturing facilities play in? Yeah, so, so manufacturing facilities play in, in the fact that what we're trying to do is, if you think about a supply chain, you're trying to take raw goods, goods.

From point A to deliver them to the ultimate user, which is typically the consumer. And in the middle is the manufacturing of that. So to convert what is a raw commodity or raw material into something that is, can be consumed by either consumer or an animal. That's the objective of the supply chain and manufacturing.

It's really the conversion of a raw item into a finished item. Hmm. So, you know, we, we can, um, make the jump to certainly without, uh, a product. There's nothing to sell, and without manufacturing you can't create the product. So when you think about being a cooperative as Land O'Lakes is, um, what role do you think manufacturing, uh, workers play?

The manufacturing workers play a critical role in, in that part of the process, because if we don't have manufacturing workers who are willing or able to work in our plants, then to your point, we can't make the products to deliver to the consumer. So the manufacturing personnel in the, in our plants, our key to the success of not only our manufacturing organization, but every manufacturing organization.

All right, well, let's, um, let's think about, uh, getting to know one specific, um, person who is working in manufacturing for Land O'Lakes a little bit better. Um, George, thank you so much for joining us. I so appreciate you taking the time. Um, I'd like to get to know you a little bit more if you're game Okay.

Okay. See that? That sounds, that sounds nervous, George. There's no reason to be nervous. My questions are always friendly. Um, I get, I get nervous. I'm taking pictures. Oh my goodness. Well, that, it's good that this is a podcast. Nobody's looking at you, but Boo and Yani. Um, so tell me a little bit more about yourself.

Um, you went right into the US Army after high, uh, after high school. Is that right? Directly. Okay. And, and what was that like for you? That was exciting. Uh, it was demanding, but yet it was, um, it was an exciting situation. Uh, I got to, uh, do basically in Fort Benning, Georgia, and I was stationed at Jump School and, uh, staged at my regular station at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

Oh, at Fort Bragg. All right. Yes. I've got a, uh, a nephew, um, who is in the Air Force. So I, I know a little bit about, um, military, but, uh, but not much. I, I understand from, uh, from our producer that you were medically discharged in 1987. Yes. Three, six years ago. Yeah. Yes. I I only know that because I got married in 1987.

It's very specific. Um, so medically discharged, um, what happened? I had a parachute accident in 1987. Oh my goodness. Uh, it pretty much ended my career with military. Oh my goodness. I'm sorry to hear that. Um, and your injuries ended their career. So you were looking for, for something else? I were you? Yes.

Did you know it immediately, what you wanted to do or No. Tell me about that journey a little bit. No, um. You know, I, I didn't really have a, uh, set job that I was looking for, uh, with the conditions that I had. It was a lot of medical conditions with me that, uh, would keep me from getting a better paying job or a more stable job.

Um, I worked at different places. I worked a s second groceries to manual labor, to digging ditches to work in farm work. I did various variety of different jobs, but I was never suitable for none of them. I didn't, I didn't feel I was suitable for none of them. Yeah. Um, then I, I, I got a, uh, job working for an installation company.

I was with that company for about 10 years. I got certifications on bibs, uh, blowing blanket system. Mm-hmm. Uh, it, it seemed to be the job I wanted at the same time. That's when I took up, uh, going to college, getting a degree. Computer drafting, computer aid, drafting design. Oh, terrific. So you went back to school.

What's, how many years of that would that have been 17. 17 years after I, I graduated high school. I went to college. Oh wow. Congratulations. That, uh, so I learn what I learn. I, when I went to high school, we had math three. That was the highest, highest they had. They didn't have algebra or nothing in, in school, so I had to learn algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and calculus.

Oh my goodness. I, I don't think I could, could go back and do that if, if you paid me it. Uh, I, I am not a aspirin, that's for sure. Yeah. Whenever I took, whenever I took the class, the course, they said that the, it was paying great, uh, you know, the, the, that was an excellent field to go into because it was excellent pay.

Come to find out, they kind of exaggerated a little bit. Uh, the pay went from, uh, 30,000 down to 20,000. Oh my. And $20,000. I mean, I could get a job at a factory and make that. Yeah. So I. So how'd you, how'd you start looking for, uh, something like the manufacturing plant? Because you had, you were looking, it sounds like, for both work life balance and, um, income and a way to use the new, uh, the new degree.

Yes, yes. I, I, I kind of did it, uh, I did it a, uh, what do you call it? A, um. Odd jobs, you know, the, did a little landscaping. Mm-hmm. Because I, at the, at the time, whenever we did our classes, we would, we had all different fields. We had to go into engineering. We had take engineering courses, uh, landscaping courses.

Uh, we had to learn a lot, uh, to live jobs. That sounds like it. Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot more techn technicality to it than what, what it seems, sounds like on a lot different jobs. Familiarized me with that field. Mm-hmm. And, and I was familiar with it, so it was a little easier to do that job. Okay. And then you ended up at our, um, St.

Joseph manufacturing facility in St. Joseph, Missouri. Right. Yes, yes. I, I worked for a, uh, company Daily's Premium Meats. It's a banking factory down here in St. Joe. Okay. Uh, I worked there for about four years. I, I've walked up to scale from an employee to a lead by the time I left. So you end up with us. I talked to career Center.

I talked to Career Center Staffing, uh, staffing career center here in St. Joe. And the, uh, the boss, the head boss of the company, uh. Called me up one day and said, Hey, would you be interested in a flex job? I said, I said, what's it pertaining to? What, what, what do I do on a flex job? Yeah. He said, well, he said, basically, you're gonna be working for Land Lakes and it's gonna be a flex job.

You're gonna pick your own hours, your own days that you work, so you'll be able to pick your days off. I said, okay, okay, that sounds good, and let's try it. Yeah. And uh, I've been working here almost a year now. I love the place here. I love the, uh, the office personnel is very, very helpful in every field, every aspect that you can.

If they said, if you have any problems whatsoever, just come talk to us. We'll figure it out for you. Ah, that's good to hear. I, uh, I, so what does a typical day look like? A typical day for me is sweating because it's so, it's so hot in our warehouse down here, Missouri Heat, I, we were talking earlier, I'm, uh, from Missouri, so I know that, uh, that heat and humidity down there can get tough.

I, do you ever think about as you're, um, doing, we talk a lot on this. Uh, on this podcast about the farmers, um, that, uh, we se all essentially work for. Um, does that ever come into your, into your thoughts as you're doing the work day to day the, the role you played for them? It, it does, it does it, it makes me wonder how my job helps, helps their job along way.

Yeah. As far as the product products we put out to help the farmers. Yeah. Yeah. Feeding the, uh, feeding the world, really. Yep. Um, yeah, I mean, let's, let's, let's go back to you now. We, uh, we talked a little bit about George, about flex labor and we really wanna, um. Dive into that a little bit deeper. So during the pandemic, a lot of us were sent home to work, um, but manufacturing employees really didn't have the option to work from home.

Um, what, you know, George has mentioned the flex program, uh, Yanna. Can you give us kind of a broader view of what we're doing to give, um, manufacturing workers more flexibility? I think George did a great job of explaining what we did. We, we are trying to develop the roles in our manufacturing facilities so that we can allow the employees to have time off when they need it.

There, there are a lot of instances where whether it's, you know, you have a sick child at home, whether it is you need to go to the doctor, even. You might need to go to the bank, and the bank closes at three o'clock, and if you're working a certain shift, you can't get there. So we're trying to develop the roles in a, in a way that allows for flexibility.

If you think about manufacturing, for the longest time, our manufacturing principles are really rooted in the industrial revolution. Where people basically worked on a production line and things were just very standard and constant. And, and in today's world, employees want more flexibility than that. And, and so what we're trying to do is provide that flexibility.

So how does it work? It works, just as George explained, and that is what we do is we, we try to divide up the job so that people can either have more time off or we're multiple people, so it might take two people to fill the job of a person from before, because you might find a person who's willing to work Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

You take two college students, for example, maybe you have one college student who takes classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and one college student who takes classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. In the past, we would say that had to be one job, but today what we're saying is that can, that could probably be two jobs.

You have one person that works Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and somebody else works Tuesday and Thursday, and we fulfill the whole job and everybody gets what is needed for them. Yeah. And you know, when you think about what's needed for, um, the employee, um, it, it seems like a, a really good deal from a, a work life, um, balance perspective.

Um, what does it do for the cooperative system? It, it once, it allows the cooperative system to continue to produce the products, to deliver the products that either our farmers need or the consumer needs on a consistent basis. So it, it allows the supply chain to continue to work the way it's supposed to.

That's great. Um. Can you tell me if, when you, when we've gone out and, um, structured, uh, programs in this way, are we seeing an increase in, um, either demand or excitement for this kind of structure? We are absolutely seeing a increase in, um, I'll call it demand for this type of work. So what we see is generally when we, when we compare the postings for a flex role versus a posting for a regular role, we get two to three times the number of people who would apply for a role if it's a flex role.

So we absolutely see an increased number of people who want it because I think we all want work life balance, as George talked about. I mean, we all want that balance. And you know, typical Manu fan jobs don't do that. Now there are plenty of people who don't need that balance. And so yeah, we still have the regular jobs as well.

Um, so this just opens the aperture for us for employees to.

That's great. I, so now, now that I know a little bit more about it, Georgia, I have to ask the, the, um, specifics. Uh, what, which hours did you pick? Uh, I picked, uh, Monday and Tuesday, um, three to 11. Okay. And Wednesday was, uh, three 30 to seven 30. Okay. So it gave me a total of 20 hours per week. Terrific. And does that, did you pick those hours specifically?

'cause you had other things that were going on in the other, um, parts of the day and the morning up to three? Or is there, uh, how, how did you think about it? Well, the way I, the way I thought about it was, you know, most, most, uh, jobs, their biggest, heaviest workloads are Monday and Tuesday, the beginning of the week.

So I figured, you know, I would be best helpful for the company to come in those busy days to help them out other than this the slower days. Yeah. Now I, I know, uh, George, you've got two kids and two little grandkids, right? Yes. Yes I do. Yeah. That's, that's awesome. Family is amazing. Um, do you find that your colleagues, uh, are also, do you get a lot of working parents and, and students at your facility?

Yes, I do. Uh, most of the, most of the people that I work with, the employees that I work with, they do have families. They do have separate jobs outside this, of this company. So, uh. I get familiarized with them pretty, pretty easily. Uh, I'm kind of a people person. I get along with just about everybody. Um, hopefully they get along with me.

Yeah, sometimes I, I, sometimes I'm overbearing and, and wanna get things done and I gotta do 'em a certain way. If I know that a certain way, it just doesn't feel like I get fulfillment out of it. Yeah. Yeah. Well pride in pride in the work is something I think a lot of us share here. Yes. Um, Yani, this is a new, uh, kind of a new program.

We started this in, uh, early 2022. Is that right, Yani? That is correct. Yep. At what? 60 facilities or so. So we started it. One facility. And to your point, we are now at 60 facilities.

Talent management is one of the defining challenges for manufacturing in the post pandemic world. Expectations have changed and as a cooperative, we're committed to meeting employees where they want to be.

Um, what, when you think about how this has grown, it's. So it's so great to hear George's story and the, um, the flexibility that, uh, he's seeing and the pride in his work. Um, but I can't imagine there weren't some challenges when you're starting something new like this. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Yeah, and there are probably two big challenges when we started this. Um, the, the first big challenge is how do you overcome a history of. Happens a certain way and everybody expects it. You know, one of the things we initially talked about when we. So why do our jobs have to start at, if we're a 24 7 operation, why does a job have to start at seven in the morning?

Why can't it start at eight? Why can't it start at nine? You know? Yeah. We have this thing that manufacturing starts at a certain hour and, and it really doesn't need to. So, so we, first thing we had to get over is all the old norms that, that are. Tied to manufacturing, had to get over those. And then the other one, which is I call it much more practical kind of thing.

We had to figure out a way so we could keep the jobs, the hours of the jobs. Available in a way so we could see which ones were filled and which ones weren't, and which ones we didn't have coverage for. Because as you know, in some of our facilities, we actually let them pick the hours that they're going to work.

Be different every week. Oh, and so if you think about trying to fill the entire day, which we'll need, we had to figure out how to schedule that. Initially, we did it manually through a lot of work. Today, we actually have technology that helps us do that. Oh, that's fantastic. So your, your team had to introduce some new systems and, uh, and come up with some new approaches as well, it sounds like.

Yes, and, and like I said, probably the biggest one is getting over the, the cultural manufacturing norm that, yeah. Jobs start at a certain time. They're always eight hours a day. I mean, those kind of things are things that are really ingrained in manufacturing folks. Yeah. I, you know, another thing that I know is important to us, uh, here at Land O'Lakes is, um, increasing, uh, recruiting efforts in, um, the, uh, arena of diversity and inclusion.

Yeah. Um, does this help with those efforts, do you think? It absolutely helps. It helps because it, as I said, it opens up our app to, to a whole group of people that we didn't have access to before. 'cause they couldn't come to work for us because we were too confining. George is a great example of that. I mean, if you think about if we would've been on the standard 40 hour work week.

George probably couldn't work for us. So it allows us to bring somebody like George in and, and you know, we look at diversity not only in terms of what I call the typical diversity things, but mm-hmm diversity of, you know, your background, diversity of a lot of things, you know, working parents versus, you know, uh, people that don't have children.

And so this has opened up for us the more people that are working, parents who can have. Wanna home their kids when their kids get home. Yeah. So it it, it's been great for diversity for us. George mentioned that when he talked the diversity of people that he sees because. And so we think we're getting some people that are trying it just to see if they like manufacturing.

Oh, yeah. Well, uh, you're probably getting folks that, um, wouldn't apply right at all. Yes. So, um, you know, uh, that's a good way to, uh, for folks to, um, to try it. Yeah. Uh, I would think. Um, so tell me, where does the program go from here? What's next? What's next is that, um, I have an aspirational goal that we would like it to have it at all of our facilities, uh, by the end of the year.

So we've got another 30 or so facilities to go. Mm-hmm. Um, I, I can also see a day that up to a third of our. Manufacturing employees would be in a program like this up to a third. I can, I can see up to a third eventually. And I say that meaning that, you know, if you really think about it, when I go back to, we'll always need, there will always be those roles that don't need flex and people who don't need flex.

Mm-hmm. But, but if you think about the demographics of, of the population mm-hmm. I, it's gonna be a greater number of people who need flexibility than need it today. And so I'm, I'm picking my aspirational goal as a third right now. Well, I'll tell you. I'll, I'll, uh, I'll go right along with you. I think that, um, flexibility in all aspects of life is gonna be, uh, more and more, um, the norm.

Um, well thank you guys for the conversation. I sure appreciate we like to end the podcast with a question, and generally the question is, how do you. See the future of agriculture. Um, George, I'm gonna ask you first, and uh, we could say we could include manufacturing facilities in that question. Sort of, uh, how do you see the future of manufacturing facilities and in agriculture, um, as you look out, uh, over what, what might be in the next few years?

Well, I, I, I just know that agriculture's gonna be around for a lot more years. I mean, as, as much as the consumers take in and, uh, you know, the, the food rate, the way the food rate is now. Mm-hmm. I see a permanent job for the rest, for the rest of my life. Like I say, the people here are excellent. The, uh, office personnel are very, very helpful in every aspect of my life, and that's what I like about, that's what I like about the Lin Lakes, is they, they have been very, very helpful.

Uh, when I was first hired on here, you know, they, I was paid holidays and I was just a new hire, and that's never happened to me. I would, uh, I would rate it a hundred percent. It, it's just outstanding here. It's just comradery. It's comradery That should be in every workplace. Well, thank you, George. I, that, um, that answer is, uh, moving Yani.

I, I can ask you, but I'm not sure that you can, uh, give a better answer there than George. I, I, I can't give a better answer than Jordan did, but, uh, but, but I do see, you know, uh, in. I think we're gonna see more and more technology that'll help with this flexibility in, in agriculture. But, but I also think that we are, we are gonna see more work-life balance through flexibility.

I think more and more, um, organizations are gonna gonna adopt this kind of manufacturing mindset. Um, be because the demographics of the population say it's, it's absolutely necessary. And that's what I see. Fantastic. Well, thank you both. I enjoyed it so much, and I appreciate you taking the time to talk with us.

Thank you. Care. Thank you. Thank you, George. Thank you. All right, you guys. That's a wrap.

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