Packaging at Full Potential

By: Jake Weesner, Codi Lead Operator/Trainer

What makes a good packaging team? Is it the blaring death metal or dirty rap songs during a canning run? Is it the Carhartt bibs covered in caustic? Is it the half faded tattoos we got in someone's kitchen? Or maybe it's all the low-fill crushing on the weekends after a brutal week of jumping 40 sixtels because the sales guy filled the order sheet out backwards? Basically, packaging people are a different breed, and we're proud of it! We don't get the praise of the brewers, nor the community outreach of the bartenders, we're just the guys that make sure liquor store shelves and keg coolers are stocked, no big deal.

I have been on the packaging side of the brewing industry for a long time, and especially after joining the field service team here at CODI Manufacturing, I began to notice a theme among packaging teams that stood out, and ones that are loosely based on the word "team" altogether. Just like any industry, people want to excel, or climb the ladder as most would say.

We are not brewers, but we are packaging experts!

One of the biggest difficulties in the packaging game is staffing due to just that. Some kid, let's call him Kyle, just got out of a brewing program at his local community college and sees that you are hiring a keg washer. In Kyle's mind, this is his first step toward walking up on that brew deck in a couple months. He comes to the interview, has all the right answers, starts work, and 6 months later puts in his 2 weeks when he finds out that washing kegs is all he does each day.

I can honestly say that almost all of the influential coworkers and mentors in my packaging career started years before as a keg washer at their local brewery. Which turned into keg filling, then canning or bottling, which turned into some cellar work, which turned into the brew deck and beyond. Kyle, you could have been someone, if only.

What's the point of going all the way through that hypothetical? For the reason that I started that paragraph to begin with; packaging teams that stand out are made up of individuals that look at the end product, the cans they are stacking on pallets as the most important thing they can do for the brewery team. They desire an understanding for their area of the process. They take into account the importance of what quality control truly means. They realize that quite often, the vast majority of people get their first familiarity with the brewery through a can of beer purchased from a liquor store, not the taproom. They are the kind of people that through their dedication to quality control, no amount of marketing could ever come close to replicating.

Another rather blatant observation from the breweries that are miles ahead: the rest of their team, brewers, cellar, sales, taproom, everyone involved, views packaging as the asset it truly is! I can't count the times I've sat down at a brewery and over the course of a few beers, the bartender learns that I also work for a brewery. "Oh nice! What do you do over there?" "I'm the canning line operator" I would proudly say, and then watch their excitement turn to "oh... neat". It is this type of dialog that causes the complacency of those within packaging. A good brewer knows their beer will be a shadow of what they envisioned if the packaging team isn't dialed in. The sales team knows that without a malleable packaging team their promises to customers would fall short. And most importantly, management and ownership know that when the packaging team is firing on all cylinders, there are clean and empty tanks to brew into, beer to sell, and again, sick metal jams echoing off the walls at all hours.

You may be asking yourself, "where am I even supposed to find people like that?" The short answer is, you probably can't, long answer, you make them! Let's circle back to Kyle, our homeboy from earlier. He's fresh out of brewing school, he's green, he's eager, but the number 1 issue he has been misinformed about is that his degree lets him skip the order of seniority. Now I don't mean to be brash, he learned a lot about recipe development and process, all the nerdy science stuff, but there's no chance he's actually prepared for the daily flow, and it's not his fault. With all that schooling and knowledge at his disposal, but no opening any time soon in the brew house, how do we make sure that Kyle doesn't quit in 6 months like our first hypothetical? We play to his strengths through cross-training! We give him the opportunity to showcase his new skill set while on the packaging team. Folks like Kyle don't feel necessary, because they are left out of the discussion, but when we cross-train everyone, that accountability leads to efficiency and daily morale.

My overall point here is that people get burned out faster than normal in the packaging area because they don't feel like part of the success. They have one task, repeated over and over for 8 hours, then they leave. When I walk into facilities where everyone is cross-trained, the caliber of work is miles ahead of the rest. I have personally watched the countenance and even punctuality of people change, entirely due to the top down making them feel like they are part of it through added training and accountability. They are an integral part of the success of the brewery and not just a can catcher. All too often, brewery owners view a pizza party as validation. Nope, that's just food. Validation is being given the tools to succeed inside reasonable expectation.

What takes your packaging team to the next level is you. Whether "you" is a brewer, an owner or a sales rep; a packaging team that kills it and has the brewery on its back and knows their contribution to the team makes a viable difference. They take pride in seeing their hard work on a store shelf or local tap lists. They become more aware of challenges and preventative maintenance. Jordan didn't win till he had Pippen. And he didn't achieve greatness till he had Pippen, Rodman and Longley. I hate to sound like I'm handing out life lessons, I only wish to bring to attention the discrepancies I see all too often as I travel from brewery to brewery. Working with 30 to 40 packaging teams a year gives you a pretty solid grasp on what works well.

I walk into pack halls that are held together with zip ties and a song, while the brew-deck and tap room look like some sort of immaculate "brewception." A sales team may have an expense budget that knows no bounds, while the packaging team begins each day with a vigil hoping nothing breaks because there's not a single dime in the budget for spare parts and preventative maintenance. I'm not saying give them a blank check, I'm saying once the packaging team is viewed at its full potential and possibility, you will see a difference. Packaging for life, forklift certified, that's what's up!

About CODI Manufacturing

CODI Manufacturing has been designing and building packaging automation in Colorado since 1992. We offer a complete line of beverage packaging equipment including can warmers, built in the USA and engineered to last. Veteran-owned. Machinery and a business that are "Built for Generations."

codimfg.com

About Jake Weesner

Jake is a Field Service Technician at CODI Manufacturing, where he's spent the last six years flying across the globe for installs, training, and maintenance calls. Before joining CODI, Jake came up through the craft brewing world, working his way from packaging shift lead at Mikkeller Brewing San Diego to Assistant General Manager at New Image Brewing in Arvada, CO. His hands-on experience across every corner of a brewery, from keg washers and canning lines to sales and customer education, gives him a perspective that only comes from doing the work.