Peerless conversion

Dairy Field, Mar 2003 by Smith, Pamela Accetta

* WestFarm Foods transforms co-op milk into quality products at its Sunnyside, Wash., cheese and whey plant.

Washington's beautiful Yakima Valley is home to one of the most efficient cheese and whey plants in the West. The Sunnyside facility follows the WestFarm Foods' business strategy of manufacturing top-of-the-line commodity products while being a low-cost provider competitive with other processors, especially those in California where milk prices are typically lower than in other regions in the United States.

Each day, the plant manufactures 450,000 pounds of bulk cheese products in addition to 320,000 pounds of sweet whey powder.

The Sunnyside facility has grown significantly since its first stage of construction in 1991. Since then, the cooperative has extensively invested at the plant level to increase efficiencies and production capacity. According to John Underwood, senior vice president of operations, the goal at Sunnyside is to reduce variability and drive cost down. "The focus here is on throughput, the amount of milk we process, the amount of cheese we make and the amount of powder we produce," he says. "Of course, increased efficiency is important at every WestFarm Foods facility, but more so for our region's everincreasing milk supply Being a co-op creates a unique situation in that we are committed to processing all of the milk the farmers produce and sell to us."

On a broader scale, WestFarm Foods operates a total of 11 processing plants in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and California.

According to Underwood, the company is diligently driven by a commitment to customer service. "We are customer-focused. We have to provide the customers with what they want rather than simply only offering block cheese or sweet whey powder because that's just what we happen to produce," he says. "We work to be their provider of choice by offering valued services in addition to a consistent quality product."

Sunnyside's highly automated production system helps decrease labor costs while maintaining the company's position of being a low-cost processor. "We have managed to raise our throughput without adding extra employees," says Underwood. "Automation at the Sunnyside plant not only keeps costs down and offers safety and ergonomic benefits by eliminating back-breaking, menial labor, but also reduces the variability of our product. We put as much money as we can into equipment. What exists in this plant is top of the line."

According to Tom Rouleau, cheese plant manager, advanced systems and quality control ensure the highest levels of consistency in Sunnyside's cheese products and an increased yield in raw materials output. "The plant is capable of turning 4.5 million pounds of raw milk into 450,000 pounds of cheese and 320,000 pounds of whey powder seven days a week," he says.

The Sunnyside plant is energetically focused on the low-cost production of a high-scale product. "That is the only way you can make money," says Underwood.

The Processing End

Cheese production at the Sunnyside plant begins with arrival of milk from its producers in a three-bay receiving area. Once received, the raw product undergoes a series of quality tests before being stored in silos prior to processing.

The milk travels from the silos through a standardization process and then pasteurization. From the pasteurizer the blend is transferred to 10, 6,000gallon (55,000 pound) cheese vats. Over the course of half an hour, the milk is brought from 88 degrees to 102 degrees. The curd and whey is transferred to the curd machine where the whey is drained. The curd moves through the machine and into the salter at a rate of 22,500 pounds per hour. Salt is mixed into the curd and the curd is then sent to one of 16 block-forming towers. Once formed, 42 to 43-pound blocks of cheese emerge, and with the help of an automated system, the blocks are placed in plastic prior to sealing. Blocks begin to cool on the same conveyor system where they are automatically cased into individual corrugated boxes. Once boxed, the cheese travels into an automated rack refrigeration system for cooling.

Cheese blocks are then stacked on a pallet by automatic palletizers. Pallets are then moved via a conveyor to an automatic warehousing system/holding room prior to distribution. "The warehouse is capable of storing 25 million pounds of cheese," says Rouleau.

A sensor eye signals a crane to retrieve new pallets from the conveyor line and sort them according to bar code. The crane takes its orders from the warehousing control room, where an inventory control leader programs the computer to command the crane to pick orders according to bar code.

Product is later moved to the loadout area, where pallets are loaded directly onto trucks.

Meanwhile, whey, the by-product of cheese making, is undergoing a process of its own. Liquid whey is processed first with membranes then by evaporation to remove excess water. After evaporation, the whey is spray-dried in one of two dryers, first to a 15 percent moisture content at 450 degrees, then slowly to 4 percent. Sweet dry whey is automatically bagged and palletized. "Although workers oversee the process, there is no need for human handling of product," says Rick Lehr, whey plant manager.