Records are Made for Breaking

Demand for sugar is on the rise, and the Imperial Sugar Port Wentworth plant is responding to that demand.

Setting goals and surpassing them has become familiar terrain for Imperial Sugar Company’s (ISC) Port Wentworth packaging operators. Recently, packaging operators on several different lines whizzed past yet another goal by sealing up 2.66 million pounds of sugar in one day – a packaging record for the refinery since reopening in November 2009.

“A handful of months ago, we were attempting to package 1.8 million pounds of sugar per day,” recalls William McGhee, packaging team manager. “Once we achieved that, we started reaching for 2 million pounds. Once we got to the 2 million plateau, we aimed for 2.4 million, then later 2.6 million. In that final attempt, we reached and went above our goal.”

Demand for sugar is high, which is why the team has continually upped the number of 2,400-pound totes, 50-pound bags and five-pound bags it hopes to package in a day. This team handles only “small-pack” sugar, not the sugar being distributed by bulk trailer or rail.

William McGee likes breaking one production goal after another.

“We have so much demand for totes, five-pound and 50-pound bags right now, they want us to run those lines at full capacity,” says McGhee.

For the tote operators, the record-setting day was a victory because it was their best sustained run yet – with a grand total of 145 totes packaged. These totes, at 2,400 pounds each, are bound for industrial customers, who create part of the “strong and heavy” demand for ISC sugar, says McGhee.

The operators packaging 50-pound bags – called the “Thiele operators,” after the name of the equipment they operate – achieved a landmark number of bags without technician assistance. “In the past, when we’ve had record days on that equipment, we’ve had technicians from the manufacturing company here on site doing qualifying runs with it,” McGhee says. “So, they were happy to accomplish this on their own.”

On the five-pound bag equipment, he adds, “It was satisfying for those operator mechanics to produce high numbers because they truly ‘own their equipment,’ doing all their own repairs and preventive maintenance. So much of their personal work goes into that equipment.”

The team of packaging operators couldn’t have exceeded their goal on their own, though, notes McGhee. A high-achieving packaging team needs a steady supply of bulk sugar coming in, and a smooth process for moving the packaged product out. It was “very much a joint effort,” he says.

With another goal shattered, McGhee and team now look optimistically toward the next goal: 3 million pounds packaged per day. Says McGhee, “The operators know they can do it. They say, as long as we have sugar, they can run it.”