MasterFoods (US)

Improving the use of corporate assets

Mars, a well-known, privately-owned $18bn global business, operates under the MasterFoods name in most parts of the world. Its three core business areas are snackfoods, petcare and main-meal foods.

In the US , a number of plants were making a snackfood product that was not succeeding in the marketplace. As a result of this, Wingivers were invited in to advise on how to make better use of some £25m worth of manufacturing assets and resources - by developing new product ideas, reconfiguring existing products to use assets more effectively, and creating cross-functional dialogue about how to improve results.

Wingivers set up a series of workshops designed to get different functional groups to communicate meaningfully with each other, share responsibility for existing problems, and work more closely together in the search for business solutions. Among other things, it was discovered that marketing had no direct responsibility for the effective use of assets, while manufacturing lacked the information and influence to use these assets in making products that consumers would buy. Similar problems, usually resulting from lack of effective communication or accountability, were identified across the operation.

Part of the solution delivered by Wingivers was to stimulate genuine cross-functional communication - particularly relating to the generation of business ideas - and eliminate any defensive 'silo' mentalities on the part of individual functions.

Given the right environment and encouragement, the combined thinking of R&D, industrial engineering, manufacturing and marketing helped to generate more than forty positive business ideas in each workshop. As well as creating a much greater sense of shared ownership for business issues in general, the sessions completely transformed the levels of effective communication between senior manufacturing and marketing management. In addition, practical ways of improving working practices and reorganising areas of the business more efficiently were also identified.

The lasting business benefits of Wingivers' interventions - in terms of getting people to work together as well as using assets more efficiently - more than justified the client's modest expenditure on the assignment.