[02:45] Tell me what Tillamook County Creamy Association does.

We’re a dairy products CPG, and we’re pretty vertical. Our cheese is the most popular, but we also make ice cream, yogurt, and cream cheese. You should be seeing more of that across the country because we started a big push a few years ago. Dairy farmers own the company, but there are also executives pulled in from other places.

[05:12] What IT needs does Tillamook have and how do you help the business?

I’ve always worked at places where I’m passionate about the products. I’ve worked with some great brands that I thought were complicated, so going into Tillamook I thought, how complicated can milk be? The answer is very complicated.

[06:05] Can you give us an example of the kind of complexity you deal with?

For example, inventory. Trucks are going around collecting milk from dairy farms, all going in the same tank. That milk has to be tested for specific components by the farmers, then it has to be tracked and logged throughout the process before going on to be made into other products.

[07:07] Is the application you use for this kind of tracking proprietary or is there a specific third-party program?

We use one third party to track components to pay our producers. There are also the common commercial ERP systems, and a manufacturing system that integrates with our lab system that tracks product quality in and out. In terms of the supply chain, we do a lot of work with co-manufacturers and distributors. A lot of transactions.

[08:27] Has the supply chain been an issue lately?

It’s certainly had some issues. For example, a certain kind of resin we use in packaging is scarce. There’s also inflation. Milk is federally regulated and prices are high, plus gas prices trickle down from freight.

[09:16] With these pressures, has your team been looking to you do some digital transformation to improve things?

Definitely. There’s been wins and losses. Communication has been a big win. On the other side of things, we decommissioned some systems and installed new ones right before the pandemic. That caused issues due to the sudden demand increase.

[10:55] How do you figure out what to prioritize and how do you communicate that?

It’s people. The employees rallied around in all departments. There was a lot of hard work and long hours. We have partnerships within our company and that’s how we prioritize. A huge one is automation. How do we make things easier?

[14:30] Did you have a say in how things came together?

Our company had a really good solid base of employees in place before we started the transformation. During the project, we had a key focus on change management. There was support and awareness, and the onus wasn’t just put on IT. We had fully dedicated people to the process and we backfilled positions where we needed to bring in the specialists.

[18:25] Let’s talk about your success in cross-functional leadership.

Technology is nothing without the people that are using the technology. A lot of the time, the weight is on the technology rather than the people, but my approach is the opposite way around. I try to be an effective communicator, taking the tech speak out of things and using analogies.

[23:10] How do you approach things that you don’t understand or obstacles?

I start talking to people, including those in my network and those that aren’t. I’ll seek out the answers.

[25:00] How did you end up in the dairy industry?

I’ve always reported up to finance, and the CFO at Tillamook was someone I knew through a previous position that I had. We stayed in touch and she contacted me about the opening, and it was a big learning curve. Food and beverage in general are pretty complex.

[29:30] Tell me about reporting to the CFO and reducing costs.

At Tillamook, we are just starting to see that. My metric is always to plan your IT budget as a percentage of your revenue. Now we’re seeing that start to decline as revenue goes up.

[31:00] Can you talk about the automation at Tillamook?

Our plant is almost fully automated. The raw product never stops coming in. You can’t turn a cow off.

[38:45] What do you look for when hiring?

Culture first. It does depend on position; if it’s technical it would be a different approach. If we have to teach on the technical side, we’d rather do that.