Bega Visit - Continuous Improvement and Sensory
21 February 2019
On the 21st February our students visited the Bega facility in Port Melbourne, where GRIP partner Karren Bathurst discussed the brand history and diversification.
Karren provided valuable industry insights on competition and industry trends, highlighting that trends constantly change and industries must adapt. Karren’s colleague Ahmed Hassan, the Group Continuous Improvement (CI) Manager at Bega Cheese Limited, discussed the priorities of CI and how this is implemented at Bega.
Other themes discussed throughout the day included zero waste, one team continuous engagement (i.e. all depts working to achieve same goal), and End to End supply chain - from farm to fork. Such insights into the challenges and role of R&D in a commercial environment are invaluable to our students.
A tour of the factory followed and the group were shown where the vegemite, peanut butter and salad dressings were manufactured.
After lunch were talks on consumer science and sensory testing at Bega. Qualitative methodologies were described, including identifying how consumers interact with particular products via focus groups, one on one, and video diaries.
The day concluded with a fun and interactive experience for the cohort to understand sensory testing, partaking in tests on vegemite, peanut butter and dips to see if they could identify the different tastes in the samples manufactured.