If you didn’t know which country you were in, walking the floor at a new Abbott Nutrition plant won’t clue you in. While Abbott Nutrition’s future plants in Ohio, China and India are standardized, location still matters. “For several years we have been working on the plant of the future design. We are incorporating lean design as well as streamlined processes our new plants in Ohio, China and China. They will be very standardized, “ explained John F. Ginascol, vice president of nutrition supply chain for Abbott Nutrition.
However choosing where to locate these plants is not a standardized process.
Abbott Nutrition, which is the second largest division of Abbott Laboratories (IW 1000/110), chose each new plant location based on forecasts of strong growth. This business unit currently has sales of $6 billion and is expecting $10 billion by 2015.
For a mature market like North American, demand for the company’s adult liquid nutrition products comes from aging Baby Boomers who “understand that nutrition is a key element in promoting good health,” explains Ginasol.
In March of this year the company broke ground in Tipp City, Ohio which is located about 75 miles from the company’s U.S. headquarters in Columbus. However the company considered a number of locations in the U.S. before deciding on Tipp City as a base to serve the U.S. market.
The investment of $270 million to produce two of the company’s fastest-growing adult brands, Ensure and Glucerna - will support the hiring of 240 people over the next several years.
“Tipp City offered the necessary essential elements. From this location you can reach every major urban port, so distribution is easy. Not only was the site “shovel ready”, but our quick 18-month construction schedule was possible due to a team effort with government officials. Ohio has a high-quality workforce with a lot of experience in manufacturing and we saw this as an excellent fit into the Abbott culture, “said Ginasol.
The plant, which will specialize in aseptic packaging technology – the process by which a sterile liquid is packaged in a sterile container- will be operational in late 2013. The facility will cover about 250,000 square feet and will be easily expandable, due to its modular design which will be necessary as the brands produced here have grown 20% since 2009.
From an environmental standpoint the Tipp City plant will utilize 10-12% less energy than similar liquid plants. This is in line with the unit’s sustainability goals which include a 20% reduction in energy use by 2015 as well as a 20% reduction in water use by 2015. Other goals are a 20% reduction in CO2 and 10% waste generation reduction by 2015.
