Arun Ice Creams Factory Visit

Arun Ice Creams Factory Visit

May 25, 2009 – Quite a few notable things happened that day. Memorial Day was observed in the U.S., Chennai recorded the hottest temperature for this summer – 42 C and our Chennai team went on their first industrial visit to Arun Ice Creams Factory located in Red hills on the National Highway that leads to Kolkata.
It all started as a discussion among myself, our Senior Manager Uma Iyer and the Quality Black Belt for our process, Madhu Madhanan about visiting industries/factories to understand what happens there. We, unanimously, agreed that it would be good to take few of our team members to such places as it would be informative and would also help break the monotony. Madhu helped get us the permission to visit the factory and we finalized the date to be May 25, 2009 to take advantage of the lean staffing at our site on account of the Memorial Day in the U.S
Though we could get permission only for six people to visit the factory it wasn’t a bad start. So we threw this limited offer to our team members on the floor. The response was encouraging but we had to stick to the numbers and finalized on six names including myself. All were given instructions to meet up at the Puzhal prison (it was the landmark) at 11 am sharp on the day of the visit.
It was probably the hottest day in Chennai this summer as I mentioned earlier but our excitement kept us going. Our contact in Arun Ice Creams, Mr.Azeez, navigated us to the factory (over the phone itself) from the Puzhal prison and we managed to reach the spot on time.
We filled in the time-sheet that had several questions ranging from the purpose of the visit, the organization we came from, the person we were going to meet and so on. We were then asked to follow the yellow line (otherwise called the ‘hazard line’) on the road to reach the reception. The hazard lines outlined all roads inside the factory and pedestrians should walk ONLY within the lines as a safety measure
Our first encounter was with Mr.Sathyanarayanan, the production manager of the factory, who talked to us trying to under the purpose of our visit. It was a very informative session and here is what we gathered:
o Arun Ice Creams is the ice cream brand from the registered company Hatsun Agro Products Limited, a company worth Rs. 350 crores and one of India’s largest private dairy since 1970
o It is owned by Mr.Chandramohan, a very simple man who hails from the town of Sivakasi in South Tamilnadu, popularly called ‘Kutti Japan’ famous for its busy industrial activities, fireworks being one of them
o The company started nearly four decades back in a small piece of land in Thiruvanmiyur, Chennai where 50 litres of ice cream was made in a day and door-delivered to customers by the Chairman himself
o Today, Arun Ice Creams has two production plants (one each in Chennai and Salem), each manufacturing 50 000 litres of ice cream a day totaling their daily production to a whopping 1 lakh litres of ice cream
o Hatsun Agro Products Limited are manufacturers of Milk, Milk Products and Ice Creams
o Being one of the fast moving FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) company in the South, Hatsun makes Ice Creams in the brand name of ‘Arun’, Milk & Milk Products in the brand names of ‘Arokya’ and ‘Komatha’ respectively. They also used to own the famous Popcorn brand ‘ACT II’
o Their yearly turnover is around Rs. 1000 crores and YoY growth is 10-12% which is more than the industry average
o In Chennai, Hatsun Agro Products Limited has 30 milk farms, 13 chilling centres and over 300 collection centres
After getting a download of the history of Hatsun Agro Products Limited, we set to take a tour of the factory assisted by Mr.Raghupathy, a production executive. Before entering the factory, we were made to wear coats, head caps and our shoes were covered by poly bags to maintain their hygiene standards. We then entered the factory after a brief security check
How is the Ice Cream Made?
What would follow now would be a synopsis of the process that makes the Ice Cream, detailed to us by the production executive.
The milk comes from the collection centres and is first weighed. Then it is sterilized before it is stored in silos under sub-zero temperatures. The raw materials for an ice cream are milk, glucose, sugar, liquid glucose, butter, skimmed milk powder (SMP), colours, flavours and nuts. All raw materials except the colours, flavours and nuts are mixed together. The mixture is then passed onto a homogenizer where the fatty molecules are removed. Next, heat exchange takes place where the temperature of the mixture goes down from 27 C to 4 C. The cool mixture is then stored in silos where the input is 4 to 6 C and the output is -4C
We then moved onto the filling units where we saw cup and bar ice creams being filled and packed. There is a freezer where the colours and flavours are added and the ice creams (stored at -4 C) come out in pipes which are then manually filled and packed. They also have machines where the filling and lid-placing process is automated. While all this is going on, caramels and nuts are fed into a different machine from where it is then fed into the base ice cream
Bar, Cone and Cassatta Ice creams
It is interesting to see the bar ice creams being made. There is a big machine in which the process takes place. First, the base ice cream is injected at sub-zero temperature levels and then the sticks are inserted. Then brine water (12 C in temperature) is sprinkled on it to facilitate lifting of the ice cream along with the stick. Four sticks with ice cream would be lifted at a time. The next stage is to dip the ice cream in chocolate syrup. The dipped ice cream is then manually fed into an assembly where it is packed and pushed to come out in a chute
Cone ice creams (the ones without wafers) go through an additional process called ‘hardening’ (here the temperature is again reduced to -4C) since they hold a chance of melting easily due to the disadvantage in their packing material and shape.
Cassatta ice cream – an ice cream with a cake base and Arun Ice Creams’ patent variety is made with skilled and experienced people because it involves manual cutting of the cake before packing it. At all times, it is seen that the workers operate very efficiently with only a + or – 10 ml in quantity which is just wonderful
Storage and Dispatch
The ice creams are then packed in their designated packages and sent to the storage rooms. Storage rooms are maintained at around -27 C. First In First Out (FIFO) is followed and the dispatch happens by referring to the batch number and the date of manufacturing. Ice creams are dispatched in air-conditioned trucks to the warehouses and NOT to the retailers. The retailers get the finished product from the companies’ warehouses only.
Usually, the ice cream reaches the parlour in seven days of its manufacturing though this depends on its quantity (in ml), the flavour and its demand during the season
Bar Coding and Packaging
The cover on every ice cream is first bar coded where details such as the batch number, date of manufacturing etc. is mentioned. If a consumer writes a complaint about an ice cream, he/she would have to mention the batch number. The batch number comprises two letters – the first letter denoting the storage room (there are 4 storage rooms A to D) and the second letter denotes the week of the month (A to E where A would be the 1st week of the month and E would be the 5th week of the month). Using this information, the management can trace the batch in which the ice cream was manufactured and find what went wrong!!!
Labs at the facility
We were then taken around the laboratories where microbiological and chemical tests are performed on a sample of ice creams. If the standards are not met then it involves remaking the entire batch or even discarding them
A Sweet Ending
We came back to the discussion room after our trip around the factory and were treated with a cup of their latest ice cream ‘Rajbhog’, made out of Kesar flavour and garnered with rich pista, almond & cashew nuts. It would fit to say it was a ‘sweet ending’ to our experience which I felt was definitely worth sharing with you all