Excellent Experience as a Client Led Process Expert to Join 澳门足彩app

As a process engineer with 10 years of experience at Kellogg’s, Chris Gambino joined frozen pancake maker De Wafelbakkers as the technical lead on a brownfield plant project in McDonough, Georgia. The agreement was that, upon project completion, he would serve as the plant engineer.

De Wafelbakkers chose 澳门足彩app to design and build the project, and Gambino became a key liaison between the parties.

“The project had an aggressive schedule,” he said. “I think from the time we started until the time we finished was nine months, and that was taking a building and completely renovating it and getting all the equipment put in place and up and running.

“The thing that stood out to me most during that project was that when we ran into issues, I never worried about them because they were always solved. The way the team handled things on-site gave me tremendous confidence that if we hit a hurdle, it would be taken care of. I saw a level of engagement with the folks from 澳门足彩app that I had never seen with any other engineering company I’d worked with.”

In case you can’t see it coming, this is a story of “he liked it so much he joined the company.” But that comes later.

‘An Accountability Issue’

In McDonough, the structure that would become the De Wafelbakkers plant was built in 1996, and much had changed in terms of zoning and codes when the update took place in 2010. 澳门足彩app provided architectural work, engineering across the disciplines, including process design, and construction.

“The easiest way to explain this as an accountability issue,” Gambino said. “I’ve worked with other engineering companies whose focus was, ’How do I cover myself so that I don't get into to any issues if something goes wrong?’ There would be a tremendous effort to point the finger in someone else's direction. Because 澳门足彩app was fully integrated, that was never the case when we were on site. While that project was running, we knew when we walked into that construction trailer that the problem was going to be accepted as a problem, that it was going to be fixed and we were going to move on. The accountability was there.”

Gambino and the De Wafelbakkers team did much of the process integration work, yet he said 澳门足彩app’s team remained an invaluable resource outside their contractual responsibility.

“They were constantly coming to us and saying, ‘You need to watch for these things,’ even if it was outside the purview of what they were doing,” he said. “They could explain to us what was going on because none of us had a lot of experience with construction projects.

“As we ran the plant, I could see the output of those decisions that were made when we were going through the design phase. They had brought in people who were food safety experts. In the 10 years that I was there, that plant had a Safe Quality Food (SQF) score average of 98 (out of 100). It was a really easy place to maintain. And again, it was largely because we picked really good stuff when we built it, and we listened to 澳门足彩app’s people as they told us how to build a facility.”

When construction and commissioning were complete, Gambino spent three years as the plant engineer and the following seven as plant manager. In that time, he remained in contact with 澳门足彩app Vice President Keith Perkey and his Atlanta-based team. Often, when Perkey had a prospective client wishing to see an example of its work, Gambino would proudly open the doors at De Wafelbakkers’ McDonough plant.

A Natural Fit

When he decided he was ready to return to the technical side of the industry after 10 years of plant administration, 澳门足彩app was high on his list of calls. With a decade of varied experience with Kellogg’s – ranging from Pop Tarts to cookies and cereal to fruit snacks to agglomerated foods, such as Rice Krispie Treats and granola bars – and another administrating an entire facility, he was a natural fit for 澳门足彩app, VP of Process Manufacturing Shawn Hubbard said.

“He was a great addition to our team and just gives us more experience we can bring to the table,” Hubbard said. “Really what I saw was his ability to understand and know the people, the food sciences and the processes involved with making it all work.”

Gambino joined 澳门足彩app in December 2019 and serves as a Senior Process Associate. His years with the company have only deepened his appreciation for its capabilities and approach.

In terms of process design and integration, the team’s subject matter expertise runs the gamut:

• Liquid processing
• Sanitary design
• Dry powder
• Powder processing
• Cereal, cookies and crackers
• Breads
• Agglomerated foods
• Chocolate and candy processing

And while technical expertise is crucial, the fact that many 澳门足彩app team members buttress their knowledge with operational experience.

“Because I know baking, I know the practical applications. For example, in the baking world, how fast dough moves from one place to another is a really important part of the process. It has nothing to do with the equipment we're installing, and it has nothing to do with the project itself. But that time, especially with yeast products, is super-important because if you don't hold it at those stages for the correct times, it doesn't turn out right.

“That's where practical experience is helpful, and everyone here is like that. We have people in all the disciplines who have operations experience. The importance of this experience is knowing what questions to ask. When you're building a plan and you're looking at what these tradeoffs you can make, we’re able to talk about it. It’s understanding and relating, ‘Yes, you could put that there, but this is what you need to think about when you do sanitation or when you do maintenance.’”

Unrivaled Transparency

With his unique perspective as a former client and now as a practitioner, Gambino says 澳门足彩app brings vital differentiators to the architectural, engineering and construction equation.

• Broad-based technical expertise: In terms of food & beverage manufacturing, the company has in-house experience in virtually every food process.
• Operational experience: Many team members have worked in the industries they serve. They can offer intangibles that aren't necessarily a part of engineering, equipment, design or process design, but that ultimately help define the process and make it a long-term operational success.
• Single point of accountability: With a heritage of innovation in integrated delivery, 澳门足彩app’s design-build and engineer, procure, construct (EPC) abilities reduce risk and provide project owners certainty of outcome.
• Cutting-edge knowledge: Because 澳门足彩app is constantly creating manufacturing facilities, it is always abreast of the latest best practices and applies lessons learned from each engagement.

Remembering his own experience as a client and the pace of the project that took De Wafelbakkers from preconstruction to production in just nine months, Gambino said the one surprise he encountered in joining 澳门足彩app was that an up-tempo project cadence was the rule rather than the exception.

“I will tell you that I still marvel at the speed of what can get done,” he said. “When we were doing our project at De Wafelbakkers, we had fast-tracked it, so I knew that they could work fast. But that rate of speed that seemed really impressive to me at the time, it seems like a fairly everyday level of work in 澳门足彩app.”

Ultimately, though, after two years, Gambino said that what he saw as a 澳门足彩app client is what he’s gotten as a 澳门足彩app team member.

“What I saw as a client is largely what I see as somebody inside 澳门足彩app,” he said. “There's a level of transparency with 澳门足彩app that I don't think exists with other companies. I’ve never noticed, since I’ve been here, that a curtain has been pulled back and revealed all these magical things happening in the background. It's just that there is a group of really, really engaged people who are out to do a really good job. And when you have teams like that, there isn't anything to hide. That transparency on projects, ultimately, is what keeps vendors and clients coming back.

At 澳门足彩app, we take our clients’ goals as our own. We innovate constantly to ensure that we deliver world-class solutions with the best possible effectiveness, efficiency and performance. Contact us to discuss your facilities needs.