Iowa-based Hy-Vee, Inc., is an employee-owned retail grocer operating across nine Midwestern states.
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Iowa-based Hy-Vee, Inc., is an employee-owned retail grocer operating across nine Midwestern states. The company is known for its large, full-service “superstores” with bakeries, delicatessens, floral departments, dine-in and carry-out food service, wine and spirits, pharmacies, and coffee kiosks. Hy-Vee is one of the largest privately held companies in the country, operating 570-plus business units with more than 75,000 employees. For a sense of the size and scope of the operation, the Commissary is equipped with a 940-ton central ammonia refrigeration system, as well as three custom-built, 50-ton washdown blast units for cooling cooked products.
Speed is everything for a company like Hy-Vee – whether that means reducing time spent in checkout lines to improve customer satisfaction or making changes to its own internal processes and procedures. In 2023, the company made improving productivity at the Commissary a top priority, and sought outside help to build a plan that could identify and execute impactful changes.
Manual processes caused errors, while equipment issues disrupted production flow. Although the company’s continuous improvement efforts identified opportunities to improve productivity, pinpointing where to focus in a complex, end-to-end assembly process was challenging. TBM was brought in to identify critical areas for improvement and drive efficiency gains.
To improve operations at Hy-Vee’s Fresh Commissary, TBM conducted a deep dive into its core functions: inventory replenishment, manual assembly, and packaging. Aiming for the most impactful gains, the team initially focused on the Home Meal Replacement (HMR) team within packaging, involving approximately 40 employees. This approach prioritized improvements closest to the end user, designed to pull efficiently from upstream assembly processes without creating bottlenecks. Key improvements included:
At the same we performed the lean work with Hy-Vee, we also worked closely with them to help develop their “Managing for Daily Improvement” program, which in turn created key metrics, and Leader Standard Work, including Hour by Hour tracking and problem solving. When all was said and done, it took only four Kaizen events over four months for this work to deliver increased cost savings to Hy-Vee, proving that every single second matters.
At a Glance
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