Texas weather had the maintenance crew scrambling with brooms and shovels at Cargill Foods' Dry Milling Division plant in Saginaw. Load cells used to measure the contents of finished flour bins were failing due to variation in temperature and air moisture levels. In the fall and spring, bins sometimes overflowed on a daily basis. Daily temperature swings during the summer only perpetuated these problems.
"It was a real mess, losing product and production time in our packaging center," says Roger Grinstead, maintenance technician at the plant. "Some spills were so large we were forced to shut down bagging machines several hours for clean up and repair."