Tyson Foods 2004 Annual Report Download - page 6

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4
customers, improve margins and increase value for our
shareholders. To support our efforts, we announced a
new 184,000 square foot Discovery Center here
in Springdale.
When the Discovery Center is operational in late 2005, it
will house expanded product development kitchens and
provide space for our consumer insights group and team
member development activities. An important part of this
new facility is a state-of-the-art USDA-inspected pilot
plant capable of developing and testing chicken, beef,
pork and prepared food products and processes. This
will enable us to shorten the time from product concept
to introduction. The Discovery Center underscores our
continued commitment to innovation and forward
thinking. As a leader in the food industry, we believe
the discovery of new products, processes and consumer
insights and helping our people discover their unique
gifts and talents is crucial for the continued success of
our company.
Also, key to our success is cost management. To maintain
our position as the best-cost producer in the meat and
poultry processing industry, we are focused on improv-
ing our manufacturing efficiencies, capabilities and
capacity through automation and “steel to the floor”
capital improvement projects. Our initiatives in this area
include increased operating efficiencies, plant automa-
tion and rationalization. Primarily through attrition,
we accomplished our goal of reducing our plant staffing
by 5 percent or 6,000 people, and we did not send
jobs overseas.
We are controlling costs by increasing efficiencies
through automation and yield improvement. We
approved approximately $200 million in capital spending
in 2004 for cost savings and income producing projects.
Out of these expenditures, we identified more than
$63 million in annual savings. All of this has been accom-
plished while maintaining our focus on quality, food
safety, people safety and service to our customers.
The Tyson Foods Discovery
Center will house expanded
product development
kitchens, a new pilot
production plant, consumer
insights and team
member development.