We are pleased to announce the recent hiring of Sara Snyder to the position of Document Preparation Specialist at our Hanover Distribution Center. Sara, a graduate from Towson University, holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a concentration in International Business and a Minor in Spanish. Previously, she worked as an Operations Assistant for MassMutual in Savannah, GA where she was in charge of the entire application process for various financial and insurance products for the Financial Advisors. Sara is no stranger to Yazoo – she was hired temporarily to fill a Data Entry position and applied with hopes that a permanent position would become available.
In her new role at Yazoo, Sara prepares customer orders to be pushed through production. She determines how orders are going to ship based on customer requests, packaging specifications, weight and footage and then proceeds to send the orders out to the plant. Additionally, she creates the jobs to replenish the paper tube and core products for Yazoo’s stock programs.
The company culture that Yazoo provides definitely helps Sara feel like she belongs. “The atmosphere here is wonderful. Everyone is friendly, has a good attitude about work and is proud of what they do. They are quick to compliment a job well done or help with any questions as I continue learning a new position”, she says. When Sara isn’t at Yazoo, you can find her spending time outside with her husband and dog, being a weekend-warrior and taking road trips, renovating their camper/future tiny home, traveling abroad when opportunities arise and getting her hands on all things DIY.
Welcome to the Yazoo team, Sara – we’re happy to have you and excited to watch you grow with our company!
In 2012, our Hanover Distribution Center was built to broaden our production capabilities, product lines and to accommodate our rapid growth. Throughout the years, the Hanover Distribution Center has continued to grow, expanding to 90,000 square feet and now houses five, custom-built winding lines. With production growth comes company growth and adding new, knowledgeable employees to our 135+ staff.
Amber Burns joined the Yazoo Mills team in June as the Distribution Center Logistics Assistant at our Hanover location. Before coming to Yazoo, Amber worked for a local logistics company as the Office Manager. She has been in warehousing for over the last 10 years with knowledge and understanding of the trucking and office work. As a Logistics Assistant at Yazoo, Amber is responsible for pack out orders, printing BOLs and makes sure the work gets to the warehouse in an orderly fashion and the entire process of shipping goes smoothly.
Amber joined Yazoo to better herself and family, especially with just having a little girl. She heard how great of a company Yazoo is to work for and knew the hours would be very beneficial for her family. When asked what she likes best about working at Yazoo, she said “The environment is so nice and polite. With having a little one at home, the hours are very nice and allow me to be home with my family as I did not have the luxury of that at my previous job.” In her spare time, she likes to spend time with her family and friends, loves all things outdoors, soaking up the special moments with her little daughter and enjoying every minute of her daughter and husband, Shaun.
Since joining the team, Amber has been a great asset to the company and we look forward to watching her excel in her role. Welcome to the team, Amber!
A company that promotes within is a hard company to come by. At Yazoo Mills, we give every employee the opportunity to apply for any open positions we have throughout the company. We are proud to promote within and are proud of our employees for continuously improving their skills and leadership that lead them into their next role with our company.
Meet Rob Boone. Rob started his career at Yazoo Mills 11 years ago as a dayshift Winding Operator and quickly found himself in a floater position in our Winding Department. Throughout the years, Rob has proved that his work ethic, training, and knowledge of our company, products, and employees is his priority and continues to find ways to improve the operations at Yazoo Mills.
Recently, Rob accepted a Lead position at our Hanover Distribution Center located in Hanover, PA. Within the new role, he is scheduling, checking products and gathering materials needed to help make sure the work is flowing smoothly. What he likes most about working at Yazoo is “the challenges of troubleshooting issues and getting to know my coworkers better.” In his spare time, you can find Rob spending time with his family, camping, enjoying the outdoors and taking trips to the shooting range. Congrats on your well-deserved promotion, Rob!
“Great leaders don’t set out to be a leader. They set out to make a difference. It’s never about the role. Always about the goal.” – Unknown
In today’s working world, it seems almost impossible to find good employees that are looking to stay at a company for a long time and make a career out of their work. When it comes to working at Yazoo Mills, we treat everyone like family which has contributed to our success of employees who remain with the company for many, many years.
Meet Donnie Myers. Donnie has been with Yazoo for almost 20 years now and has worked all of those years in our Winding Department. When he first started his journey with the company, he held the position as a Winding Operator. As time went on, Donnie was promoted to 2nd shift Winding Supervisor, in charge of over 15+ employees and managing the night shift production order and manufacturing flow.
Through Donnie’s hard work and dedication, he has recently been promoted to 1st shift Winding Supervisor at our newly expanded manufacturing facility located in Hanover, PA. In his current role with the company, he schedules orders, checks for quality and makes sure that the production is flowing smoothly. When asked what he likes best about working at Yazoo over the last 19 years, he said “The pay is the best in the area and the benefits are awesome – you really can’t beat what Yazoo offers. Along with excellent job security, I also like that the employees are given the opportunity to make advancements within the company.”
During his free time, you can find Donnie doing all things outdoors – hunting, fishing and boating. He also likes spending time with his family, traveling around the country to support his boys who compete in archery tournaments. Congrats on your well-deserved promotion, Donnie!
The last and final phase of the expansion at our Hanover Distribution Center is finally complete. We wouldn’t be able to operate as one of the leading manufacturers of 100% recycled paper tubes and cores if we didn’t have the state-of-the-art equipment like we do. Yazoo Mills is consistently reinvesting in our people, our equipment, and our facilities to remain an industry leader.
Phase four of the production expansion at our Hanover Distribution Center included the installation of five winders custom built to fit Yazoo’s specifications. The installation of the winders have helped create more scheduling flexibility, assisted the company to enhance efficiency with processing more orders and has added an additional 20,000 square feet of manufacturing space. The additional winding capacity will allow Yazoo to remain the supplier of choice and industry leader with consistent quality, excellent service, and continue to have the fastest shipping time in the industry at 48 hours, guaranteed. Between our two manufacturing facilities, Yazoo now operates a total of 15 winders.
Communication, coordination, and teamwork were major key factors during the several months of planning it took to prepare and layout the new manufacturing space. Yazoo’s supervisors and Maintenance Department worked together with the winding machine manufacturing companies to guarantee that the winding lines were designed and built to meet Yazoo’s specifications.
Let’s face it – being a manufacturer with large facilities, it’s very hard to beat the summer heat. In South Central Pennsylvania, the summers can be pretty brutal and the heat can take a toll on our employees. We wanted to go with a solution that would not only be extremely beneficial and safe to our employees and their working environment but also a solution that would use a fraction of the energy that would be used by dozens of small fans.
Phase three of the production expansion at our Hanover Distribution Center included the installation of five Big Ass Fans. Their industrial ceilings fans are precision engineered to excel in the toughest environments. These fans are extremely quiet and generate a breeze that has a cooling effect of bringing the temperature down 10°F.
Three of the Big Ass Fans span 24 feet in diameter while two of them are 20 feet in diameter. The fans are continuously moving air throughout the entire manufacturing space, from ceiling to floor and wall to wall, including up and over obstructions such as machinery and stacked product. The airflow pattern ensures that air reaches all corners of the building, maintaining consistent conditions throughout the manufacturing space and eliminates condensation and stagnant areas where product integrity is a concern.
Not only has Big Ass Fans helped lower the temperature at our Hanover Distribution Center but it has also decreased our utility costs and provides comfort and energy savings to our ever-growing business.
At Yazoo Mills, we recognize the important job our company has to help keep our environment clean. To create our sustainable packaging products, we only use 100% certified recycled paperboard and we have the paperwork to prove it. We recycle all waste generated during our manufacturing process which includes shredding, bailing, and shipping to a recycle paper mill and then we receive the recycled paperboard back to manufacture our products.
Phase two of the production expansion at our Hanover Distribution center included the installation of a brand new shredder and baler. The shredder, manufactured by BloApCo, greatly expands disposal capacity and increases container or bale weight. The shredder also helps eliminate baler jams while increasing capacity, reduces energy consumption throughout the scrap handling system, saves labor with automatic operation with easy maintenance, and increases plant safety with added safety devices on the machine.
The 52 cubic foot heavy-duty baler, manufactured by MAX-PAK, utilizes a 30hp premium efficient motor. It came complete with an automatic wire tire system and allows for adjustable bale lengths. It is controlled using a color touch screen interface and Allen Bradley controls.
Check back next week as we will be blogging about Phase Three!
Due to the growing demand of paper tubes and cores, Yazoo is proud to announce that the company has made a further investment with the addition of manufacturing lines at our Hanover Distribution Center located in Hanover, Pennsylvania. The project started back in the summer of 2017 with planning for the expansion and figuring out the layout of the new production lines. The first phase started with infrastructure and kicked off in the fall of 2017, with the completion of the infrastructure coming to a close by December 2017.
Projects during phase one consisted of hooking up electricity for the incoming manufacturing lines, adding a large compressed air system, dust collectors, top-of-the-line glue systems for each winding line, brighter lighting, additional bathrooms, a new production office, as well as a new racking system within the production area.
Continue to follow along as we will be posting the next three phases this month!