Introduction
Canandaigua Wines is located in Canandaigua, NY and is a maker of over 20 brands of valued priced wines that are distributed throughout the United States and abroad. Its goal is to provide its customers with an affordable product that can be consumed in everyday life. Canandaigua Wines operates two local wineries, the facility in Canandaigua which we visited and Widmer's Wine Cellar in Naples, NY, which is a popular wine tour destination. Some of Canandaigua Wines brands include wines, brandy, sparkling wine, and premium wines with two popular brand names being Arbor Mist and Wild Irish Rose, which are both bottled at the Canandaigua facility. In 2004 Canandaigua Wines became part of the largest wine company in the world, Constellation Brands Inc. Constellation Brands is a large, publicly traded company with its headquarters in Fairport, NY. Even though it is owned by Constellation, Canandaigua Wines operates as an independent entity.
Flow of Operations
The Canandaigua Wine manufacturing facility is typical of a mass production style of operation. The production process moves from one area to the next, starting with the juice tanks, moving to the bottling and boxing area, and finally ending in the inventory warehouse. Production is handled by workers that perform routing tasks such as loading boxes or quality control. There are special work divisions that handle flavor changes, repairs, and bottle size changes. The production of a bottled wine product is less complicated than that of an automobile this provides a higher level of automation and the appearance that the company employs very few employees. Based on a rough estimate there seems to be about 50 employees on the production or bottling floor at one time during the day. Accordi ...