Morris & Associates

Since 1949 Morris has been in the problem-solving business. Starting in poultry processing after World War II, the company later ventured into tackling process cooling challenges from designing safety systems for the nuclear industry to providing thermal storage systems for high-rise hotels. Despite expertise across sectors with projects in over 40 countries globally, the rapidly evolving food industry with its own unique set of innovative demands has been the place where Morris found its niche. Common challenges exist across the poultry, bakery, produce, seafood, and new alternative protein sectors, and markets are constantly disrupted, creating vacuums for new technology. One of the greatest challenges currently facing the food industry is addressing labor and personnel shortages while trying to match rapid rates of modernization. That’s where Morris steps in. “Morris is proactively automating our equipment. We’re trying to reduce the amount of required manpower, improve current process flows, make food safer, have less downtime, and higher reliability,” describes David Maw, President Process Cooling at Morris & Associates.

Morris believes that automating systems ultimately does more than reduce manpower; it helps customers “improve product quality, consistency, and their yield.” It doesn’t matter what industry your business is in, higher yield can “create more profits and create a sustainable competitive advantage in the market.”

One example of how Morris process cooling solutions can provide an advantage through automation is with their recent work in the baking sector.

Bakery products are very temperature sensitive, and while ingredients like flour, salt, and sugar are automatically weighed, scaled, and batched, the ice used to prevent yeast from activating is not. Morris developed an ice batching system that can deliver ice on-demand at preset intervals while also providing a storage solution. Not only was a labor-intensive and highly inconsistent process eliminated, but it also “relieved the operator from having to make difficult decisions from summer to winter, and how those conditions affect the production rates and final product.” By forming relationships at the plant level, Morris was able to step in and proactively improve a process the baking industry didn’t even realize was cutting into their bottom line.

Finding labor to keep food production lines operating can be a struggle, but so can retaining the skilled personnel required to keep complex equipment and systems functioning. Morris has a solution for that too. The new Lineguard service offering from Morris “extends our technicians and engineering team into the customers’ plants.” In an industry where downtime can be as costly “as a thousand dollars a minute,” having Morris continually training personnel and refurbishing parts and equipment, it’s really a no-brainer to see improved yield and operations. As David Maw states, “We are an equipment manufacturer, but we’re also a solutions provider and the real value we bring our customers is understanding what it is they’re trying to achieve.” For some customers, that solution is the custom service plans needed to keep equipment and processes running at the highest levels of efficiency.

Morris has a company culture that prides itself on innovation and designing for the future. “We try to figure out where the industries are going and what solutions they may possibly need,” which, according to David Maw, “show the depth of the commitment that we have in our industries and how closely we work with our customers.” The company has recently engaged in projects with the emerging alternative protein space to convert small batching processes to large-scale production facilities and is actively working in the seafood sector to better design land-based operations and thermo systems for aquaculture.

None of these new ventures would be successful without the strength of the design and service teams behind Morris. The Morris team, from sales and engineering personnel to the CEO, has extensive backgrounds owning, operating, or maintaining food plants. Compared to competitors, this experience “gives us a really unique perspective on the operational problems our customers face and the importance of building reliable, easy-to-use systems, and how important it is to have good relationships.” This commitment to understanding each customer’s operations down to the nuts and bolts is what has allowed Morris to bring unique solutions to individual businesses across sectors.