Editor's Note: Relying on innovation to meet production challenges

Now is the time of year when Food Engineering begins to evaluate what our readers will want to read in the next 8 to 16 months. In fact, our publishing company was founded on this principle: helping people succeed in business with superior information.

As part of our ongoing quest to provide that type of information, we use a number of research tools, one of which is simply to ask questions.

A few months ago, we posed the following question to a number of food and beverage company manufacturing leaders: What are your biggest challenges? The responses were not always related to upcoming technology needs, changes in consumer demands or even retailer demands. Their biggest challenge? Economics.

Food and beverage manufacturing, just like any other business, has to watch energy use, monitor the cost and skill level of employees and make the right intellectual decisions about when to acquire other businesses or sell off assets.

In many cases, implementation of leading edge technology has been reduced to standard operating procedure. Your operations and implementation-from food safety to product quality-must be up to snuff, or don't bother coming to the office.

For many manufacturers, that means relying on innovation to meet production challenges. And that's where we come in. To provide superior information in an innovative format, Food Engineering created ProcessTechnologyXchange (PTX).

At PTX, a customized and confidential agenda is built around your new capital equipment initiatives. Properly prepared, progressive equipment suppliers host your operations and engineering teams in individual suites for productive, highly organized discussions centered on finding specific solutions for your challenges.

Through our sophisticated matching process, decision makers on both the processing and supply sides are able to have a confidential meeting that gets right to the root of your company's needs.

In September, your colleagues in the food and beverage industry will once again participate in these private one-on-one meetings with pre-selected suppliers over a two- to three-day period. Participation at this event is by invitation only and attendance is limited to a select number of senior engineering and operations team executives from innovative food and beverage companies. For more information, please contact Layne Skoyen at 952-736-9373 or emaillskoyen@pt-xchange.com. Additional information can be found atwww.pt-xchange.com.

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Joyce Fassl has spent most of her career in magazine management. As the former editor-in-chief of Food Engineering, Fassl has directed the magazine’s editorial staff since 1986, except for a two-year stretch where she oversaw content direction for the debut of Packexpo.com. Her expertise is creating dynamic print and online content, building top-notch editorial teams and managing innovative custom publishing projects and live events. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Penn State University. In addition to supervising all Food Engineering content, Joyce is Program Director for the Food Automation & Manufacturing Conference.