Students of B.A. (Hons.) Economics, FBSS, MRIIRS went for an industrial visit to Yakult Danone manufacturing plant in Sonipat. Yakult Danone India(P) Ltd is a 50:50 JV between Yakult Honsha (Japan ) and Groupe Danone (France ), both of which are global probiotic leaders. The plant is located within the ambit of lush green environment and state-of-the-art technology.

The Public Relation Officer and Factory Operations Manager gave a presentation related to the history of Yakult Plant. While briefing the company’s profile, he explained that Yakult is a probiotic (friendly) bacteria- Lactobacillus casei strain Shirota which was named after the founder Dr. Minoru Shirota in 1930. Yakult was initially introduced in Japanese market in 1938. He also explained the whole production process from initial stage to the final stage i.e. packaging the product.

After the presentation and the question-answer session, students were taken to the factory tour where they observed various stages of preparing the product which included mixing of raw material, storage tank/blending tank, injection moduling room, printing machine, filling machine/ sealing machine, packaging machine and refrigeration room. The process is totally automated and is internationally designed keeping in mind the hygiene standards.

Overall, the visit was highly interactive for the students and gave them good insights on the concepts related to production and operations within a manufacturing plant.