Baking Firm Finds Benefit From Hertzler’s Statistical Process Control

Evan J. Miller, chief executive officer of Hertzler Systems, specialists in lean and Lean Six Sigma, “We are delighted that our client Consolidate Biscuit Corporation is profiled in the current issue of Quality Assurance Magazine.  "Baking here is pretty much like baking at home,” said Consolidated Biscuit Company Process Improvement Team Coordinator Don Green.

Hertzler Systems (www.hertzler.com) provides seamless, accurate data acquisition solutions that drive business transformation. The company provides the leading real-time data acquisition and analytics software, the GainSeeker Suite.  This powerful and flexible system is best used by lean and progressive companies. Gainseeker Suite allows companies to connect with devices and other information systems, collecting data and alarming key personnel when problems arise; this technology allows organizations to analyze data for root cause problems, converting data into knowledge.

As editor Lisa Lupo reported, Whether the snacks are being made at home or in the 730,000-square-foot McComb, Ohio, facility of Consolidated Biscuit Company (CBC), the process is the same: Raw ingredients are mixed into a dough that is rolled out and cut into shapes, baked in ovens, cooled in lines, then carefully packed to retain its fresh-baked flavor.  In fact, baking at CBC is very much like baking your Grandma’s secret recipe cookie at home — when you know she’ll taste it.

Lupo reported in the cover feature article that CBC is the largest privately owned bakery in the United States. Though its products hold prominent placement on retail shelves across the country and around the world, its name is little-known outside the baking industry. However, CBC is an integral part of its customers’ manufacturing network, because its specialty is producing low-run product for major brands.

“We’re making product for our customers who aren’t here right now,” Green explained. “Our name isn’t on the product; their name is on the product.”

That CBC’s recipes call for 1.3 million pounds of flour in a single week; that the snacks are baked in ovens that would extend a half mile if placed end to end; or that more than 425 batches of dough, crème, muffins and filling are baked each day simply are technicalities of the end result — snacks that are as loved as home-baked ones; recipes as proprietary as Grandma’s favorite; and success that is measured “one bite at a time.”

While the basic process of cookie or cracker baking — mix, roll, cut, bake, cool, package — is the same from Grandma’s kitchen to CBC’s 41-acre bakery, the need for absolute consistency in the finished product requires such a preciseness throughout the process that even the most fastidious Grandma would find it difficult to match.

Green said, taking of the process from an art to a science, using the statistics and mathematics of Statistical Process Control (SPC), enabled the bakery to assess its processes to find discrepancies. Then, with the staff working together on solutions, the plant has been able to increase efficiencies throughout the manufacturing environment.

SPC is a quality tool that uses statistical techniques to monitor and measure process variation. Data are collected at various points in the process, then compiled into control charts where variation from specified levels quickly is discerned. The purpose of SPC is to detect and correct variations during the process that could impact the quality of the end product. SPC tools provide data and analysis that allow plants to make decisions for continuous improvement.

The bakery’s SPC system uses control charts at various points in its process starting right from the beginning. For example, said Director of Quality Assurance Max Jones, any change in dough mixing time or temperature can impact the quality of the end product — and the processes in between. By monitoring these with SPC control charts, precise and consistent dough temperatures and floor times can be maintained to ensure a consistent, quality product.

Hertzler Systems Inc.

www.hertzler.com

Adrienne DePew

Communications Manager

info@hertzler.com

800.958.2709