Bakery startup a matter of plug & play?

Our customers are usually impatient after the installation of a new bakery production line and want to start producing as soon as possible. They have the mind-set that after installation (plug) it is only a matter of ‘play’. I travel all around the world to startup bakeries, together with customers and suppliers, and I will tell you about the 4 phases we go through during the start-up of a bakery in order to make it successful.

Start-up of a bakery production line equipment: 4 phases

To put bakery production line equipment into operation we follow 4 phases. These phases are important to follow successively to make sure the customer is able to produce what we have agreed upon during the need identification in terms of quality and quantity.

• Phase 1 dry testing
  As soon as the installation is done, we will start with the dry-testing (without dough) of the bakery production line equipment. During these tests, the transfers, the communication between the different parts of the line and the individual controls are tested. The problems that occur in this phase, such as speeds that are not correct, parts that do not work or communication problems, are solved immediately in order to prevent bigger problems during the tests with dough.
• Phase 2 testing with dough
  After testing without dough, we will start the test with dough. We make a dough that resembles the final dough the customer will use. Before-mentioned tests are run again. This is necessary in order to be able to see if everything also works with dough, since we often see a different type of machine behaviour when tins and trays are filled.
• Phase 3 first production run
  Next we start the first production run. The goal of this run is to get a feeling with the dough and the final product. At the same time, the future operators and engineers are instructed about the operation of the line. We address subjects such as operation, cleaning, maintenance and of course safety. During this phase we can still encounter some problems and we cannot expect 100% capacity immediately. A more important challenge in this phase is the quality of the product. It may be necessary to improve the product, or to adapt ingredients or the process. Only when all of this is perfect, the product can be made according to the specifications.
• Phase 4 hand over to the customer
  After phase 3 the line is handed over to the customer. In order to be able to reach the intended capacity and quality, the line needs to make production hours. We look on it from the side-line and extend a hand where needed. In the end, we make sure that the staff is able to influence the quality of the end product themselves.

The start-up of an integrated bakery production line a matter of plug and play? No, definitely not. As you can read it takes so much more than just combining bakery machines to one production line. It has to be one working entity, the organisation of the customer that works with the line needs to be correct and the right product has to come off the line. This is why we believe in bakery system integration, only then the project has been concluded successfully. A challenging job that we love to take on!