From order to despatch: A day’s work in a commercial bakery | Part 2 of 3
As the day’s production gets underway, the focus shifts to activity on the bakery floor.
Ingredients are being consumed, mixes are moving through production, ovens are running, finished and semi-finished products are taking shape. The schedule describes what the bakery intends to produce, but actual manufacturing does not always follow the plan exactly.
As production progresses, managers need to balance planning with tracking what is actually happening. Maintaining control requires information to be captured as work progresses, without unnecessarily slowing the people doing it.
Following the job through production
As operators work through production, they need to know what they are making and what should happen next.
Where Abel’s manufacturing touchscreens are used, they help connect the production plan with the work taking place on the bakery floor. Operators can see the jobs assigned to their work centre and capture production activity as work progresses.
As ingredients are consumed, their use remains connected with the manufacturing job. Where ingredients and products are batch tracked, their identity can also be maintained as they move through production. Supplier batch numbers and use-by dates for raw materials can also be retained, supporting traceability through manufacturing.
By capturing activity as it happens, the bakery builds a record of what was actually produced, not simply what was planned.
When planned output meets actual yield
Food manufacturing involves natural variation, so actual output may differ from what was planned.
A bakery may plan for a mix to produce a particular quantity, but in practice the mix may yield slightly less.
The yield may continue to change as product moves through subsequent production and packing processes, with further variations and imperfections affecting the amount that ultimately becomes saleable finished stock.
An individual variance may appear minor. Across a high-volume operation, however, repeated differences between planned and actual output can materially affect operational and financial outcomes.
Yield should therefore be monitored throughout the manufacturing process, rather than treated only as a final figure.
Inputs show what went into production. Actual output shows what those inputs produced. Comparing the two helps identify where product is being lost and where a process may require attention.
Making waste visible
Not every ingredient that enters production becomes saleable finished stock.
Product may be damaged, require rework or otherwise become unsuitable for sale. Capturing actual material usage and yield through production helps make these losses more visible. Recording wastage, rework and other production variances adds to the picture.
If waste is only identified during a later stocktake, the business may identify an inventory discrepancy without knowing where or why the loss occurred. Recording variances during production preserves that context, whether product has been damaged, reworked or written off.
Waste has a financial as well as an operational impact. Raw materials and labour have already been consumed in producing product that may not ultimately be saleable. Making that waste visible helps the business understand where losses are occurring and the costs associated with them.
Quality and traceability during production
Yield is not the only information that needs to remain visible as production progresses.
Quality can also be checked as part of the manufacturing process, rather than only after production is complete. Depending on the workflow, this can include inspections and testing of finished or semi-finished batches, as well as recording defects and rework.
Alongside these quality checks, batch tracking maintains the connection between the materials consumed and the batches produced. This helps build a traceable production record as the work progresses, rather than relying on information being pieced together afterwards.
If a quality issue does arise, the bakery can more readily identify the batches and materials involved and trace their path through production.
Turning production data into operational insight
The information captured on the bakery floor can do more than provide a record of production. Bringing that information together for analysis can help the business gain meaningful insights.
Abel BI supports this analysis by bringing manufacturing information together for reporting and analysis, supporting comparisons between actual and budgeted production. Reports can provide visibility of manufacturing variances, costs and material consumption.
These comparisons can highlight where production is performing differently from expectations and help the bakery investigate why.
Looking ahead
Through the production process, the bakery builds a clearer picture of not just what it planned to produce, but what actually happened on the production floor. Differences in yield, material usage, waste and output become part of the production record rather than unexplained variances.
The job is not finished, however. In Part 3, we follow finished goods through packing, picking and despatch, and look at how the information associated with each customer order continues through fulfilment.
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