MUNICH — During iba, held October 22-26 in Munich, Eric Dell, president and CEO of the American Bakers Association (ABA), moderated a panel discussion on the benefits of lean manufacturing.
Lean Manufacturing and the US Commercial Baking Industry featured insights from Ramon Rivera, senior VP of operations at Bimbo Bakeries USA (BBU), and Balaji Subramaniam, president of Middleby India Engineering Private Ltd., and covered topics such as the workforce, sustainability, technology, and the evolving needs of consumers.
Subramaniam noted that the production practice aims to eliminate waste in every possible instance. In the baking industry, this looks like improving efficiency through modern equipment designed to reduce the need for manual intervention and minimize potential errors in manufacturing.
“We use robotics in both handling and packaging,” Subramaniam said. “There are efficient ways to batch manufacture, produce real-time monitoring and control of machine performance so that corrective measures can be taken in real-time, thus reducing any defective products from coming out.”
The use of more automation also helps bakers who are facing an uncertain future in the workforce. A recent workforce study conducted by ABA in partnership with ndp | analytics revealed that by 2030, the commercial baking industry is projected to have 53,500 unfilled jobs. Investing in lean manufacturing practices can ease some of that burden for bakers.
“Lean is specifically focused towards automating repetitive actions, which can be more precisely done by a machine as compared to a human,” he said. “It’s not very motivating to do something repetitively without really thinking, and that’s an area that definitely is promising and continuous improvement is going on in that area.”
Sustainability is also a key factor of lean manufacturing according to Subramaniam. With a growing range of product characteristics, production lines that can change or be flexible allow operators to make more informed decisions, granting more exact management of lean production practices.
“Reducing variation in the process will help us control the process, reduce waste and improve quality. It’s as simple as that.” — Ramon Rivera | senior VP of operations | Bimbo Bakeries USA
Equipment can also offer reliability for bakery manufacturers. Of all the resources that go into commercial baking, time is the biggest one Rivera shared that bakers and operators need to learn how to manage more efficiently.
“Adding sensors so we can predict for maintenance and equipment settings, using less human intervention and ensuring it always runs the same will reduce waste and time waste, improve quality and, in the end, have a much better throughput for our production facilities,” Rivera said.
At BBU, lean manufacturing practices have given the baking company the data necessary for operators to adjust for efficiency in real time. With Rivera’s tenure in the industry, he’s seen the shift from a few products with simple ingredients to more variety to accommodate customer needs, producing tens of SKUs each day. Using data and consumer feedback can help bakers run lines more efficiently with less changeover and better throughput.
“Reducing variation in the process helps control the process and makes less waste and better quality; it’s as simple as that,” Rivera said. “It’s very easy to say and not that easy to do, especially in real-time. So, we have to provide support from equipment manufacturers to ensure everyone has the tools and data needed to make very good decisions.”
Looking to the future, Subramaniam predicts that more future equipment will feature further technology integration and automation. Especially with a smaller skilled workforce to pull from, these innovations can supplement knowledge with easier controls.
“Personalization and customization are going to become the norm rather than the exception,” Subramaniam shared. “That means you need a flexible, lean system that is agile and easy to adapt to 20 to 30 SKUs or product changes a day.”
While Rivera and Subramaniam noted several benefits to applying these practices, the impacts for bakeries that don’t adapt are hefty.
“If we don’t do it, we’re going to disappear,” Rivera said. “We’re in a very competitive market, and in that market, if you do not go after productivity, you are going to lose the advantage, pricing, positioning. That’s what’s going to happen if we don’t focus everything on being lean.”
