Compact, fuel-efficient vertical proofing and baking technology boosted The Bun Basket's output of food service rolls.
"We also saved considerable space," he continued. "If we did this the conventional way, with a tunnel oven and return conveyors plus machinery for stacking and unstacking pans, we would have needed twice the space in our plant."
"We're looking at 24 to 30 months return-on-investment with our new line," Fred Spica said. "That's longer than our usual ROI, which we like to keep in the 12-to 18-month range. The potential of the new line to improve our business, however, is well worth the additional time."
FOOD SERVICE FIELD. Rob and Fred Spica are fourth generation bakers, but The Bun Basket is their own creation.
"Rob and I decided a long time ago that we wanted to be in business for ourselves," Fred Spica said.
In 1981, they joined forces around an idea original at the time: a self-serve retail bakery. The Bun Basket displayed its offerings in open bins, and customers made their own selections. From a single small retail site, the company expanded to seven locations, each doing its own baking. To improve margins, production was consolidated into a single commissary on a six-acre site in Wyoming, a suburb of Grand Rapids, Mich.
Word about the quality of the retail product spread, and local restaurant owners started buying at The Bun Basket. "Often a restaurateur would come in and buy us out for the whole day on a particular variety," Rob Spica recalled.
Addition of a new, automated, vertical baking line followed a carefully researched, conservatively managed plan. It came on-stream mid-summer, just in time to boost the bakery's swiftly expanding position in food service products.
"Our new line already accounts for half of our volume," said Robert (Rob) Spica, who founded the bakery in 1981 with his brother Fred.
The plant's new Peerless/Gouet line handles up to 24,000 pieces, or 7,000 lb, per hour. Speeds, times, temperatures, humidity - all are fully automated and PLC-controlled. In the three-shift bakery, the new line runs two eight-hour shifts a day, five-and-one-half days a week. It makes moister products in less time with fewer inputs than tunnel systems, according to The Bun Basket's managers.
THE NUMBERS. Productivity means a lot to The Bun Basket. Today, most of its products reach the market through food service distributors. To stay competitive, the bakery must mind its costs carefully as well as maintain its processing flexibility.
Rob Spica compared operating ratios for the new automated line with typical results for its existing 18 manually fed rack ovens. He estimated annual labor savings at more than $350,000 based on an overall labor reduction of 15%.
