While employing high speed equipment to produce high volume rolls, Great Buns has had to remain flexible to provide accounts with 100% of their needs, Tony Sr. says. For example, it uses two one-person bread and roll lines to makeup bagels and handle short runs of other bread items.
These products also receive distinctive extra touches. For example, 24-oz. whole wheat pan loaves are rolled in bran, seven grain loaves in oats, and rye loaves in cornmeal and caraway seeds, before being panned. To increase pan bread production, the bakery plans to install a moulder/panner.
Further, Great Buns bakers produce sweet goods and artisan breads at workbenches. But, because of
increasing demand for both categories, the bakery plans to purchase within six months an automated makeup line that will handle both types of products, Tony Sr. says. The equipment also will enable Great Buns to add frozen dough Danish, French pastries and croissants, he adds.
Seeking committed manufacturers
As with acquiring other automated machinery, the Madonias will be seeking manufacturers committed to adapting their equipment to mesh with Great Buns' specific requirements.
Pursuing such a strategy has paid off dividends. "Besides improving efficiency with automation, we've improved quality" Tony Jr. says. "We're hearth baking products that had been baked on pans. Products are scored to improve their appearance. And, seed coverage has improved."
Adds Augie, "These are the extra steps we can take to ensure that we remain the number one foodservice supplier in our market and can maintain reasonable prices for our customers."
With the continued growth that Las Vegas is expected to experience, Great Buns will identify plenty of opportunities to adapt production to changing customer needs. Count on the Madonias to respond as they have the last 17 years-quickly.
As Augie observes, "When we see something we like, we jump on the opportunity. We don't need six months to make a decision.
An incline conveyor will feed the rolls into lanes, each of which will lead to a hopper, which will weigh and count the rolls, he explains. The hopper will discharge the rolls into poly bags, which will be lock tabbed and placed in baskets, all automatically.
"The system will pack as many as 18,000 rolls an hour, or about 15 bags a minute," Tony Sr. says. "It should reduce our labor on the line from five to two people." He currently is consulting with two manufacturers, who, he adds, are identifying ways to adapt their systems to the bakery's needs.
During the last three years, the bakery developed and refined a system to record sales orders and communicate the information to the production department. Tony Sr. says the company worked with a software development firm, which studied the bakery's needs and created a system to fit Great Buns' communications goals.
In the latest stage, the bakery recently introduced a cellular telephone-based ordering system for its independent route distributors. Each is equipped with a notebook computer and cellular telephone.
When making a delivery, a driver keystrokes the account's product quantity on hand, then prepares to enter its next order. The computer, via cellular telephone connection, provides the account's specific product list and prices. Also, it can display a three-week running purchase history and generate a suggested amount to order. Further, the computer will alert the distributor if the account may not have sufficient product available before the next delivery.
The cellular telephone relays the order to Great Buns main computer. That unit, in turn, generates the order's production sheets, invoices, shipping reports and distributor commissions.
Tony Sr. says the system has become crucial to serving foodservice customers, especially hotels, whose demands can vary greatly day to day. Further, the bakery receives the orders immediately, rather than having to wait three to four hours for distributors to telephone orders. "That wasted time and created opportunities for errors," he adds.
