"We're planning some terrific things here," Mr. Watts said. "This is a tremendous acquisition for our business. We can make products here that are not possible at Philadelphia."
Honey Bun production started on-site in Oxford during January 1997. As of February 1997, the Oxford plant was running a 11/2 -shift schedule and was hiring a second-shift team. Concurrently with the Honey Bun start-up, managers began acquiring equipment for the plant's second line, due to be on-stream in May 1997. "This plant has 40 employees now, and at full plan we expect about 100 people to be working here," said spokesperson Kathleen M. Grim, corporate and community relations director.
"Once the paperwork cleared in July 1996, we got a fast start. And here we were running on the first of January - that's almost unbelievably quick!" said Mr. Pixler, who noted that original construction and equipping of the snack plant consumed 14 months.
"This plant came up on schedule and on budget," Mr. Watts said. "We're delighted with what's happening here at Oxford. At Tasty, we pride ourselves on careful planning and budgeting. We expect things to come in on time and on budget."

FLEXIBLE LAYOUT. The Oxford plant is built on a site covering 42'/2 acres. Mr. Pixler described the building design as "long and lean." Construction used a Butler building capable of being expanded to more than twice its current 160,000 sq ft.
Building utilities - two 275-hp screw compressors for the air-handling system, steam boiler, and a separately housed ammonia refrigeration system - were deliberately sized by the building's original owner to handle twice its current demand, another factor supporting easy expansion in the future. Plant utilities include a Square D switching station that handles as much electric power on this single site as the entire city of Oxford requires.
Mr. Curry explained that all utility lines are labeled and color-coded according to their contents and code rating. "We built this plant originally to meet specs that wouldn't be required until the year 2 000, he said.

The layout separates the facility into two zones with a central two-story corridor. That structure houses the quality assurance laboratory and maintenance shop on the first floor and offices and training rooms on the second. On one side of the corridor are the bays containing production areas, raw material inventories and the ingredient system.

This plant includes an extensive air handling system, allowing Tasty to closely control ambient conditions throughout the facility. Interior walls between departments and some partial overhead walls in the processing areas assist temperature and humidity control. Makeup and packaging areas are air-conditioned during summer months, while the fryer and oven areas are not.
The building will eventually house three high-volume processing lines. Already in operation is Line One, set along the inside wall, for making Honey Buns. It is also capable of making Pastry Pockets and yeast-raised donuts. The next to be installed is Line Three, an oven line for baked pastries and sweet goods. It is being positioned along the far wall, the outside wall of the building. When Baking & Snack visited the plant in mid-February, a raised cement pad was already in place, ready and waiting for the tunnel oven. Line Two will fit between the other two and is already in the planning stages.

After Line Three comes in, managers plan another addition: a big, new freezer. It's set for installation this summer.
"We're going to make products at this plant that require freezing," Mr. Watts said. Mr. Pixler added, "We need this to gain the production flexibility being planned here."

LOW-STRESS LINE. When fully mixed, the dough is released from the mixer by the operator who jogs and dumps the bowl's contents into a waiting trough. The operator wheels the filled trough to the Lanham Baking Solutions hoist and engages it. The full trough is carried up and dumped over to transfer the dough into a large, wide feed hopper above the Rykaart "no-stress" yeast-raised dough makeup line.
Honey Bun dough moves onto the makeup line through the action of gravity and is assisted by the slow-moving conveyor belt that forms the bottom of the feed hopper. The thick blanket of unstressed dough travels through a series of gauge rolls and multiple-roller reduction stations. An in-line depositor applies a light coating of cinnamon filling to the dough sheet's surface.