Baking & Snack - February 2025 - 94

OPERATIONS MAINTENANCE
make a drawing of that part and go to a machine shop
and get it made better than what the original was,
but people don't think to do that, " Dearduff explained.
" What people do is cobble it up. They try to weld it
back together and get another day out of the machine.
That's where the attitude comes in. The people who
take care of this equipment need to get to a place
where they treat it like a new piece of equipment. "
When to refurbish
equipment or invest in new
For Metropolitan Baking, push came to shove
when the company finally decided to invest
in a new bun line instead of rebuilding the
oven at its 140,000-square-foot bakery.
" We were looking at rebuilding our oven,
but before we knew it, we said, 'Let's take
a leap here and just go full speed,' " said
George Kordas, president, Metropolitan
Baking. " Because once we were going to
make all of the proper changes to the
oven, it would have taken a solid two-plus
weeks to refurbish, and we didn't have the
redundancy to allow us to do that. "
Many factors play a role in whether to
Bakeries often
purchase new
equipment, such
as conveyorized
ovens, to boost
capacity that helps
justify the return
on investment.
Many of these commonly called tanks have been
built to last for decades, and in many bakeries,
they're still firing away even though they are older
than the maintenance crew who works on them.
" I believe steel bolted together in the 1960s is
strong and robust and will be there if you take care
of it, " Dearduff said.
All too often, a bakery's lack of capacity results
in a squeeze on the maintenance crew's time to do
their jobs right, noted Rowdy Brixey, president, Brixey
Engineering. If the oven can't meet growing customer
demands, for instance, the operation will find itself in
production during those extra hours that should be
dedicated to maintenance and sanitation.
" Many times, it's not because it's a bad oven, "
he said. " It's because you're operating it beyond its
capabilities and not putting reliability back in. Now,
all of a sudden, you're looking at excessive equipment
downtime and thinking about the total cost of
ownership (TCO). "
94 Baking & Snack | february 2025 | bakingbusiness.com
rebuild or invest in new equipment. Sometimes
it's as easy as answering one question.
" If you're okay with the speed that
the equipment puts out and you're okay
with the product quality, why would you
spend $5 million on a new oven if this one
works? " asked Jeff Dearduff, owner of JED
Manufacturing Services.
Rowdy Brixey, president, Brixey
Engineering, suggested several criteria may
determine whether to refurbish or invest.
One may be whether the company is a single
or multi-bakery operation where production can
be shifted among different facilities.
Companies should also examine
bottlenecks to see if they can find where to
boost capacity on an existing line.
Brixey suggested that bakeries identify
the best time for refurbishing or installing
new equipment. January through April
is typically a slow period for cake goods
because people are dieting, and a good time
for bun plants is prior to the busy summer
barbecue season.
Data-driven decision-making
Relying on TCO will enable bakery management
teams to empirically calculate the impact of the
equipment's performance toward the bottom line.
That information can be used to determine whether
to keep maintaining the mixer, proofer or oven or to
invest in replacing it.
Brixey recommended answering a list of questions
to gather all of the necessary data.
" How many maintenance hours does this asset
require, and how much downtime and waste were
coming from this machine? What is the book value,
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