Butcher, baker, candle-stick maker

Technology solutions for generic sectors are old hat, says Thomas R. Cutler. The level of control and traceability required today calls for hyper-vertical market segmentation. Process manufacturing covers a wide field. Within it we find food manufacturing, and within that there is another huge range, including meat products and bakery manufacturing, among countless others. While they might all be food manufacturers within the process industry, however, their idiosyncratic characteristics require specific industry sector knowledge and expertise.  So the trend toward hyper-vertical IT applications is not accidental, nor simply a marketing strategy on the part of ERP (enterprise resource planning) vendors. Flour, the most frequently used ingredient in a bakery, is an allergen, and bakeries are now trying to offer allergen free products. Proper storage, production scheduling, and clean out are therefore critical to effective allergen management. However, few ERP systems allow ingredients to have physical properties like allergens. An effective APS (advanced planning and scheduling) system must allow the recipe planner to optimize the schedule based on allergen content (and any other constraint) to minimize clean up time. The result might be that the system would suggest that batches without allergens are prepared first, while products with allergens are prepared second or on another production line. This type of specific functionality is appropriate not only for process or food ERP systems.According to Evan Garber, president of Bakery ERP specialists Escape Velocity Systems, ÔÇ£the unusual production characteristic for most bakeries is the practice of frequently mixing dough in a small kettle; many doughs are then used in one batch run. For each batch of dough the production team is aware of the ingredient lot number, but at the other end of the production line, quality control typically goes though a process of elimination to determine from which dough their test samples came.ÔÇØ Bakery ingredient items can be given lot attributes which can be entered by the QC department, however. Since flour is typically the key ingredient, most bakeries have to analyze the properties of each flour lot to determine absorption rates to maintain high quality standards. Getting the correct moisture in batches is an art with scientific elements.Flour lot #1 has attribute absorption of ten and Flour lot #2 has attribute absorption of eight. These attributes stay with the lot throughout production life and can be used by production planners to estimate a compensating water content needed for a batch. ÔÇ£ItÔÇÖs important to track lot expiration dates,ÔÇØ Garber noted. ÔÇ£QC must also be able to determine that the real expiry date is different than the date calculated for a batch and be able to change it. The most important factor is that QC must be completely integrated with the rest of the organizationÔÇÖs ERP shelf life. Many bakeriesÔÇÖ QC departments are on separate systems, including Excel spreadsheets. The value proposition that bakery technology solutions must bring to food safety and quality is that QC is integrated with the rest of the ERP.ÔÇØ Indeed if QC determines that a lot is bad and records it in the system, the lot is automatically put on hold and cannot be used in manufacturing or shipped out. If QC tests for attributes of a lot and records them in a bakery specific technology solution, the production planner can see the attributes of the lot and plan for compensating ingredients (such as water or gluten). Shelf stability and expiration date management applies to many food products, none more than baked goods.The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) suggests the grain category is the largest segment of American dietary consumption, encouraging consumers to eat at least five ounces of grain products every day. From snack cakes, energy bars, cookies, crackers, rolls, donuts, pastries, pie, pizza crusts, cakes and muffins, and fortified breakfast cereals, bakery manufacturing covers a very broad range of foods. Since the average American eats more than 50 pounds of bread and more than a 100 pounds of cereal each year, it represents billions of dollars in revenue for bakers; the worldwide market for bakery products is now greater than $300 billion annually.┬áÔÇ£Serving this large and lucrative market requires knowledge of bakery management and maintenance of hygienic production of baked goods,ÔÇØ insisted Garber. ÔÇ£Sanitation processes, allergen control programs and bioterrorism defense strategies must be well defined and followed to ensure the bakery and the public are not at risk.ÔÇØ  Generic technology solutions for the food sector will not suffice; hyper-vertical applications are necessary to meet the mandated compliance requirements from BioTerrorism Act to HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points).