Build a better bakery, establish an intelligent game plan and execute it for success in the long run. East Balt Bakeries did just that with its new bakery just outside of Rome, Italy.
During construction, East Balt shaved off three months by placing all utilities and other key components — from electrical conduits to compressed air and blast-freezing units — in an enclosed portion on the roof, noted Tommaso De Marco, general manager of the company’s Italian operations, in the September issue of Baking & Snack magazine.
As East Balt put in the utilities and infrastructure, its vendors installed the equipment below. For employee safety, East Balt, which is being acquired by Grupo Bimbo S.A.B. de C.V., positioned its mixers so the dough kicks out away from production into a trough that’s surrounded by a fenced-in cage that only allows access to employees after the process has completely stopped.
To ensure quality control, cameras and vision systems are positioned throughout the plant so operators monitor everything from a “command center” in the mixing area. Building a smarter bakery also means investing in training — sometimes for weeks, months or longer. To facilitate a smooth start-up, the plant supervisor for East Balt Roma worked at the company’s Bomporto bakery in northern Italy for a full year while the production manager spent six months there prior to shipping the first products out of the Rome plant. Even the entire first shift, which includes 17 people in all, spent three months learning the nuances of production prior to the opening.
In many ways, East Balt’s Rome facility is leaving a lasting impression in the Italian market.
