Bill Hackett has served the food industry for over 40 years, including the past 12 at Clyde’s Delicious Donuts, Addison, Ill. While many would be drawn to the family-owned business, thanks to the tasty donuts it’s made for over 100 years, Hackett said this isn’t why he joined the company. 

“I am here because the leaders at Clyde’s Delicious Donuts are genuine, smart and purposed,” he said. “They are what drew me here. And in a nutshell, that’s why we make a great donut.”

Hackett has held various positions at Clyde’s, including maintenance and sanitation superintendent, director of engineering and currently director of facilities. Regardless of position, Hackett said everyone at Clyde’s has bought into the same mission.

“[Everyone] cares about what we do — about food and personnel safety, quality and efficiency, and we are passionate continuous improvement advocates,” he said. “We consciously cultivate this culture. I am most proud to be a part of that.”

 While some may believe making donuts to be a simple undertaking, Hackett emphasized that it’s anything but.

“Every hard and soft talent required in any other manufacturing category is required to make a donut turn into a smile,” he said. “That is the challenge we enjoy because we all know there is nothing sweeter than a Clyde’s Delicious Donut smile.”

Reflecting on some of the biggest challenges facing the industry today, Hackett observed that strong collaboration between bakery departments is critical. 

“Planning cannot be done without all stakeholders,” he said. “This means the dissemination of information — who gets what info and how do they get it — is the biggest challenge. And because data acquisition has become commonplace, too much information can be worse than none as it is ignored wholesale. Process control is mission critical.”

For those new to the industry, Hackett recommended honestly considering what they want, as well as finding a passion outside of work. For Hackett, this is dragon boating — a team sport involving paddle boat racing that he’s an eight-time World Championship gold medalist in. 

“There will always be challenging days that can easily distract you from constructive action if they are not interrupted by an alternative passion,” Hackett said. “Think about the person you want to be. Remember when and why you smile.”

Here, Hackett discusses how bakers can implement a continuous improvement mindset and maximize operational efficiency. 

What is continuous improvement, and how can it impact bakery operations?

Something improved is something changed. Continuous equals constant. So continuous improvement is constant change. This means continuous improvement is really the management of change. It is obviously important to identify and eliminate pain points without negative unintended consequences. The impact on the bakery equals more smiles in every department.

How can bakers incorporate a continuous improvement mindset into their operations? 

At Clyde’s Delicious Donuts the executive leadership routinely walks the floor and through every department, connecting with every employee to find the pain points and improvement opportunities. Every employee at Clyde’s is always looking for improvements we can make. It starts at the top. At Clyde’s, 40% of maintenance department resources are assigned to continuous improvement.

What are the best practices of a successful maintenance plan?

The hallmarks and best practices of a successful maintenance plan are generally well-known and measured by KPIs (key performance indicators), which are equally well-known for measuring maintenance success. A good CMMS (computerized maintenance management system) simplifies this data collection. At Clyde’s Delicious Donuts, KPIs are improved through standard operating procedure (SOP) editing, preventive maintenance tasks and/or frequency edits, and training. The emphasis is on the elimination of perennial issues. Perennial issues must be wrestled to the ground and killed.

What are some common mistakes you see bakeries make when it comes to maintenance plans and practices? 

Not enough information sharing is the biggest toe-stubber. We use shift notes, work order comments and auto-generated reports. However, data overload must be avoided as it will be ignored. Information sharing is making sure everyone knows about a change before it happens, as well as why the change is being made. This will minimize the hours spent doing and undoing.

What role does maintenance play in improving production efficiency and product quality?

Maintenance is all about asset performance — reliability, longevity, life-cycle cost. Buildings are assets. Process equipment and infrastructure are assets. People are assets. All are directly related to OEE (overall equipment effectiveness) and product quality, and maintenance supports every one of Clyde’s assets.  

What are the challenges implementing maintenance plans across multiple facilities? 

There are many factors determining the nature and size of multisite challenges. Are they two miles or two states apart? Are they culturally homogenous? Is one union and one not? The answers to these and other questions mean the challenges can be very different. Regardless, while there may be good reasons to differentiate maintenance department practices, we have learned that the more identical the policies and SOPs, the more efficiently and safely we operate. When we see a best practice at work in one plant, we carry it over to the other.

What are some common best practices for improving production efficiency?

Data acquisition and interpretation is front and center. You must run this past all stakeholders for buy-in.  

Clyde’s Delicious Donuts’ leadership identifies opportunities requiring more than one department to resolve. Then we assign a person from every department to a team tasked with milestones and a SMART goal. Teams are always a mix of talent from the basement to the penthouse. This exercise gives leadership a chance to discover and exploit new or hidden talent. It gives all EEs a clear understanding of leadership’s confidence in them as well as expectations. Everyone is aligned. Conduct a root-cause analysis of big hitters. Have a plan B because sometimes plan B is better than plan A. Simple is almost always better.

How do you ensure operational efficiency and consistency across multiple facilities?

Similar SKUs have the same best practice process control with prescribed operational set points. Automate ingredient delivery/batching and machine maintenance. I know of no better way to improve efficiency and consistency across multiple facilities than the walkthroughs by Clyde’s Delicious Donuts leaders, specifically to greet and enquire of all the EEs.Everyone gets a clearer picture of where we are and where we want to be, and we all enthusiastically row in the same direction.