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 refurbish 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 plants.

Companies should also examine bottlenecks to see if they can find where to boost capacity on an existing line.

“Also, if you don’t have room in your plant to install a new oven, you probably have to rebuild your existing oven,” he said. “You would have to remove the old oven and could be down for maybe two to three weeks, or even months, to put in a new oven.”

Brixey suggested that bakeries identify the best time for refurbishing or installing new equipment.

January through April is typically a slow season for cake goods because people are dieting and for bun plants prior to the summer barbecue season.

This article is an excerpt from the February 2025 issue of Baking & Snack. To read the entire feature on Maintenance, click here.