Baking&Snack - February 2014 - 60

Charles Anderson, director of quality, noted that Mile
Hi used optical scanning at its old bakery, but this system is far advanced, especially in its data capabilities.

Criteria for success, the Mile Hi way
To provide structure to activities performed by Mile Hi
associates, the management team clearly articulates the
company's criteria for success. "These values are communicated and trained and talked up among all employees,
"
said Bakery Director Paul Chan, and he listed them.
*
Match and exceed current plant product quality attributes for all varieties.
*
Evaluate and produce product that matches or
exceeds "target bakery" product quality attributes
for all varieties.
*
Accomplish the above action lines within a single
product approval visit by the customer's quality system management group.
*
Constant preview and review of 1) current vs. 2)
new vs. 3) "target bakery" product quality with an
action plan to monitor and close all quality and
process gaps.
*
Realize plant time and yield efficiencies within or
faster than planned budget and action time lines.
*
Maintain OUR new plant at superior Food Safe
rated plant and SQF Level 3 facility.
*
Train our personnel to excel in our new plant, and
have fun doing so!
option of extra baking time for future varieties. Also, it
contains an internal steam tunnel. "The tunnel allows us
to bake crusty rolls and artisan-style products - a new
feature," Mr. McCarty said. The tunnel is equipped with
its own burner, giving advanced temperature control for
a wide variety of products.

60 Baking & Snack February 2014 / www.bakingandsnack.com

This day, with the steam tunnel inactive, baking proceeded at 460°F for at 8½ minutes. "We can go from go
from eight to 10 minutes on baking and 460 to 510°F in
temperature," Mr. McCarty noted.
Baked buns exit the oven to be released from their
pans by the Stewart Systems depanner. Buns travel on
an inclined conveyor and enter at the top of the G&F
Systems spiral cooler. This loading method optimizes
the cooler.
"Heat rises," Mr. Chan reasoned, "so you want to cool
most effectively by putting your warmest product at the
top, not the bottom. You don't often see spiral coolers
run downwards at other bakeries."
The depanner releases empty pans into the pan recycling system. A Stewart Systems vertical-edge pan cooler
accepts the hot pans, carrying them on edge, rather than
flat. "This is a more efficient way to cool pans and involves less maintenance than other cooling methods,"
Mr. Sanchez said.
Pan handling at Mile Hi also involves a pair of Stewart
Systems stacker/unstacker units that pull off or put on
pans according to the production schedule. The vertical-edge pan cooler delivers pans upside down to these
units. The company chose pan designs that enable the
rims, not the cups, to bear the full weight of the pan.

Achieving packaging flexibility
All buns leaving the spiral cooler pass through a
Sightline optical inspection system. Each is inspected
and graded according to nearly a dozen parameters. A
row of air jets mounted above the conveyor will knock
out any nonstandard buns as they pass. Mile Hi used
optical scanning at its old bakery, but this system is far
advanced, especially in its data capabilities. Graphs displayed by the control terminal show how products are
trending.
All buns go through a Mettler Toledo metal detector
ahead of the packaging machines.
Packaging operations reflect the bakery's flexibility
as well as its computerized operation. "In the packaging
area, we count, slice, pack, stack, wrap and introduce to
the freezer all automatically," Mr. Chan said. "This keeps
a solid FIFO system going." Additionally, packaging is
capable of both bag and bulk packs and two different
styles of shipping containers: corrugated trays and plastic baskets.
"With the two Stewart Systems Pillo-Pak bulk packers, which assemble 20 to 30 buns per package, we can
do a dual center seal, with options for perforation and
skip-seal - a transverse seal that divides each package
into quadrants," Mr. Sanchez explained. The bakery's
two UBE horizontal baggers provide the capacity for 8-,
10- and 12-count bags.

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Baking&Snack - February 2014

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