Baking & Snack - June 2022 - 70

DONUT PROCESSING
PRODUCTION PLANNING BECOMES EXTREMELY
CRITICAL WHEN MOVING A FRESH DAILY
DONUT OPERATION FROM A SEMI-AUTOMATED
PROCESS TO AN AUTOMATED ONE.
moving a fresh daily donut operation from a semi-automated
process to an automated one. Automation thrives
on long runs rather than short ones, and to make the
move to longer runs, Mr. Weissbach insisted that good
production planning is necessary.
" If you have smaller batches, you can be more flexible
to produce more product or different quantities, " he
said. " If you go to automation, you have to have good
production planning and know what times you need. "
Creating longer runs in an operation that requires a
lot of changeovers means putting like products together,
Fritsch, a Multivac Group company where many of the pain points for changeovers occur,
Adding equipment
to an existing line
can increase the
versatility of a
production line to
create innovative
new products.
Mr. Morabito explained.
" You want your proofer to be as full of the same product
as possible, " he said. " But if that's not possible, you
want it to be split between two products that have the
same proof time and settings. "
When it comes to the finishing process, which is
Mr. Morabito recommended planning production from
light to dark icings.
" The dark chocolate icing will co-mingle with the
white icing just fine; it will cover the white, " he said. " Or,
for example, if a bakery is doing jelly-filled products, the
baker will want to make all those products that need to
be jelly-filled at the same time, so they're not constantly
changing the fillings. "
Thinking it through
From an equipment standpoint, fresh daily donut manufacturers
have much to think through, especially if they
are working within their existing facilities and not starting
from scratch.
" Adding automation to an existing line is a challenge
if it was not designed with automation in mind from the
beginning, " said Ken Weekes, international sales manager,
WP Bakery Group USA.
Space is typically a critical one. Many regional donut
bakeries start out with a reversible sheeter, doing transfers
manually. Automatic donut lines tend to be longer.
" As their market grows, they have to expand out of the
plant or buy a big enough plant to put in a Rademaker
line, " said Nick Magistrelli, vice president of sales and
marketing at the company. " You really need the linear
space to make those possible. "
This becomes even more critical as they try to add
in modular equipment for different products. Modular
equipment on the makeup line can make a line extremely
flexible and changeovers quick and easy, but there's a
cost: floor space.
" When you get into a yeast-raised makeup line, you
have to have enough length to make space for the cutters
and applicators, curling rollers, depositors, " Mr.
Magistrelli explained. " Even if you only are making
hexagonal donuts, you want enough length in there
to incorporate new equipment later. "
If space isn't an issue, yeast-raised donut manufacturers'
first investment in automating the line is
the fryer and proofer. These systems are the heart
of the donut process. The fryer dictates the speed
and throughput of the entire line. Any future investments
must build off this piece of equipment, all
the way down to the width of the production line.
70 Baking & Snack June 2022 / www.bakingbusiness.com
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Baking & Snack - June 2022

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