Baking & Snack - February 2008 - 64

MAINTENANCE

ware, which Mr. Hipenbecker praised. "It helps us with
tracking our spare parts, and it allows us the capability of scheduling our PMs and all of our maintenance
programs. It gives us the opportunity to track our effectiveness, and we track it based on the line efficiencies
that we see," he added. "We measure things like urgent
response to the lines, so we have a full complement of
measures that we take a look at on a regular basis."
Each of the company's individual bakeries runs its
own software program; however, the corporate office
receives reports so it can understand what is occurring
at these facilities, according to Mr. Hipenbecker. "Our
goal is really to get the most bang for the buck out of
our systems. The only way you do that is making sure
they are reliable, they are ready to run when we need
them to run, and that when they are running, they stay
running," he said.
INVESTMENT VS. COST. Focusing on maintenance
has definitely been a worthy investment for Kroger's
bakery group, according to Mr. Hipenbecker. "By having more consistent and reliable machinery, we produce more and we produce a more consistent quality

product for our consumer," he said.
The bakery group has focused its maintenance and
maintenance engineering groups on specific lines that
were giving it issues, and it was able to see constant steady
improvement in efficiencies by doing that, Mr. Hipenbecker noted. "So we know the program works.
"You can have the best piece of equipment available,
but if you don't maintain it, it is not going to work; it is
not going to perform," he continued.
Another important thing to remember is that
maintenance must work in concert with all the other
pieces within the manufacturing facility, and this is
something that Kroger has worked at changing since
implementing its maintenance excellence program.
"Engineering, maintenance and operations are now
all holding hands, and we understand the importance
of coordination, so we schedule the time accordingly,"
Mr. Hipenbecker said.
Overall, maintenance is just another piece of the
operational puzzle, but if a bakery encounters major
equipment troubles because of poor maintenance, it
creates major efficiency problems and can really impact
a company's bottom line.
Ⅲ

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Baking & Snack - February 2008

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