Baking & Snack - April 2023 - 28

FANTASY COOKIE CO.
" What happened is we were running some of those
200 SKUs only once a year, " Mr. Case said. " We don't
want that. We want once a month or multiple times a
month if we can. That's made us more efficient. We've
gone from all things to all customers to a much more
strategic-specific type of customer. Our focus is on the
fast-growth, high-pace emerging brands or premium
store brands that market their labels like a national
brand. "
To drive those efficiencies, the company relies on
" block scheduling, " or grouping similar products
together to minimize changeovers and reduce the
amount of scheduled sanitation.
" This way, we're not shutting down production and
cleaning mixers every 5 hours, " Mr. Case said.
For example, the SQF-certified bakery will run a
group of gluten-free products over an eight-day period;
organic items over several days; or keto, kosher or
allergen-specific items one after another.
" We brought a simple approach to our operation in
Fantasy Cookie
carefully monitors
ingredients because
of the many customers
it serves and the
amount of allergensensitive
items the
bakery makes.
that we want to run limited SKUs as often as we can, "
Mr. Case explained. " We're not opposed to going from
70 SKUs to 120 SKUs in 2023 if those 120 SKUs are
high-volume and running on a regular basis. We don't
want to go back to running SKUs of grandma's recipe
twice a year. "
Because the operation plans production six weeks
out, the company knows what ingredients to order in
advance and works to avoid potential supply chain disruptions
that have wreaked havoc on the food industry
in recent years.
" It's all about keeping our uptime at a high level, and
we have been able to do that by getting rid of a lot of
old SKUs that were incredibly inefficient and by bringing
in new SKUs that make our business predictable, "
Mr. Case said.
Daily production meetings
provide a key component of
that predictability in a comanufacturing
operation.
Mr. Rivera
tracks
hourly volume, size of
the crew, pounds per
manhour, waste, downtime
and other factors
that are keys to profitable
scheduling.
" If we see a lot of red
in our charts from the
previous day, we figure out
why we had a bad day, " Mr.
Case said.
If the bakery sees green, the em28
Baking & Snack April 2023 / www.bakingbusiness.com
A CO-MANUFACTURER'S
strategy for capital spending
Investing in new equipment can be a
tricky proposition, especially for a comanufacturer
that has a wide variety
of customers and can't predict how the
business might change when the next
opportunity comes knocking at the door.
Deciding to add a new makeup line or
packaging system can result in a costly
mistake, especially if that equipment was
intended for a customer who eventually
takes their business elsewhere or changes
to another new product or package.
" With all of our capital expenditures,
we buy equipment that will benefit all
customers or bring in new business, " said
Russ Case, chief executive officer, Fantasy
Cookie Co. " We buy used equipment, but
they're usually wrapping and cartoning
machines. I don't think we'll buy a used
oven. Ovens, if they're taken care of, last a
long time, and if you buy a new one that's
automated, there's no hands-on adjusting,
so you take the guesswork and human
error out of baking, and they're so much
http://www.bakingbusiness.com
Baking & Snack - April 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Baking & Snack - April 2023
