Sophisticated flexibility

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Giles Young
5 years ago
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18 Sophisticated flexibility THE FURTHER AWAY FROM THE END PRODUCT, THE GREATER THE FLEXIBILITY, BUT THERE IS A CONTINUOUS FLOW OF GOODS AT THE OVEN OUTLET.

1 18 Sophisticated flexibility THE FURTHER AWAY FROM THE END PRODUCT, THE GREATER THE FLEXIBILITY, BUT THERE IS A CONTINUOUS FLOW OF GOODS AT THE OVEN OUTLET. THE MAJOR FINNISH BAKERY OY PRIMULA AB HAS A NEW CONCEPT COMBINING FLEXIBILITY, EFFICIENCY AND ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS ++ figure 1 ++ figure 1 Text Text ++ figure 1 The newly-built factory near Helsinki + He had already emigrated to the USA, and his bakery, with the name Primula, would probably have stayed there if love had not brought him back to his Finnish homeland. That s why the ancestor of the Valkamo family founded his bakery in Helsinki in The fourth generation now manages the business for around 50 shareholders from the family, ten of which hold the majority and eight make up a family council that decides the company s course. The Managing Director and CEO is Juha Valkamo, and one of the company s biggest strategy changes is taking place during his stewardship. Until now the family business had operated a trade supplier bakery in the centre of Helsinki, delivering to supermarkets and caterers in and around the capital as well as to four restaurants and four delicatessen shops. The concept for the future is divided into two areas: a) A bakery supplying to the food retail in the upper quality segment, but throughout the country and with a product range divided into three brand families: 1. TEMPO = nationwide with a shelf life of 5 7 days, 2. PRIMULA = daily fresh bread, 3. ARTISAN = premium bread with a 2-day shelf life. b) A production operation concentrated at one location for the deli sector (snacks, salads and convenience foods), supplying more than its own catering outlets. The concept has been implemented in a newly-built facility in Järvenpää, ap proximately 50 km from Helsinki. Not only is the capacity of the new bakery on its own five times the size of the old one in Helsinki, the specification written for the planners by Valkamo also included the aspects of CO 2 neutrality, restructuring all the processes, and Corporate Governance, which can be translated as bu siness management with an awareness of responsibility and the objective of sustainable added value. The reason for this is also, but not only, economic. Valkamo explains, It s a question of setting standards in the market such as we did when we were the first business in Finland to market Artisan Bread. I want to be one of the challengers in this market. There are good reasons for this. According to a market study by Raisio Oy in 2009, 35 % of all Scandinavians are now environmentally conscious consumers. Thus the strategy concept also includes an awareness of ecological responsibility and sustainability on an equal footing with profitability and a revival of the baking craft s virtues, evidenced mainly in the choice of raw materials and adherence to long fermen tation and resting times. At the same time Primula is focusing its product range on tasty, healthy baked goods. Together with the consulting firm Pöyry Oy, the carbon dioxide equivalents trader Nordic Offset Oy, and the owner of the new factory building Primula is the leaseholder Valkamo has developed a concept designed to reduce the company s CO 2 footprint to zero. This was done by first of Read on: page 20

For this, the company uses multifunctional plant for premium products with long dough resting times. Pre-doughs and sourdoughs as well as scalds have a place in the doughs.

2 19 Sustainable production ++ figure A ++ figure A The Kaak group was the lead in the plans. Here is the moulder of line 3. In the background: lines 1 and 2 In addition to production flexibility, the Primula bakery wanted baked goods to be manufactured traditionally in the new building. For this, the company uses multifunctional plant for premium products with long dough resting times. Pre-doughs and sourdoughs as well as scalds have a place in the doughs. Basically five lines operate in the new factory. The flour comes from three 30-ton outdoor silos directly into the mixer or into the central pre- and sour-dough unit from the IsernHäger GmbH & Co. KG Company, Isernhagen, Germany. Two wheat and four rye fermenters with ca - pa cities of 4,100 and 1,400 l respectively are housed in a separate room. The stainless steel plants are filled and emptied automatically. The same room also houses yeast dissolvers and two scald (hot soak) systems to increase dough yields and to give the baked products more flavour. The plant pipework can be cooled to reach the required temperature for the scalds more quickly. A cleaningin-place system, together with pipe scrapers and a cleaning program, ensure clean pipework. Temperatures and dosing quantities are controll able and adjustable via an SPC controller with a touch-panel. A remote system

20 ++ figure B ++ figure C enables remote main tenance. The Telematic ring allows the manufacturing pro cess to be monitored and its current actual state di agnosed.

The special bread doughs for lines 1, 2 and 3 are mixed in two kneading stations using SP 160 E spiral mixers from the DIOSNA Dierks & Söhne Company, Osnabrück, Germany.

After the dough has rested, a bowl tipper transfers the bread dough into a hopper with toothed rollers.

3 20 ++ figure B ++ figure C enables remote main tenance. The Telematic ring allows the manufacturing pro cess to be monitored and its current actual state di agnosed. Access to pumps and stirrers is also pos sible. Fermentation data such as temperature or weights can be saved. The special bread doughs for lines 1, 2 and 3 are mixed in two kneading stations using SP 160 E spiral mixers from the DIOSNA Dierks & Söhne Company, Osnabrück, Germany. The mixers with an oiling and cleaning station feed into a linear transport system in which the dough can rest in one of 14 plastic containers after mixing. After the dough has rested, a bowl tipper transfers the bread dough into a hopper with toothed rollers. The dough passes through these and over a conveyor belt either to Line 1 with a plant from the Rheon Automatic Machinery Co., Ltd., Utsunomiya, Japan, or to Lines 2 and 3, both from Benier, s-hertogenbosch, Netherlands. Loaves from the Benier line The concept for the bread lines was designed by the Kaak Group, Terborg, Netherlands. In addition to flexibility, the developers paid special attention to the plant s compact construction to configure the plant operation as efficiently all evaluating the emissions of CO 2. This showed that at present 73 % of CO 2 emissions are attributable to manufacturing, 16 % to transporting the goods, 8 % to business and work travel and 3 % to the ten in-store bakeries which Primula operates together with a dedicated sales area for finished products under its own brand logo in 90 supermarkets. Primula is currently still buying carbon dioxide equivalents to allow it to demonstrate a neutral CO 2 balance, but the plan is for this proportion to decrease continuously. In addition, various conditions were specified for the new build. Two major engineering decisions were: recovery of all the heat discharged from the production process: this heat is used to heat the premises and for hot water ++ figure 2 ++ figure 2 Buyers of the pastries are the supermarkets in the South of Finland selection of natural gas as the fuel for the company s own power station, which produces steam and heat for the bakery and ovens The office operation is currently working on meeting the WWF rules for a Green Office, and the snack production facility being set up at present alongside the bakery is planned to comply with the Premium version of the US-American LEED Standard (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings. Another objective is certification according to ISO (International Environment Management) and ISO (Management Systems for Food Safety Requirements applying to Organisations in the Food Supply Chain). The building in Järvenpää covers an area of 13,000 m 2. 10,000 m 2 of this belongs to production operations, of which 6,000 is planned for the bakery and logistics and 4,000 for the deli area. The glass-panelled façade allows a clear view into the company s own bakery café, which is a daily lunch-time meeting place for the workforce from the entire industrial zone. Anyone can have their electrical car charged up at the sockets in the car park at the same time. Three 30-ton silos stand ready for the two main raw materials; two for wheat flours and one for rye flour. The flour comes through a pipeline from the neighbouring Helsingin Mylly Oy mill, which not only supplies conventional flour but is also Finland s biggest organic miller. Finnish consumers see organic as an important mark of quality, above all in the traditional rye product range. The production operation (see box) starts with a central predough and sourdough unit from Isernhäger, including a Read on: page 22

21 ++ figure D ++ figure B Pre-dough and sourdough plants are situated in a separate room ++ figure C Flatbreads and rolls are produced on lines 4 and 5 ++ figure D The components of the lines can be

The plant is operated via an operating screen where the line is displayed as a 3-D model. This gives the users a rapid overview of the production operation.

4 21 ++ figure D ++ figure B Pre-dough and sourdough plants are situated in a separate room ++ figure C Flatbreads and rolls are produced on lines 4 and 5 ++ figure D The components of the lines can be used individually as possible through short pathways. Kaak Group Project Manager Frank Brakenhoff explains that The small footprint also results in less energy loss. The plant is operated via an operating screen where the line is displayed as a 3-D model. This gives the users a rapid overview of the production operation. Primula produces a wide variety of Finnish baked goods on the Line 2 and 3 plants, e.g. Jyvä Jyvärinen (280 x 130 x 100 / 2,095 units/hour), Finnish Baguettes (550 x 65 x 50 / 2,254 units/hour) or Kotileipä (220 x 90 / 1,571 units/ hour). For these the Benier plant starts with a dough divider feeding either a belt round moulder (Line 2) or a cone round moulder followed by an intermediate proofing cabinet (Line 3). Next the dough pieces can also, if necessary, undergo long moulding by pressing boards, after which they enter the Kaak multi-deck continuous Our Strength: Rolls. Rosendahl Maschinen GmbH, A-8212 Pischelsdorf, Schachen 57, phone: ,

The cleaned trays move into the fully automatic mould store proofing cabinet via trays.

5 22 ++ figure E ++ figure F ++ figure E Flexibility is the key factor. One deck of the oven is loaded with bread loaves, the other with flatbreads ++ figure F After the baked goods have left the oven, the pastry is taken off and placed into the cooler. The cleaned trays move into the fully automatic mould store proofing cabinet via trays. On Line 2 the dough pieces, after round moulding, enter a dough shaper and are shaped into baguettes, for example. These dough pieces also enter the continuous proofing cabinet on trays (all manufactured by Kaak Bakeware). On Line 1, with a dough divider made by Rheon, the bakery produces mainly baked products with a wheat accent. The required flexibility was a particular challenge during the planning, as Project Manager Frank Brakenhoff explains. Kaak solved the problem by running all the dough pieces from the five lines through a continuous proofing cabinet and a continuous multi-deck oven made by Daub, Hamburg, Germany. This en ables optimum utilisation of the available capacities. The thermo-oil multi-deck conti nuous oven has a total baking area of m 2 spread across five decks (each deck is 2.8 m wide and 11.6 m long). Two heating circuits ensure sufficient gentle heat transfer. After the baked goods have left the oven, they and the trays move to the next Kaak station. Plastic brushes gently transfer the baked products onto a conveyor belt which takes them into a spiral cooler. Alternatively, the trays, after cleaning with water, move into the fully automatic mould store, which was also supplied from the Netherlands. Line 4 and 5 Two Diosna twin spiral mixers are ready to prepare the dough on Lines 4 and 5. Primula also has two automatic ice dispensing systems supplied by the ZIEGRA Ice Machines Company, Isernhagen, Germany. Each system consists of an ice machine with a capacity of 100 kg and 50 kg of ice per hour respectively. The ice can be stored for several days in an ice storage tank with a capacity of 500 kg. The ice travels through an automatic weighing and dispensing system directly into the mixer bowl. This allows batches of ice from 5 kg to 200 kg to be metered in. Hygiene is ensured by an automatic cleaning system. The Ziegra controller on this system is linked to the main controller and thus to the recipe management, so communication is possible. After the mixer, the dough enters a dough sheeter (Line 4) including a make-up table and cutting device from the Hydrovoima Oy Company, Turku, Finland. Up to 16,946 Finnish rye bread loaves (70 x 15 mm) per hour are produced here. The plant s working width is 600 mm. 100 % rye dough can also be processed. Line 5 starts with a Back-Tech plant from the ROSEN- DAHL Maschinen GmbH Company, Pischelsdorf, Austria. A dough divider with round moulder, pre-proofing plant, die-punch and cutting device (transverse and long i - tudinal cuts are possible) produces rolls, buns, minibaguettes and small baked goods in the weight range from 40 to 120 g. The 6-row, cycle plant achieves an output rate of up to 14,400 units/hour. After this the dough pieces from both lines enter a Kaak proofing ca binet. Baking is again the responsibility of the Daub oven. From here onwards the baked goods, as on all the lines, enter the baked goods transfer system into the Kaak cooler. +++ yeast dissolver and scald (hot soak) system. Mixing takes place in spiral and double-helix kneaders supplied by Diosna, the latter feeding into a linear transport system to allow the dough to rest. ZIEGRA ice machines dispense crushed ice to control the dough temperature on both lines. Work-up then takes place on five lines, which, except for a Rheon dough sheeter, were entirely newly designed and built for this site: a bread roll/bun line from Back Tech, a Hydrovoima line for Finnish flatbreads, a bread line with a conical rounder and a long moulder from Kaak/Benier, and a soft-dough bread line also from Kaak/Benier. The Hydrovoima and Back-Tech feed into a proofing plant, while the soft-dough bread line and Rheon dough sheeter deliver their products to a second proofing plant. Both in turn feed a Daub thermo-oil multideck continuous oven with a m 2 baking area and two heating circuits. Cooling is dealt with by two spiral plants which, like the moulds store, were also supplied from the Netherlands. Alongside with the cooling spirals, there is also

Valkamo reports, The layout guarantees us both the efficiency of industrial production and high flexibility.

6 ++ figure 3 ++ figure 3 CEO Juha Valkamo a freezer spiral and all the products can be automatically conveyed to this spiral to make bake off products. The investments in completely new production technology the total including the building amounts to more than EUR 35m are carefully calculated. Valkamo reports, The layout guarantees us both the efficiency of industrial production and high flexibility. He is certain this combination is the only way he can hone a profile that secures Primula a market share between the two major groups and the few small and mediumsized companies on the Finnish bakery market. The decisive factor is that the extensive parallelism of the processing lines ensures a wide diversity that can, but need not be, expressed even in small batches. The demand, not the production technology, decides the batch size or how long a variety is produced. Combined with various pre-doughs and sourdoughs and the various alternatives for dough resting after mixing, it yields a pattern similar to an upside-down tree running from the crown to the trunk in this case the oven. Only at its exit does the batch production turn into a continuous flow of goods. The environmental friendliness and efforts to achieve CO 2 neutrality are noticeable at many points in the production process. The waste heat from the thermo-oil oven is recovered and used to heat water. The waste heat from the many refrigeration sets in the delicatessen production area is also re-used, and of course the lights are never switched on when no-one is in the room. All the packagings have now been changed over to biodegradable materials, including the salad dressing cups and the cutlery. The organic waste is collected and fed into an ethanol production plant, which in return supplies ethanol to fuel the company cars. Valkamo is certain that Primula is well equipped for the future in every respect. The new capacities will allow him not only to supply the whole country but also to enter the private label business. This year he already wants to have production volume increased to 5 million kg. At the same time the manpower requirement in the production area has dropped from 100 in the past to the present figure of 35. Meanwhile, on the company s own web site, he informs consumers about the environmental targets that have been set. The plan is to follow this with regular reports about the company s ecological, economic and social standards. +++

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