Flexibility the key ingredient in production overhaul

Founded over 100 years ago, the Bakels group of companies manufactures and supplies specialist, high-quality ingredients to the global commercial baking market. Their customers range from individual craft bakers, high street and supermarket chains to international food service chains.

In 2012, British Bakels (UK) began the first phase of a $4.5m investment to improve their production flexibility in order to accommodate their broadening portfolio of bakery ingredient premixes. They looked to Matcon to help provide the solution - a more agile system to cope with small batch runs and handle recipe variety, some of which include allergens.

The original powder blending facilities at British Bakels are centred on two vertical conical fixed mixers with capacities of 2000 kg and 1500 kg, which are fed via a conveyor system from silos holding bulk flour and sugar. Other ingredients are added from big bags and sacks via mechanical conveyors. These mixers are then directly coupled to the packing lines, which pack off bags of bakery pre-mixes for use within the bakery sector.

As their R&D program expanded the product portfolio, British Bakels recognised that there was no spare production capacity, even with 24/7 operation. In addition, the inline production process was not flexible enough to cope with smaller batch runs. Each mixer was taking four operators around 3 hours to clean, resulting in a 22% downtime for cleaning alone. This led them to campaign manufacture to cope with the demand, which subsequently created expensive inventory as completed batches were stored in the warehouse.

The small footprint of the Matcon equipment has meant that it fits into the existing production area, where it can run alongside the existing fixed mixers, which have become dedicated to the high-run, high-volume product lines. The Matcon system is used to process the small batch runs where there is a variety of recipes to be handled, and particularly where allergens are involved.

Being based on ‘lean’ philosophy, the Matcon system separates out the processes of filling, blending and packing by using intermediate bulk containers (IBCs) to transport material throughout the manufacturing process, which allows each procedure to take place simultaneously.

IBCs are prepared offline in readiness for the blending process. The sack tip unit provides a closed transfer of material from sack to IBC, improving housekeeping and reducing the risk of cross-contamination. All ingredients are sieved and passed over a permanent magnet during the filling operation, giving further quality assurance.

Blending takes place within the IBC itself. The IBC is loaded onto the blender, which tumbles it on an asymmetrical 360° axis to create a homogenous mix. Because the ingredients are blended within the IBC itself, there is no need to clean the blender between recipes - even when using allergens. This provides a flexible production capability and has enabled British Bakels to develop its gluten-free ranges.

A further benefit of the Matcon blending system is the reduction in the overall mixing time required for recipes that have both liquid and solid fat additions. The previous fixed mixers took an hour for the process, as the fat needed to be whipped together with sugar before the other ingredients could be added. By using the supplementary intensifier on the Matcon blender, this can now be achieved in a single-stage process, taking just 12 minutes per batch, significantly improving the productivity and process efficiency.

The bakery pre-mixes are packed off into bags using an existing auger vertical form fill seal packer. The IBCs are loaded onto a Matcon discharge station where they feed directly into the packer, without the need for additional equipment to regulate the flow. The action of the cone valve within the IBC and the operation of the discharge station safeguards against product segregation and helps the more ‘sticky’ recipes to flow, thereby optimising the efficiency of the packing line, ensuring that the final product is of consistent quality.

The production system has generated an instant return on investment, with $318,000 of cash released by significantly reducing inventory, 88% equipment availability (previously 68%), a 25% reduction in labour cost and a 55% reduction in manufacturing time.

British Bakels are delighted with the results to date. “The new plant means we can produce an innovative range of pre-mixed ingredients, many of which will be fresh to the UK,” says managing director Paul Morrow.