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Proceedings of the Multi-Disciplinary Senior Design Conference
Project Number: P14712
WEGMANS FROZEN COOKIE CAPACITY
IMPROVEMENT PROJECT
Tyler Brent
Industrial Engineering
Valeria Gonzalez
Industrial Engineering
Bridget Eggers
Industrial Engineering
Richard Latham
Industrial Engineering
ABSTRACT
This project focused on the analysis and improvement of the frozen cookie dough production line located at
Wegmans Bake Shop. This production line is a multi-step process, which consists of pre-scaling, mixing, dividing,
packaging, and shipping. The frozen cookie line shares its resources with other production lines, which causes
significant scheduling conflicts between the different products processed in the line, bottlenecks, and underutilization of resources.
The main goal of this project was to increase the production capacity of the frozen cookie line by identifying
root causes, optimizing resource utilization, and standardizing all processes. Once the current state of the system was
defined, the scope and goals were redefined due to time, budget, and staffing constraints. As a result of the detailed
analysis of the system, a set of improvement solutions were proposed, which will ultimately help increase
production capacity. These solutions include a more accurate mixer production schedule, the cost analysis of
increasing labor at the mixer, written standards, and the traceability and sustainment of the lines main problems.
INTRODUCTION
The frozen cookie production line is a multi-step process which include pre-scaling, mixing, dividing, and
shipping. This production line shares its mixer with the commercial cookie production line and its blast freezer with
the frozen doughnuts line, which causes significant scheduling conflicts in the line. In addition to the conflict with
the shared resources, there is an identifiable bottleneck at the mixer step, since the cookie dough can be divided
faster than it can be mixed. The current state of the line leads to staffing variability, use of overtime, lack of
standardization, and production delays. Furthermore, the lack of data and initial understanding of the system’s
current state limited the scope of the project. The initial scope was restrictive since it only concentrated on the
frozen cookie line. It was soon realized that the root causes and the majority of the variability in the system was
coming from external factors, primarily from sharing resources with other production lines. These limitations
created the need to have a flexible project scope, which evolved and adapted to the system’s requirements which
kept changing as more data became available.
The initial objective of this project was to increase production capacity in the frozen cookie production line. The
system target state consists of synchronizing the pre-scaling, mixing, and dividing production steps which includes
maximizing resource utilization. The original plan for the system redesign included: implementing standard work
across operators and shifts, establishing a more flexible production schedule, and eliminating the use of overtime. At
the end of the project, the RIT team is providing a set of solutions that will be easily implemented and sustained by
Wegmans Bake Shop Engineering & Operations.
The project was divided into three major phases: project definition, design, and implementation phases. In the
first phase, the team observed all three of these processes, defined the current state of the production line, and
identified areas of improvement in order to increase production capacity. Most of the data collection was done in
this phase which caused the project scope to narrow, creating more specific project goals. By assessing the current
state, the team was able to create a project plan and an initial risk assessment. In the second phase, a fishbone
diagram was used with a 5M categorization in order to delineate the problems existing on the line. These analysis
tools will be defined in the following sections of this paper. Furthermore, during this phase general solution concepts
Copyright © 2014 Rochester Institute of Technology
Proceedings of the Multidisciplinary Senior Design Conference
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were created, which led to more specific kaizen/process improvement ideas. A ranking system was created in order
to prioritize these process improvement ideas and facilitate the selection of which ideas would yield the best results
based on customer and engineering requirements. A detailed design plan was created for the ideas that were selected
by management. These design plans included specifics on how to implement, test, and evaluate each of the
improvement events. Major milestones and overall timelines were also decided in this phase. Finally, during the
implementation phase, these activities were tested, analyzed, and evaluated against the initial targets in the
engineering requirements. The overall outcome of this project includes tools that will aid in the decision-making
process for production floor operations, which ultimately will help to increase capacity in the line.
PROCESS
The first step in this process innovation project was problem definition, which was a complete evaluation of the
system’s current state. Identifying and understanding what was happening within the system and its entities would
be imperative to define the system’s bottlenecks and capacity constraints. Based on discussions with Wegmans
management, an initial assumption was made that the dividing process could be done faster than the mixing process,
making the mixer the bottleneck.
In order to verify this underlining assumption and to identify other flaws in the system, the team spent many
hours observing the primary operations of the production line. From these observations and Wegmans feedback, the
team was able to develop the necessary documentation to tie the various facets of this project together. The first of
these documents was an operational breakdown of the system, which is a high level overview of the system’s
entities and how they react. Below in Figure 1 is a simplistic illustration of the operational breakdown. Outlined in
red are what the team considered the primary operations of interest.
OPERATION BREAKDOWN
Pre Scale
X-Ray
Mix
Blast Freezer
Close box
Stage
Divide
Metal Detect
Cut Paper
Package
Freezer to Ship
Figure 1 - Operational Breakdown Diagram
Now that the team had a basic understanding of the system, it was very important to understand what objectives
the customer was interested in accomplishing with this project. In connection with these customer needs, a Risk
Assessment was conducted to identify any potential risk in the project at any stage. If any of those risks were to be
activated, a predefined mitigation plan would be implemented to deal with the problem.
From the Customer Needs and Risk Assessment, the Engineering Requirements were developed (see Figure 2).
This document laid out the connection between the Customer Needs, what metrics control those customer needs, the
measures of performance for those metrics, and the potential risk related to these elements through every phase of
the project. This information would be the centerfold of the project and basis for connecting the current state of the
system to the goals or target state of the system. Then identifying the gap between these two entities would help
derive potential improvements to reach that desired outcome.
Project P14712 – WEGMANS FROZEN COOKIE CAPACITY IMPROVEMENT PROJECT
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Proceedings of the Multi-Disciplinary Senior Design Conference
Engineering Metrics
Score
Engineering Requirement
Measure of Performance
27
18
36
72
57
Food safety risks
Ergonomic impacts
Quality impacts
Throughput
Characterization of all process steps
Manufacturing Manager, Bakeshop
Production Area Manager,
Manufacturing Engineer, Line Team
Leader and Production Line Workers
agree with proposed solutions.
Implemented solutions are consistent
across crews and shifts.
Rate of occurences
Ergonomic Study, Before/After
Rate of occurences
Production efficiency percentage
Variability and production efficiency percentage
21
18
27
39
Marginal
Ideal Value
Value
0
0
0
0
0
0
100% +/- 0% 90% +/- 10%
100%
85%
Evaluation checklist
Binary (yes/no)
Tools that make system run smoothly. Current vs. Future productivity rate
Sustainable solution methods.
Evaluation checklist
All agree
All agree
Yes
Yes
20% inc mixer 10% inc mixer
10% inc divider 5% inc divider
All agree
All agree
Figure 2 - Engineering Requirements
With the team recording and analyzing numerous observations, it didn’t take long to categorize the mixing
process as a labor-paced operation. The team noted that the mixing machine would remain idle for much of the total
cycle, while the mixer operator completed the necessary tasks to get the machine up and running again. To this
point, the information gathered confirmed that the mixer was the primary bottleneck in the production line as
originally assumed.
During the observation phase, the team was able to start brainstorming high level system based solutions to
some of the problems that were being identified. These solutions would then be honed in as more data was collected
or analyzed, a process that would eventually work out the fine details leading to its conclusion. For some portions of
the design, solutions seemed readily available and success was in sight. However, at this portion of the project, the
system was revealing data to the team that uncovered a few fundamental constraints that presented new challenges.
These challenges could most easily be described as external factors on the system. As shown above in Figure 1,
two of the major steps in frozen cookie production are the mixing and blast freezer steps. The mixer is shared with
the commercial cookie production line, while the blast freezer and subsequent operations are shared with other
production lines such as frozen cakes, muffins, and doughnuts. Another constraint that complicates the situation is
the fact that all the process steps between dividing and packaging have to be completed with continuous flow. In
other words, if the cookies are processed through the dividing step, they have to complete the other operations
through packaging, as they are interconnected by a conveyor. If you note the constraints of the system and now take
into account that the frozen cookie production line is a lower priority production line than that of which it shares
resources with, the challenge in solving problems related to production capacity becomes evident.
Despite these constraints and new challenges, the team was now reaching a point in which improvement ideas
and concepts were developed in detail. In a matter of weeks, high level generic concepts were expanded into various
sub concepts and principles. The breakdown of these different concepts is illustrated in Figures 3 and 4, below. In
Figure 3, the System Level Concept Selection describes the initial high level concepts that were developed.
Copyright © 2014 Rochester Institute of Technology
Proceedings of the Multidisciplinary Senior Design Conference
Concept Name
Limited Resources Concept
Buy a new mixer
Buy an automatic scaler
Buy new commercial cookies troughs
Machine
Buy new frozen cookies troughs
Modify frozen cookies troughs
Fix frozen cookies troughs
Use mixers from other lines/processes
Add additional workers
Man Power
Cross-train employees
Increase storage area next to the scaling station
Material
Modify where ingredients are stored
Modify scaling procedures to be more ergonomic
Modify mixing procedure to be more ergonomic
Mixing same types of commercial and frozen
cookie dough at the same time
Implement lifting assistance for scaling/mixing
procedures
Create work instructions for line procedures
Methods/Procedures
Improve ergonomics on the transportation of
prescaling ingredients
Scheduling/communication board to display daily
planned schedule
Implement visual aids to promote trough
organization
Modify production line layout
Set a standard schedule for ingredient
preparation
Set a standard schedule for Pre-Scaling
Set a standard schedule for Mixing
Set a standard schedule for Machine Setups
Set a standard schedule for sanitation
Scheduling
Start frozen cookie prescaling earlier in the day
Start commercial cookie mixing earlier
Schedule cookies to make in large quantity
batches/less setups
Mix dough the day before
Modify employees' schedule (±1 hr)
Simulation
New Mixer Concept
New Trough Concept
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Quick Fix Concept
Sustainable Concept
Shared Stations Across Lines
Concept
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Figure 3 - System Level Concept Selection
In Figure 4, the Detailed Design Concept Selection describes the original high level concepts evolved into more
specific and implementable improvement activities. This concept evolution primarily involved analyzing the
feasibility of the concepts, feedback from Wegmans management, and continued process observation. These
activities could then be implemented based on their respective priority to the overall project and the customer.
%
Sequence
Reduction
Cycle
Time
Scaling Process Improvement
Prescaling
process time
(min)
Additional
Available Time
for Mixing
(min)
Additional
Available
Time for
# Cases
Other metrics
Dividing
(min)
1
Add labels to pre-scaled ingredients
Improve communication
eliminate errors
Modify cookies recipes format
5
Eliminate errors
Checklist of whether ingredients are there before starting a batch
40
Improve communication
Mixing Prep Activities
4
Have all boxes opened before being placed beside the mixer
10
5/batch
7/batch
Scale liquids (eggs, vanilla) ahead then store in pie room
10
5/batch
7/batch
Standardize material handling roles
-30
20
36
Mixing Clean Up Kaizen
2
Have mixer operator do sanitation on mixer
Break down ingredient boxes after all mixing is complete
Dividing Process Kaizen
3
Operations Management
7
Labor Management Improvement
6
Waste Reduction through Standard Work
5
10-25
18-45
2-4/batch
4-7/batch
TBD
Increase communication
Increase communication
15-30
15-30
27-54
5-15
Figure 4 - Detailed Design Concept Selection
RESULTS
After many hours of observation, analysis, and customer feedback, the project was ready to move into the
implementation phase. At the beginning of this phase, one fundamental problem stood in the way of a more efficient
production system. The problem was there was no evidence in why there was a daily variance between the daily
Project P14712 – WEGMANS FROZEN COOKIE CAPACITY IMPROVEMENT PROJECT
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Proceedings of the Multi-Disciplinary Senior Design Conference
production plan and the actual production output. To complement this problem, almost every step in the
implementation phase would stride to close this gap.
In an attempt to get the implementation phase off to a strong start, the team, along with Wegmans, decided to
implement fast and effective improvements first; an approach that would allow the improvement plan to have the
flexibility and resources needed for its completion. With these things in mind, the team started with implementing a
time entry sheet for the mixer operator, as well as a weight checklist for the dividing process. The mixer time entry
sheet would allow the team to continue to collect and analyze data that would be utilized through the entire project.
The divider weight checklist would give traceability and evidence that the dividing process was being executed to
process specifications. This was an element to the process that previously came in question by the team leaders.
Despite attempts to get the implementation phase off to a strong start, the team faced many obstacles that
previously had little emphasis or weren't identified. These obstacles would not only require more data collection
and analysis, but also cause changes to the implementation plan and improvement projects themselves. There were
some moderate delays in getting the Mixer Operator Time Sheet implemented on the floor. After training the
commercial and frozen mixer operators on how to use the form, there was a delay in making sure the form was
available to the early morning operators. Sanitation workers were also asked to fill out portions of the form to
understand how their sanitation processes affected the deviations from the planned schedule of the mixer. After the
form was on the floor, not all of the operators properly filled out the form, so an auditing plan was communicated to
the team leaders to make sure that the operators were filling in the information correctly.
Five different improvement projects were accepted by Wegmans management for implementation: Operations
Management, Mixer Worker Justification Project, Sanitation Kaizen, Standard Work, and the Recipe Modification
Project. In the following section each improvement project will be explained.
The Operations Management project involved generating a floor schedule with the goal of accurately describing
the flow of different cookie varieties through the system. This commercial and frozen cookies schedule was
developed based on the information collected during time studies and analysis from the data sheets that the mixer
operator fills out. A scheduling program was developed using Visual Basic for Applications in Microsoft Excel that
allows a team leader to create an operations schedule based off of the quantity of cookies planned by the scheduling
department. An example is shown in Figure 5 of the input screen that the team leader uses when creating a schedule
using the tool. In order to make this tool useful, the schedule is being tested on the floor to track planned vs. actual
production by using the Mixer Operator Time Sheet. This sheet can help to validate the cycle time for each of the
different cookie varieties, sanitation washdowns, and changeover times between different cookie varieties. In
addition, this sheet can also be used to track abnormal downtime and to facilitate the identification of root causes for
these abnormalities. Mixer operators are responsible for filling out this sheet daily and team leaders are responsible
for assuring the sheet is filled out correctly throughout the day. In order to ensure compliance, a daily audit should
be performed by management that the sheets are filled out correctly and a weekly analysis should be conducted by
management to track schedule deviations and to identify any discrepancies that may require further root cause
analysis.
Sequence
Batches Batch Size
Com - Iced Decorated Shortbread
1 Double
Com - Mini Chocolate Chip
4 Double
Com - Mini Chocolate Chip
1 Single
Com - Mega Chunk - Chocolate/Chocolate Chip
2 Double
Com - Mega Chunk - Chocolate/Chocolate Chip
1 Single
Com - Mega Chunk - Chocolate/Pecan
1 Double
Sanitation (During Dividing)
Com - Mega Chunk White Chocolate/Toffee
1 1.5
Sanitation
Frz - Cherry Alm wg Cookie
6 Frozen
Cases/Batch
550
521
521
660
660
660
0
676
0
55.7
START TIME
DATE
4:00 AM
4/25/2014
Create Schedule
Figure 5 - Scheduling Tool Input Screen
Ultimately, the results obtained from the use of this schedule should be reflected in the weekly production
schedule currently distributed to the line. This schedule is generated by the scheduling staff and is based off
inventory planning. Once all numbers have been validated, the team recommends that this data is inputted into
Wegmans’s scheduling system, which will result in better planning, a more integrated system, and ensure clear
expectations for production.
Another step in the Operations Management project was to incorporate the changeover time into the schedule.
The team worked with the operators in the dividing steps to complete a changeover matrix for both the frozen and
commercial cookies. The Frozen Cookie Divider Changeover Matrix (see Figure 6) would be implemented by the
scheduling staff into their schedule. This would allow for changeover between different cookie varieties and
different types of dividing machines to be taken into account in production scheduling. A similar dividing
changeover matrix for commercial cookies would be incorporated into the Scheduling Tool described above. This
Copyright © 2014 Rochester Institute of Technology
Proceedings of the Multidisciplinary Senior Design Conference
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matrix would be used to illustrate the availability of the peerless mixing machine (shared by both frozen and
commercial cookies), as the machine could only be emptied when the commercial trough used in the dividing
process was available.
To
Cookie Cookie
Pucks- Pucks-No
W/Nuts
Nuts
Product
From
Machine
Cookie PucksW/Nuts
Cookie PucksNo Nuts
Frz Choc Chip
Cooky
TO BE DISCD
ULT Choc Chip
Sheets
NEW
Frz Ult ChChp
Cooki 1.1oz
Frz Ult ChChp
Nuts 1.1oz
Frz Chc Chc
Chunk Cky 1.1
Frz Oatmeal
Raisin 1.1oz
Frz Pnut Btr
Cookie 1.1oz
Frz 1.1 Coconut
Macaroon
Frz
Snickerdoodle
Pucks
Frz Meltaway
Cookie
Frz Sugar Cut
Out Circles
Frz Sugar sheet
cut out
Frz Choc
ULT Choc
Chip
Chip
Cooky
Sheets
TO BE
NEW
DISCD
Frz Ult
ChChp
Cooki
1.1oz
Frz Ult
ChChp
Nuts
1.1oz
Frz Chc
Chc
Chunk
Cky 1.1
Frz
Frz Pnut Frz 1.1
Frz
Frz
Frz Sugar Frz Sugar Rectangl
Oatmeal
Btr
Coconut Snickerd
Meltawa Cut Out sheet cut e Breton
Raisin
Cookie Macaroo oodle
y Cookie Circles
out
Dough
1.1oz
1.1oz
n
Pucks
Square
Breton
Dough
Frz
Wg
Wg
Gingerbr
Chocolat
Oatmeal
Cherry
ead cut
e Hazel
& Fruit
Almond
out
'Nuttin
Cookie
sheets
Cookie
Frz Tree
Breton
Dough
Rustic
Fruit
Vemag + Vemag + Vemag +
Water
Water
Hand
Wheel
Wheel
Press
Vemag
Vemag
W/U
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U
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Square Breton
Water
Dough
Wheel
Vemag +
Frz Tree Breton
Hand
Dough
Press
Rustic Fruit
Vemag
Rectangle
Breton Dough
Frz Gingerbread Vemag
cut out sheets
Wg Oatmeal &
Unifiller
Fruit Cookie
Wg Chocolate
Hazel 'Nuttin Unifiller
Cookie
Cherry Almond Unifiller
Figure 6 - Frozen Cookie Dividing Changeover Matrix
The Mixer Worker Justification project started with a complete characterization of all the tasks required to
complete the various mixing recipes. The team completed data analysis on a series of observations to justify the use
of a second mixer operator or assistant. The ultimate goal of this project was to synchronize the mixer process time
with that of the divider, providing the groundwork for a more efficient system.
Similarly to the schedule, cycle times of one vs. two operators should be validated. For each of the high volume
cookies, a detailed analysis needs to be performed to determine if the change in cycle time has a significant impact
on the production yield and if this change is cost effective. If so, two workers should become the standard and cycle
times should be updated in the system.
In a cost analysis for one vs two mixer operators it was found that certain cookie types benefited greatly from
having two operators. For example, the Sub Shop and Sub Shop with Nuts cookie varieties were found to have a
50% and 87% production increase, respectively, when two mixer operators were used. The team also believes that
the same principle can be applied to the new whole grain type cookies, due to the fact that they share many of the
same characteristics of the Sub Shop cookies.
The Sanitation Kaizen was implemented within many of the other improvement projects. It was determined that
the sanitation operators could work on a schedule. The mixer schedule discussed above includes sanitation times and
is sent to the sanitation manger every morning. If the schedule is updated throughout the day, the mixer operator will
call sanitation at least an hour ahead of the time needed. The sanitation employee is then aware of what time they
will be needed and are able to show up on time. The sanitation operator will also fill out a section on the Mixer
Operator Time Sheet to show when they arrived and how long their operation took. From this sheet, more accurate
expectations of when sanitation will be needed at the mixer station can be estimated, and the schedule can be
updated with these new estimates.
Project P14712 – WEGMANS FROZEN COOKIE CAPACITY IMPROVEMENT PROJECT
Proceedings of the Multi-Disciplinary Senior Design Conference
Page 7
Standard Work consisted of creating a set of instructions for mixing the top volume cookies. This improvement
project included identifying best practices for the mixing process and average cycle times for one and two mixer
operators. Based on floor observations and video analysis, the mixing process was broken down into a number of
job elements with an associated task duration. The main goal of standardizing this process was to improve cycle
times and facilitate training for new mixing operators. The standard work sheets were approved by management and
will be implemented on the frozen cookie production line. In order to sustain this improvement, the team leaders
should keep the process cycle times up-to-date, work instructions should be created for the other frozen cookie
varieties, and a feedback mechanism should be created to foster future improvements identified by the mixer
operators.
The Recipe Modification Project involved reducing possible error in calculations made by the mixer operator
and to speed up the process of identifying the quantity of ingredients needed from the cookie recipe. After talking to
mixer operators and from team observations, it was noted that there was an easy improvement in the pre-scaling
step. On the cookie recipe, the ingredient quantity is given in pounds and the operator must calculate how many full
bags must be used and how much must be measured out separately. Therefore, the operator must use their calculator
to measure the number of bags they must use. In order to eliminate this step, the team updated all frozen cookie
recipes to include a full bags column and a partial pounds column. These modifications were approved by
management and all mixer operators agreed that this change would help in training and speed up the pre-scaling
process. However, due to a need to maintain one standard throughout the facility, this change would only be possible
if all the recipes in the Bake Shop were updated to include these two columns. There would also be a high risk of a
failed audit check, as ingredients could come in a different sized container and the recipe may not reflect this
change. A system of checks was suggested as to who would be notified if the ingredient bag size changed.
CONCLUSIONS
Throughout this project, it was determined that the first step in improving any physical process is to completely
understand the current state of the system. This analysis needs to be done through observations, data collection, and
operator input. Documenting what happens on the floor helps identify the root causes to issues in production and
determining the existing gaps between the current state of the system and the target state. Even though the initial
project scope aimed to close this gap, the lack of data at the beginning modified the project scope. The main goal of
the project did not change as the customer is ultimately looking to increase production capacity. However, the team
determined that this goal could not be achieved because of the lack of understanding of the system. From the
original proposed solutions (Figure 3), five major improvement areas were selected by the customer.
The major accomplishments of this project include a better understanding of the current state of the production
line by utilizing tools that facilitate the documentation and comparison of planned production and actual production.
The two mixer operator project served as a successful argument that the bottleneck at the mixer can be relieved
given a small adjustment in resources and development of standard work. The two worker analysis will become
useful when the frozen cookie production line has more considerable time constraints in the winter holiday season.
This project serves as a testament of the value that standard work can add to a system in understanding the expected
cycle time and holding workers accountable for the work content they are expected to complete.
The other process improvements stand as a bedrock for future improvement opportunities on the line. The tools
provided give management the opportunity to see problems in the production line through not only data analysis, but
by utilizing the standard work of the process. Standard work allows management to ensure that workers are being
trained properly to follow the best practices, that the best practices really are illustrated in the standard work
documentation, and that the standard work is being followed. A lasting impact that project has on the line is defining
the current state of the system. Before the team observed the process, many of the process and changeover times for
the frozen cookie varieties were incorrect or not documented. The team has properly defined the features of the
current state of the system so that management can move forward in accomplishing further improvement projects to
increase capacity of the frozen cookie production line and reduce the variability that other production lines inflict on
the line.
The team learned a few valuable lessons about managing a project with process improvement activities. First,
the team found the best way to evaluate a system is by going directly to the floor where the job is being performed.
Also, it is important to maintain constant communication with the customer. This communication facilitates
planning and implementation, as well as avoids any misinterpretation of facts or details by always keeping everyone
on the same page. One of the most important lessons learned was understanding the importance of having
contingency plans for delays and other changes in the project such as scope creep. For service projects such as this
one, it is important to define the current state of the system before determining the project scope.
Other lessons learned include identifying the correct customer for each of the different project deliverables in
order to ensure that improvements are supported by the responsible party and that sustainable solutions are
developed. Determining these customers should happen during a kick-off meeting hosted by Wegmans, where the
RIT team has the opportunity to meet all people involved in the project, including both engineering and operations
Copyright © 2014 Rochester Institute of Technology
Proceedings of the Multidisciplinary Senior Design Conference
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support such as the production supervisor and team leaders. In addition, a responsibility matrix should be created in
order to facilitate communication throughout the project.
In the course of the project, a number of improvement opportunities outside of the scope of the project were
identified. One of these recommendations is to link finished goods inventory to an operations scorecard. The frozen
cookie inventory is held in warehouses outside of the Wegmans Bake Shop facility. This inventory can dissipate or
build without being communicated directly to those manufacturing the product. A recommendation would be to
include inventory in the scorecard of the production managers to extend accountability for the finished goods
inventory to Operations. Another recommendation is to extend the Recipe Modification Project to the scope of all of
the recipes in the facility. A simple solution to mistake proofing the calculation of ingredients throughout the facility
is to already have the table of calculations included in the standard work at each step. Extending the Sanitation
Kaizen to performing analysis on the variability associated with the sanitation at the mixing and dividing machines.
Analysis would have to be conducted on what the root causes are for delays in the sanitation workers arriving to the
work and an understanding for the variability in the sanitation processes. One noted gap is the ability to reduce the
large variability that exists in the sanitation process of cleaning the dividing machine and its conveyor. As a final
recommendation, the team has provided sustainment ideas for each improvement activity. The team emphasizes the
importance of sustainment, as all the proposed solutions require continuous effort from operators, team leaders, and
management in order to make meaningful and lasting changes.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We would like to thank Wegmans Bakeshop for their support in completing this project, especially Jose
Guzman, Mike Least, Bill Holden, Dave Schneider, and the employees of the Frozen Cookie production line. We
would also like to thank our wonderful guide, Professor John Kaemmerlen for his continued encouragement and
wisdom.
Project P14712 – WEGMANS FROZEN COOKIE CAPACITY IMPROVEMENT PROJECT