An ideal baking recipe for Bäcker Peter

Context

Given the fact that the company continues to grow, the ambitious fourth generation - and the fifth under way - decided to adjust its central backing facility in Essen to meet modern standards, this way ensuring the company’s future.

By talking to and visiting his colleagues, the current CEO Klaus Peter, had seen and heard nothing but positive things about Spiromatic and decided to give them a call. Eventually, Spiromatic was chosen to handle the factory renewal, based on their vast experience in the food industry and their customer-focused and tailor-made approach.

Challenge

Although the Bäcker Peter office building boasts a contemporary modern design, the production facility could definitely use a thorough facelift.

For their ingredient storage, the company was still using Trevira silos, which have a lot of disadvantages:

• They are very dusty
• They are not ATEX-conform
• They are not CE-conform.

Moreover, for their ingredient transport the company relied on old pneumatic transport, which is:

• Far from ideal in terms of weighing accuracy
• Very noisy because of the blower
• Not in line with the latest dedusting and hygiene requirements.

And finally, the weighing at the Bäcker Peter production facility was done manually and mechanically, not automated.

Solution

By talking to the company’s management, Spiromatic got a good understanding of where the company wanted to go and based on that input, the Spiromatic engineers developed a new lay-out for the production facility. In this new plan, the engineers had tried to integrate as much as possible the existing machinery that was still up to standards (such as the weighing bunkers), which was very much appreciated by the Bäcker Peter management.

Nevertheless, the new lay-out also comprised the installation of:

• 3 new composite silos of 30 tons each for ingredient storage. Contrary to before, these silos were installed outside the building and therefor needed to blend in as much as possible with the building and environment. To ensure this, the silos were painted in a colour equal to the building’s and moreover a sleeved roof was put on top of the silos, hiding the railing underneath.
• A new spiral transport, replacing the old pneumatic transport. As a result there is no more queuing of ingredients in the transport line and batches can be prepared 3 times faster.
• The current transport line can be extended with an extra tapping point, without loss of pressure or speed on the other 3 tapping points. This way, the company is ready in case of a line extension.
• A Siemens automation platform, which perfectly communicated with their existing COBAS Backplan central ordering and backing programme. As a result, you now get automated dosing in the pre-dough and sour-dough tanks.

Results

The new baking facility is up and running and has numerous advantages:

• Optimal dust-free storage and conveying of all ingredients
• Less noise, less energy consumption and more accurate dosing
• Recipe control, with very accurate mixing and dosing
• Constant quality and speed
• Traceability thanks to the automation system