Baking & Snack - February 2008 - 62

MAINTENANCE

new technology allows companies
nies
to get immediate feedback about
out
Downtime is any time that a manufacturing plant is idle and not
how lines are performing, according
ing
producing product. It impacts operation schedules and influences
to Mr. Hipenbecker. "Data acquisiisiefficiencies. Downtime usually has negative connotations, but some
tion and supervisory control and
downtime is necessary.
data acquisition (SCADA) systems
ms
In the baking industry, there are three main causes for downtime:
have gotten to the point where we
machine downtime, operational downtime and changeover time.
now know on a real-time basis how
ow
Machine downtime is unplanned and occurs when an equipment
things are performing, and they
hey
malfunction prevents the line from meeting its operating schedule.
give us the tracking to go back and
"Typical ranges for machine downtime are 1 to 2% depending on the
determine what are our biggest
gest
complexity of the manufacturing process," said Dermot O'Connor,
sources of downtime without relyelyvice-president of engineering and environmental affairs, Bimbo
ing on operators or mechanics to
Bakeries USA, Montebello, CA.
write everything down," he said.
Operational downtime, in which issues with product or personnel
The goal of the company's mainincauses a line to be idle, generally ranges from 2 to 3%, and it also is
tenance program is to be more prorounscheduled, Mr. O'Connor explained.
active and less reactive. Mr. HipenenLastly, changeovers, which are scheduled, can take away the greatbecker added, "We are now planning
ing
est production time in plants, according to Mr. O'Connor. Changeover
and scheduling maintenance as
times can take from 5% of total production time to as much as 25%
opposed to just reacting to it."
on lines producing many different products. "Such variety production
Because Kroger's bakeries are follines can have as many as 20 changeovers on a daily basis," he said.
lowing maintenance schedules, he
"Changeovers are often required to facilitate compliance with
said the company's production effi
ffiregulatory requirements associated with food safety."
ciencies have increased. "Our equipipment today is more reliable than
n it
was a few years ago, and our efficiencies are higher than
they have been because once our lines are up and going,
they stay up and going," Mr. Hipenbecker explained.
"We are not constantly reacting to breakdowns or to
failures in the system."
Kroger's bakery group instituted its current maintenance program, which is known simply as "maintenance excellence," approximately 10 years ago, and
it has continued to evolve. The skill sets required for
mechanics and maintenance technicians have changed
dramatically in the past 10 years, according to Mr.
Hipenbecker. "We are moving away from the traditional mechanical systems toward more electronics
and servo controls, so the whole electrical arena is
moving quickly," he said.
As knowledge requirements changed, the company
had to ensure its mechanics were trained on the new
technology. "This can be a huge undertaking, but it is a
commitment the company has to have in order to have
an effective maintenance department and maintenance
program," Mr. Hipenbecker said.
Mr. McGinty, who has taught maintenance courses at ᮡ A maintenance engineer at AIB International works on the burner
AIBI for nearly a quarter of a century, has witnessed ma- assemblies for an band oven used to bake cookies and crackers.
jor changes in bakery mechanics since he started working AIB INTERNATIONAL
in the industry. "You used to have the guy with the mon- HIGH TECH. Recalling the first Maintenance Engineerkey wrench and the oil can oiling the chain, and now you ing 11-week resident course he taught back in 1984, Mr.
have automatic chain oilers so you have to have people to McGinty said that only one of 24 students in that class,
keep this automated equipment running," he said. "It is a which was class No. 4, had ever heard of a programmable
totally different skill set."
controller. But he said that student didn't know what it

Dealing with Downtime

BAKING & SNACK / February 2008

Baking & Snack - February 2008

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