Question

Case Study, Caterix Foods

Caterix Foods manufactures and supplies catering ingredients for the food service industry. Caterix has enjoyed a very successful level of growth. Successful operation of the food manufacturing production hall is intrinsic to their success. Caterix Foods has recently won a contract to manufacture and supply the ‘special ingredient’ used in all toppings for the Plucky Chicken fast food chain.

Facts about the production operations:

• Topping is a mixture of 17 dry ingredients, 10 of which are quite generic and make up 70 per cent of the product.

• The topping is created by mixing the raw ingredients in bulk quantities using a large industrial food mixer called the 'Whizzer'.

• The Whizzer has a max capacity of 20 cubic metres (with a maximum weight of 550 kg).

• The mixing process takes 24 hours. • The bulk of the mixture is transferred to a giant hopper and stored in a climate and temperature controlled food processing area.

• Other ingredients have to be added to the resting mixture in smaller quantities of 55 kg (this include 38.5 kg of generic ingredients and 16.5 kg of secret recipe mix).

• The second round of mixing occurs in another industrial sized mixer, 'Thermamax', that has been preheated to 30 degrees.

• Each batch has to be processed in the Thermamax for 2 hours.

• The secret mixture consists of 7 unique ingredients that are carefully weighed and added by the production staff as specified in the standard operating procedure.

• The processed mixture will be transferred from the Thermamax into drums of 55 kg and allowed to be cured for 3 days in a special cool room. This process encourages the infusion of the flavours from the various ingredients.

• The cured mixture has to undergo a QC test prior to packaging

. • Packaging involves the packing of the cured mixture into 5 kg boxes in the packing hall and has to occur within seven days of the manufacture.

• The packaging has to feature the batch number, the date and time of manufacture and the Plucky Chicken brand. Packaging materials such as stickers are supplied by Plucky Chicken.

• A streamlined automated packing line prints the labels in real time. The batch number is created locally and printed on labels that are recorded in the Caterix Foods warehousing management system.

• Changeover from one product to another – clean down and set up takes a maximum of 30 mins.

The contract with Plucky Chicken is an important account for Caterix Foods but the introduction of this mixture into its production operations means more complexities. Based on existing manufacturing requirements, it has been determined that the production facility can only schedule one batch of generic mixture per week for the Whizzer. Current production schedule indicates that there is a lull period of three hours per day that has not been capitalised by the business. This meant that the consolidation of the three hours across the days in a week should allow for at least one batch of special ingredient mixture to be produced.

Following questions about the case study as part of the grade:

1. Sketch up an indicative production plan cycle for this product using knowledge gained in this subject. This should feature each step in the manufacture of this process (you may assume all raw materials are already in stock) such that you can calculate when the first pallet of 40 boxes of stock can be shipped to Plucky Chicken.

2. Write a brief for the Quality Manager detailing the new requirements for her team in terms of training and specialist product knowledge, including making suggestions for ongoing process improvement.

3. Draw a workflow diagram for the production process for each batch from the Thermamax through to the Final Packaging stage, which should feature the location and activity throughout.

Answer 1

1.

Production Plan:
Assuming all the raw materials are in stock:
Day 1: All 10 generic raw materials are mixed well in the industrial food mixer 'Whizzer' which has a capacity of 550kg of ingredients, the mixing process takes place for 24 hours.

Day 2: The mixture is transferred to giant hopper and stored in a climate and temperature controlled food processing area where the other 7 secret ingredients are added.

The mixture, divided into 55kg equal proportions (38.5 kg of generic ingredients and 16.5 kg of secret recipe mix), is then put in another industrial sized mixture, 'Thermamax' which has been preheated to 30 degrees. Each batch of 55kg ingredients is processed for 2 hours, which totally amounts for 20 hours.

Day 3, 4, 5: The processed mixture from Thermamax is trandferred to 55kg drums and allowed to be cured for 3 days in a special cool room, to infuse the ingredients together.

Day 6: QC test of the mixture and then it goes through the packaging. Mixture is packed into 5kg boxes.

Pallet of 40 boxes would amount to: 40*5 kg = 200kg.
As the Whizzer has the capacity of 550kg, we can easily send First pallet of 40 boxes of 5kg capacity on the 6th day of the initiation of the process.

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2. The following suggestions will be made to the Quality Manager with the addition of the new line of product, i.e., production of 'special ingredient' for Plucky Chicken.

a. The industrial food mixer, 'Whizzer' and 'Thermamax' must be utilized to their fullest capacity. Considering the Whizzer needs 24 hours to mix the generic ingredients, and considering the fact there is a lull period of 3 hours every day, the Quality Manager must ensure, the Whizzer must be cleaned and prepared (30 minutes) and be ready to take on the next product thereby utilizing 2 hrs 30 minutes of lull period into productivity. If this happens, then the 2nd batch of ingredients can be produced for Plucky Chicken on the 7th day of every week.

b. There should be atleast couple of days difference from the production of batch 1 and batch 2 of the special ingredients because otherwise, there is a chance of mixing the product that was produced earlier and a freshly prepared product. The gap of couple of days will make the packaging machine to print labels with different dates which will help us ship out the batch 1 and then the batch 2.

c. As Caterix Foods will also be associated with other food products production, there has to be a specific team allotted for taking care of the Quality monitoring of Plucky Chicken special ingredient production. This will ensure the QC's that are trained on this product will ensure the quality is maintained and no time is wasted in the production. People working on multiple products has a chance of jumbling the procedures or skip them by mistake.

d. Special training to be given on Plucky Ckicken production - on both generic ingredients and special ingredients, with a potential training from the Client on the expectations they have.