Pepperidge Farm’S New $72 Million, 265,000-Sq-Ft Plant at Bloomfield, Conn., Streamlines Manufacturing to Drive Down Costs

Now, That’s A Bakery! Pepperidge Farm’s new $72 million, 265,000-sq-ft plant at Bloomfield, Conn., streamlines manufacturing to drive down costs.

BY LAURIE GORTON ight on time, Pepperidge Farms’ eight types of rolls, 11 varieties of a new approach to the company’s newest facility baked its first croutons and nine styles of stuffing. signature dual-wrap package: flow- loaf of bread on May 1. Con- It covers 265,000 sq ft on 42 acres of wrapping. Innovative fuel cell tech- R struction started just 12 months a former tobacco field north of Hart- nology makes the new bakery less earlier, and nothing stopped progress ford, Conn., and represents a capital vulnerable to utility cost spikes. during construction, installation and investment of $72 million. “Bloomfield has the technology commissioning of the Bloomfield, to keep things simple and, by design, Conn., bakery. Not a financial crisis SIMPLE AND ADVANCED. “As our operates more cleanly and more at a key vendor. Not even the winter’s plants go, this is a relatively simple safely,” stated Richard A. Ferguson, record 82 in. of snow. one, especially in contrast with the senior vice-president, operations, “We never hit a bump,” said R. mega-plant at Denver, Pa.,” said Pepperidge Farm, Norwalk, Conn. Glenn Wright, project manager for Dean Moll, vice-president, manu- The new facility, which serves the the Bloomfield plant. facturing, bakery/frozen, Pepperidge New England and Middle Atlantic Preparing a new plant is no easy Farm, Norwalk, Conn. regions, houses four major lines. task, especially when it replaces the Bloomfield is a baker’s bakery, en- Bread line No. 1 produces the com- headquarters facility that serves the gineered to drive out costs through pany’s signature Swirl bread at the company’s original and still biggest automation and state-of-the-art rate of 160 loaves per minute. Bread market. Through phase-out of Pep- controls. For this fresh bakery plant, line No. 2 bakes pan bread, also run- peridge Farm’s Norwalk plant and Pepperidge Farm returned to con- ning 160 loaves per minute. Line No. startup of Bloomfield, 75 miles to ventional horizontal mixing, and 3, rated at 800 rolls per minute, is be- the north, customers never saw a baking takes place in conventional ing designed to act as a combination glitch, thanks to the company’s plan- tunnel ovens. But engineers packed line, capable of baking either buns or ning process that gave a single con- in plenty of new technology as well. bread. It is targeted for completion struction and manufacturing team It uses an integrated formula control, late this year and in time for 2004’s responsibility for both facilities. a new-design brew system and man- bun season. The plant’s fourth line Bloomfield is the third “greenfield” ages pans robotically. Its new genera- outputs stuffing and croutons, rated plant built by Pepperidge Farm in tion proofers feed the longest bread at 10,000 lb per hour. the past 15 years. When the bun line and bun ovens yet installed compa- comes onstream early next year, the nywide. There’s a first-of-its-kind TEAM APPROACH. At 54 years old, bakery will make 32 sorts of bread, triple-lane Swirl bread system and the Norwalk bakery was the oldest in

30 / BAKING & SNACK / December 2003 December 2003 / BAKING & SNACK / 31 the Pepperidge Farm system. Despite decision, however, went to building installation. The product transition upgrades, its lines relied heavily on a new greenfield bakery. “Our target team provided product contingency manual methods, and the multistory areas included New York and New planning. The people transition layout was not compatible with the Jersey as well as Connecticut,” he team managed training, employee new automated technology responsi- said. In all, more than 60 sites were communications plans and hiring. ble for the big gains in productivity at considered, with Bloomfield earning And the startup and commission- the company’s other bakeries. Faced the nod. It offered not only good ing team was responsible for startup with deteriorating infrastructure and transport access and future expansion coordination planning with vendors, potential safety issues, management capabilities but also was just 75 miles as well as R&D, QA, engineering and reluctantly made the decision to re- away from Norwalk, the old plant and plant operations. place the bakery. the company’s headquarters offices. Pepperidge Farm also benefited David Watson, vice-president of Mr. Moll and his staff put together from the expertise of outside sources corporate engineering, described the startup teams, taking a cross- it chose for the bakery. The Facility how Pepperidge Farm evaluated the functional approach that blended Group, Smyrna, Ga., took care of pre- existing facility and considered co- engineering, formulation, person- liminary engineering design services packing and retrofitting options. The nel, installation and production and final engineering services for the skills. Four teams were created. The base building, and it used Suitt Con-  New tunnel ovens, the longest yet installed engineering team was tasked with struction, Greenville, S.C., for con- by Pepperidge Farm in a fresh bakery, can bake building and process design plus struction services for the base building. 160 loaves of pan bread per minute. DAN PEARCE PHOTOGRAPHY facility construction and equipment The Dennis Group, Springfield, Mass., assisted with control system integra- tion services, and The Henry Group, Greenville, Texas, managed bakery equipment installation services.

CRITICAL DATES. The bakery was fast-tracked. Pepperidge Farm an- nounced plans for the new site in October 2001, and by February 2002, all equipment had been ordered. The company closed on the Bloomfield site April 30, 2002. Construction started the next day. “The plant went up very quickly and was under roof by October, right before the bad weather set in,” Mr. Ferguson said. “And we hit all our construction and process milestones.” Installation of processing equipment took place during the winter months. “At one point, we had 270 people on site doing construction and equipment installation,” said Mr. Wright. “The building proceeded from ingredient handling through packaging. The silos were the first to come in, then the mixers and the oven room. The severe winter of 2002 was a big challenge, but the contractors and vendors handled it well. In all, Mr. Wright described the new bakery as a “fantastic team effort.” The first bread line started up in May, followed by line No. 2 in June, “as scheduled,” according to Mr.

30 / BAKING & SNACK / December 2003 December 2003 / BAKING & SNACK / 31 area, and we were able to accomplish our quality and service goals in a very short period of time.” The third aspect of the project, Mr. Moll observed, was commitment to corporate goals. “We knew we had to be fast on the uptake here,” he explained. “This is our No. 1 service area, from the standpoint of history as well as product. We had to provide top-notch service during a growth quarter for our company.” “The Norwalk bakery had three bread lines, and here there are only two,” observed Bill Livingstone, plant manager. “Yet now six months into the new plant, and running two, not three, shifts, we already outpro- duce the old bakery by 25%.”

WALLS AND LAYOUT. As at Lake- land and Denver, plant construction at Bloomfield used precast concrete and an open structure design. All three plants feature straight-line layouts, with ingredients entering at one end and finished product exiting at the other. Expansion can  The recipe management system (RMS) delivers Pepperidge Farm explained skill take place along the northern wall bulk dry and liquid ingredients automatically to requirements for the new bakery because the only piece of critical mixers. to the company’s Norwalk hourly equipment that would have to move DAN PEARCE PHOTOGRAPHY workers. It offered training and is the catalytic oxidizer. skill improvement classes. Mr. Moll Experience with the previous Wright. The crouton line followed described the results: “It’s a point plants prompted improvements for in mid-June. of pride with us that many of our this project, according to Mr. Wright. Pepperidge Farm assembled the people from the oldest plant in our For example, a wide corridor runs Bloomfield management team be- system were able to accept the chal- the length of the plant, isolating of- fore breaking ground for the new lenge of coming to our newest one.” fice areas from the production floor. plant and brought its members into It’s actually there to provide access the Norwalk facility. Plans also called QUALITY START. Because the for forklift trucks so they need not for simultaneous production at both Bloomfield startup was so smooth, move through critical processing locations during an overlap period of Norwalk shut down July 26, earlier zones. Another difference is the five months. To manage both baker- than scheduled. canopy over the ingredient delivery ies, Mr. Moll tapped William (Bill) “We knew we had quality from dock, sheltering this operation dur- Livingstone who started his career day No. 1 at Bloomfield because of ing rainy or inclement weather. at Norwalk before transferring to the system we put in,” Mr. Moll said. Lakeland, Fla. “We ran every SKU and got agree- THE RIGHT MIX. Bloomfield’s bulk “The Bloomfield operations team ment on all of them. flour and minor/micro system, participated as decision makers for “The second hurdle was customer a Shick Tube-Veyor installation, the new facility, what it would look service,” he continued. “By the first consists of six 175,000-lb flour silos like, what speeds it would run, what week of August, we were at 97% on — two for standard patent, two for staffing it would have,” Mr. Ferguson our customer service ratings; in Sep- short patent, one for whole-wheat explained. “Corporately, we laid out tember, it was 98%, and by October, and one for multi use. The flour the plant and then gave the plans to it was 99.5%. And we grew in sales by unloading station employs primary the staff to fine-tune.” 7.5%, too. This is our largest service sifting capable of processing 40,000

32 / BAKING & SNACK / December 2003 December 2003 / BAKING & SNACK / 33 32 / BAKING & SNACK / December 2003 December 2003 / BAKING & SNACK / 33 lb per hour. Entolators and Great the Swirl bread line. It feeds dough 12 different pans, totaling 25,000 in Western Tru-Balance sifters safe- into the Moline three-lane system, a all, supplied by American Pan and guard flour supplies. first-of-its-kind system. Other - Pep stacked within a 3-tier rack. Bakery Six 7,000-lb bins are assigned peridge Farm plants use two-lane engineers laid out a robotic pan stor- to minor ingredients and a dump designs. Bread dough travels along age and handling system using five station supplies them with wheat the makeup line as thick strings to ABB robots. All three lines share the gluten, rye flour, rye meal, rolled be sheeted, coated with flavored same system. Magnetic end effectors oats, granulated sugar and rye sour. toppings and curled before being cut pick up pans, stored upside-down to The design will accommodate a into single-loaf lengths and dropped minimize contact damage, and in- future super-sack system. Because into baking pans. sert or remove them from the system the bakery handles some allergenic Dough for conventional pan at rates up to 33 per minute. The pan ingredients, its layout isolates these breads runs through APV Baker in- system also handles lids. raw materials to a separate hand termediate proofers and is shaped on “This system gives us enormous dump station and sifter. APV Baker straight-grain moulders. labor productivity,” Mr. Ferguson Liquid handling is equally well Buns will be made up on an AMF said, noting that only one operator is automated. Three 10,000-gal bulk Bakery Systems 6-pocket Pan-O- needed to manage all three lines. It also tanks manage supplies of short- Mat. The bun line will include a Bur- materially improves worker safety. ening, corn syrup and canola oil ford pan oiler and pan shaker, while (for seasoning stuffing products). each of the bread lines has a Burford CONVEYORIZED. Two APV Baker Cream yeast stores are handled by a seeder/topper/water splitter. new-generation conveyorized proof- temperature-controlled, recirculat- ers handle bread doughs, the first ing system with two 6,000-gal tanks. PAN ROBOTS. “Pan handling at A new-design brew system, also Bloomfield is substantially different  The liquid brew system at Bloomfield launches from Shick, allows operators to “dial from anything we have elsewhere,” a new technology for the baker and vendor alike. in” the desired flour percentage. At Mr. Wright noted. The bakery uses DAN PEARCE PHOTOGRAPHY peak capacity, it will generate 16,000 lb of brew per hour. Two 9,000-lb tanks hold brew. “We had experience with a smaller brew system for rolls at the Lakeland plant,” Mr. Wright reported, noting that Denver also uses brew for its rolls and bread. “The brew system was a major decision because Norwalk used straight dough methods. We did look at sponge-and-dough, trough fermentation, including high-rise systems, and continuous mix.” “Brew is a quality improvement we implemented here,” Mr. Living- stone noted. “It provides nice texture and flavor to our products.” “We went with horizontal mixers, as we had at Norwalk,” Mr. Wright continued. “And some products need a bit of floor time. This style of mixing provided that flexibility.” The bakery currently uses four Peer- less 2,500-lb mixers, two on each bread line. Buns will be mixed in Benier Diosna mixers, equipped with carbon-dioxide bowl cooling systems. Peerless also supplied the ram- and-knife divider for line No. 2. Ram-and-knife dividers supply

34 / BAKING & SNACK / December 2003 December 2003 / BAKING & SNACK / 35 34 / BAKING & SNACK / December 2003 December 2003 / BAKING & SNACK / 35 loaf slicers, a new design for the manufacturer. “We wanted to keep the blade speed at Bloomfield con- sistent with our other bakeries,” Mr. Wright explained, which cutting two loaves at a time accomplishes. Loaves enter the flow-wrapper, a horizontal f/f/s packaging system, and are enveloped by a continuous sheet of polypropylene film. The ma- chine forms a fin seal along the bot- tom and at each end. The technology is new not only to Pepperidge Farm but also marks its first-ever U.S. application for pan bread. “We were able to achieve the speeds we needed,” Mr. Wright noted. “Also, the fin seals offer an easy- open feature that our marketing people and customers really like.” The over-wrapped loaves speed along to four Formost Packaging dual-lane baggers, two per oven line, where the outer polyethylene bag is added. Mettler Toledo checkweigh-  To keep up with oven speeds, Pepperidge Farm bread ovens and capable of baking ers verify bag weight, and Markem turned to flow-wrapping for its signature inner 6,000 to 9,000 lb of buns per hour. package coding systems add sell-by wrap on sliced bread. Loaves then feed into a Exhaust systems for all three ovens and lot information. dual-lane bagger. DAN PEARCE PHOTOGRAPHY and the dry product line’s dehydra- tor link to the bakery’s catalytic CONTROL SCHEME. Pepperidge time Pepperidge Farm has used this incineration system. Farm managers described the method. “This is another big differ- Bakery engineers also adopted a Bloomfield bakery’s system of ence for Bloomfield, since we use conveyorized method for bread cool- computer controls as much simpler rack or tray proofers at our other ing, housing three I.J. White spiral than those used by the company’s plants,” Mr. Wright said. The con- cooling systems inside temperature- previous new plants. In fact, this is veyorized systems, which Pepperidge and-humidity-controlled enclosures. more a function of a vastly improved Farm terms “racetrack-style” designs, interface than the actual hardware are married to APV Baker tunnel ov- FLOW-WRAPPING. Because bread employed. Bloomfield uses some of ens, and at 13-ft wide and 122-ft long, lines would output 160 loaves an hour, the most sophisticated process con- these are the longest ovens yet used engineers faced a quandary in design- trol equipment available and features for bread by the company. Each bread ing the packaging system. Pepperidge the most extensive network design of oven will bake 12,000 lb per hour at Farm spotlights the premium quality any Pepperidge Farm plant, accord- peak output. of its breads by giving them a protec- ing to Harry S. Pettit, manager of sys- “The racetrack proofers are more tive inner wrap, but the over-wrappers tems engineering for the company’s predictable than the old rack-style normally used would be too slow. corporate engineering group. proofers,” Mr. Livingstone stated. “That 160-loaf-per-minute rate As he outlined, control com- “They are also easier to access and to drove us to look at other options,” munications take place through an maintain. Consistency in proofing Mr. Wright said. “We opted for new Ethernet fiber optic backbone. “We means consistency in baking. And technology: the flow-wrapper. This chose fiber optics because of the conditions are right where they was quite a large departure from our sheer length of the plant,” he noted. should be.” previous technologies.” Variable-frequency drives are When the bun line is installed, the Bloomfield features four Cavanna standard, and Allen-Bradley PLCs bakery will add a third conveyorized flow-wrappers, two per bread line operate some plant-floor machin- proofer. It already has the tunnel and each operating at 80 loaves per ery. A Rockwell Automation Devi- oven in place, the same size as the minute. They are fed by UBE dual- ceNet manages drives and motors,

36 / BAKING & SNACK / December 2003 December 2003 / BAKING & SNACK / 37 36 / BAKING & SNACK / December 2003 December 2003 / BAKING & SNACK / 37 munications, Bloomfield equipped plant-floor operators and managers alike with Nextel walkie-talkie systems, even though the plant floor is equipped with phones. “This is the first plant where the hourly staff has this equipment,” Mr. Moll said. “We are so spread out here, and these are much easier to hear than the usual while its ControlNet coordinates mentally controlled room. If one of loudspeaker paging systems.” plant floor distributed I/O. Strong- the PCs on the floor goes bad, we just Arm Technologies flat, touch-screen pull it out, throw it away and plug in a FUEL CELL FIRST. The new bakery displays throughout the plant are new one. Changeover is a matter of a achieved another milestone: It is the the standard operator interface. few minutes instead of an hour.” first manufacturing plant in - Con But one of the key differences in the The bakery operates five primary necticut to adopt fuel cell technol- control scheme here is the bakery’s servers: one for each line, one for ogy to manage its utility costs. use of Advantech MBPC-5820 Thin the energy system and one to handle “Because of the relatively old utili- Client PCs on floor equipment. licenses and backup. “Redundancy is ty infrastructure here in Connecticut, “We first tested ‘thin client’ technol- something we did to eliminate the we pay rates somewhat higher than ogy at Lakeland,” Mr. Pettit said. “A potential for a catastrophic failure,” elsewhere in the country,” Mr. Pettit thin client PC is essentially a small PC Mr. Pettit explained. “With auto- explained. “And these costs continue with no moving parts. It’s cheap and matic backup, the operators don’t to rise, so we looked at alternative easy to maintain. All programs reside even notice a switchover. energy sources. One day, while we in the servers we keep in an environ- To promote better in-plant com- worked on this problem, we received

38 / BAKING & SNACK / December 2003 December 2003 / BAKING & SNACK / 39 three phone calls, all about a new fuel startup I’ve ever experienced.” distribution associates were invited cell program being offered by the The new bakery is already the talk- to a November meeting. And the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund.” of-the-town inside Pepperidge Farm Campbell Soup shareholders board Connecticut leads the country in and out. “We hosted the Pepperidge toured the plant later that month.” the manufacture of fuel cells, but the Farm leadership team meetings here Bloomfield is a destination that technology is expensive. The state set during August,” Mr. Moll reported. provides a clear view of Pepperidge up a grant program to help overcome “Then there was the ribbon cutting Farm’s future manufacturing opera- this hurdle. Pepperidge Farm engi- in September. The region’s sales and tions. It’s a baker’s bakery.  neers put together an application and was one of eight companies out of the 32 that applied to be approved. It be- came the first processing plant to use fuel cell technology. The system consists of two Fuel- Cell Energy 250-kw fuel cells, oper- ated by Pennsylvania Power & Light. These provide the base power for the plant, operating the 24-hour systems, according to Mr. Pettit. “The fuel cell will provide base- line power to the plant, and every- thing we buy from the utility will sit on top of that,” he elaborated. “We should see a 20 to 25% drop in cost per KWH on those pieces of equipment tied to the fuel cell.” And because the bakery also uses energy-efficient systems — occu- pancy sensors, variable-frequency drives, Energy Star-rated motors, lights, transformers and computer monitors — it received a rebate from its electric utility.

PRESENT AND FUTURE. Bloom- field was clearly designed for the future. In addition to expandability features, it already has room on the exterior silo pad for two more silos. Layout of equipment is generously spaced, with easy access to all critical points on the processing lines. “Consider the situation at Bloom- field,” Mr. Ferguson observed, “there is nothing like being in a new plant. It’s like moving into a new house: It really changes your mental outlook. The building is uncongested. It’s very excit- ing to be involved in something new. It gives a new lease on life for the staff; it increases the self-worth and self-value of every individual involved. “I’ve been through three of these new plant projects,” he continued. “And Bloomfield, by far, is the best

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