Lusitania Bakery
Gregory Tonkay, Thawee Nakrachata-Amon, Jennifer Bodenstab, Charalambos A. Marangos, Emory Zimmers
Lehigh University
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The objective of this project is to create a schedule by day for the daily production cycles based on daily requirements, calculate the quantity of racks necessary to fulfill daily demand, and create a user friendly Excel worksheet to generate feasible and efficient schedules in a timely manner (1 to 2 minutes) under daily real life distribution constraints. As a continuation, this project designs a system to improve product quality and improve supply chain reliability.
The Lusitania Bakery has a long history in Bethlehem, PA as a bakery of high quality breads and rolls for specialty markets and supermarkets. The bakery was started in 1967 and continues to distribute its products within the region. As the bakery grew, methods were not modernized, placing it at risk of losing market share to lower price/cost competitors now entering their market arena.The owner of the bakery has recently brought in new management who recognize the need for change and is prepared to provide additional attention to the organization of the bakery. The owner has plans of providing greater capital investment to modernize the facility with the intent of expanding sales. Some new processing equipment has already been obtained, however, there is a pressing need for a comprehensive system design that will prepare the operations for meeting the latest business objectives.
Enabled the company to improve operations by providing analysis of process variance, identification and quantification of other process quality issues throughout the production cycle, and the development of a system designed to control the process cycle and minimize time between production and delivery to customers. The data findings helped define the organization’s major challenges, and allowed them to develop specific and measurable goals that will improve product quality and improve supply chain reliability.