Case study · Food & Beverage
Dessert maker cuts $2M+ in annual labor cost and lifts throughput to $58M
A newly acquired cheesecake maker's ovens ran only 15 of 24 hours, starved by slow crumbing and panning. USC fixed the upstream flow, rebuilt maintenance and standardized ingredient use.
Results
$2M+
in annualized labor savings
$58M
annualized plant throughput, up from about $49M
25%
increase in productivity
Labor savings and throughput are annualized; the productivity gain is an estimate.
The situation
Recently acquired by another dessert maker, the company wanted more revenue from higher productivity and throughput and lower overhead, but its ovens ran only 15 of 24 hours a day.
What the assessment found
- Ovens and depositors starved by slow crumbing and panning
- One person running all maintenance; no weekend preventive work
- No critical equipment list and only $60,000 in spare parts
- Nonstandard crumb cups causing overfill and uneven crusts
How the work was done
Line: keep the ovens fed
Built adherence to shop floor metrics, closed equipment knowledge gaps and set product-specific baking standards.
2,000
pans an hour crumbed and filled, enough to keep the ovens fed
Maintenance: restore preventive work
Introduced an attendance policy that restored weekend preventive maintenance, a scheduling and work order system, a critical equipment list, and tripled the spare parts stock from $60,000 to $180,000.
Quality: standardize ingredients
Issued standardized crumb cups and leveling tools, giving consistent crust density and cutting crumb and batter waste.
“Management spoke highly of USC's patience, diligence and ability to educate, teach, train and implement with pace a number of Systems, Tools and Techniques that were lacking and requiring immediate attention.”
Before and after
Annualized plant throughput
+$9M
Annualized plant throughput in dollars.
Lasting impact
Ovens stayed fed, maintenance moved from emergencies to planned work, and crusts came out consistent. Annualized throughput rose to $58 million and labor costs fell by more than $2 million a year.
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