Success story: Clam’s Cakes
Background
Based in Ebbw Vale, Clam’s Handmade Cakes produce award-winning cakes, which are supplied to coffee shops and cafes across the UK. Originally founded in 1996, the family run business was named Wales’s best craft bakery in the Baking Industry Awards 2018 and they’re the winners of 18 Great Taste Awards. Clam’s emphasises its traditional baking methods and all of their products are individually baked and hand decorated.
Over the years, ZERO2FIVE has provided Clam’s with a variety of support, including help to secure and maintain SALSA certification and assistance with new product development.
The company contacted ZERO2FIVE when they were looking to adopt a data driven approach to tracking production flow and monitoring waste. Initially, the company were looking to monitor their initial production stage – mixing, depositing and baking – before rolling the tool out to their decorating and packing production stages.
Support from ZERO2FIVE
ZERO2FIVE’s waste experts visited Clam’s to gain an understanding of their factory set up and production flow.
As a result, ZERO2FIVE developed a bespoke database tool which could be used by production operatives to keep track of products as they are being produced in real time. ZERO2FIVE delivered training to the Clam’s team to ensure that everyone was comfortable using the new system. Crucially, the tool was designed to require only a basic level of digital skills.
As each new batch of product is produced, operatives are required to enter a variety of information, including date, product code, mix size, production operative name, deposit size per unit, number of units in and out of the oven, and the time it goes in and out of the oven.
Benefits of the support
All the data logged in the database has enabled Clam’s to gain a real time understanding of their production flow and sources of waste. This will enable the company to be proactive rather than reactive in responding to any issues.
The data can be used to generate a series of pre-built reports which provide information on the number of bakes per day, expected versus actual units, units lost in bake, and total yield, as well as a breakdown of the analysis by different products, ovens and operatives.
This information can be used to help the company to keep track of whether production output will meet the volume required to fulfil orders. In addition, the company now has a much better grasp of which products, ovens and operatives are more likely to generate waste. This will enable Clam’s to modify recipes, rectify equipment issues and deliver staff training in order to reduce waste.
The production data is displayed on screens around the factory so everyone in the team can monitor production flow in real time. It can also be accessed remotely so company directors can monitor output whilst they are off site.
After three months of running the system, ZERO2FIVE’s waste experts have also analysed the compiled data to provide additional recommendations for introducing process efficiencies and reducing waste.
Due to the successful implementation of the tool for monitoring the initial stage of production, Clam’s plan to rollout it out to their decorating and packaging production stages. This will provide additional opportunities for tracking production flow and monitoring waste.
Lewis Phillips, Production Director, Clam’s Cakes: “The waste reduction support from ZERO2FIVE has been excellent. They have supported us in developing and implementing a production and waste data model that not only allows us to monitor production performance but highlight waste streams. The production data we are now able to generate will prove invaluable in our mission to improve efficiencies whilst driving down waste within our business.”
Get in touch with us
If you’d like to find out more about how we can help your business or have any questions about the support we can offer, then please get in touch.
