Quality Baked into Every Healthy Product

Introduction

Life is Easy on Main Street—and in the Cloud

Bakery on Main was founded in 2003 with one simple philosophy: to create healthy food that tastes great, too. Based in East Hartford, Connecticut, Bakery on Main makes and sells premium, gluten-free products including celiac-safe cereals, oatmeal, granola bars, and snacks.

The company has more than 100 employees and has grown quickly. Until early 2020, their quality data was captured on paper—and responding to production issues was challenging. “It was only at the end of each day— when my assistant manager or I reviewed paperwork—that we would spot out-of-control processes,” says Jegadish Gunasagaran, Quality Assurance Manager at Bakery on Main.

In an effort to prevent production issues that might drive down revenue, Bakery on Main started researching cloudbased, digital quality solutions—so they could view data in real time, and stop production issues in their tracks.

Bakery on Main chose Enact®—the award-winning, cloud-based quality management solution from InfinityQS®. Says Gunasagaran, “The thing we liked about Enact—from Day 1—is that the interface is simple. You go to your dashboard, you see what your tests are, and you can instantly view your results.”

Improving Food Safety

Detecting Quality Issues as They Happen

It’s been proven: visibility improves accountability. Prior to using a cloudbased quality solution, Bakery on Main didn’t conduct a lot of statistical analysis—but they knew visibility was critical to their success, so they installed large-screen TVs around the plant when they launched Enact. Now everyone can see the dashboard: from the operators to the production managers to quality executives.

According to Gunasagaran, “We can all see whether or not a process is in control: we are all aware of the control limits for each process—and we set better limits. Now we are always within the limits, and can respond quickly.” And if a process goes out of control, Enact immediately sends alert notifications so the team can spring into action. I

Improving Operator Efficiency

Enact: Easy to Use & Navigate

People don’t enjoy learning new technology—and quality management tools are often complex and difficult to learn. To make matters more challenging, plant teams often include people of varying ages with different levels of comfort interacting with technology. This makes it even more critical that a cloud-based quality product is usable by people from all walks of life.

Bakery on Main wanted a tool that was easy for the team to learn and use, and are happy they chose Enact. The other cloud quality products they considered were designed for engineers, which would have required intense user training— and generated frustration for Bakery on Main technicians. Says Gunasagaran, “Enact is very easy to use and navigate, and entering quality data is simple.”

But not everyone at Bakery on Main was initially enthusiastic about Enact being in the cloud. The plant manager, in particular, was skeptical of how well a cloudbased system would work. “Now he is in love with Enact,” says Gunasagaran. “He is one of the system’s biggest advocates.”

You Can’t Fix What You Don’t Know

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Words aren’t always enough. Sometimes, you need to see your data— to know what’s going on across processes, shifts, and plants. Quality data captured on paper can’t quickly provide that level of insight: by the time you f ind what you need, another issue has cropped up and precious time has been wasted. Bakery on Main wanted to quickly and easily view dashboards—to see how processes were trending in real-time. “We needed to see what was happening, as it was happening, so we could focus our attention and make better use of time,” says Gunasagaran. Gunasagaran appreciates not having to dig through a huge stack of paper every morning. “I simply open my Enact dashboard, and review the box and whisker chart to see what’s going on. I now have more time in my day to focus on important things, such as strategizing for process optimization and improvement.” The Bakery on Main team also loves the customizable alert notifications included in the tool. “Enact sends notifications in real time, so we set up a Slack™ channel that sends alerts to the team when something goes out of control.” This enables production problems to be fixed quickly—before they escalate—plus, Enact records the corrective action taken, which provides a complete issue history.

The Key to Success? A Focused Proof of Concept

Start with a Single Line or Process

Attention to detail helps ensure success. When you first deploy Enact, InfinityQS suggests implementing a Proof of Concept: a small-scale deployment that focuses on collecting and analyzing data from one process. This strategy has three goals: to teach plant employees how to use Enact, to lay a solid foundation for the deployment, and to demonstrate success to stakeholders. Working with an InfinityQS Applications Engineer, the Bakery on Main team isolated the one process to be included in the Proof of Concept, and began to translate their manual data collection processes into logical—digital—data collection steps within Enact. For example, Gunasagaran’s team analyzed a paper checklist—one containing 20 areas to be inspected by quality personnel—which they then adapted to match the functionality available in Enact. Says Gunasagaran, “Our conversations were like: would this step be a basic checklist function, or would it be more like a typical data collection where you can just do ‘pass/fail?’ Could we identify non-conformances, and how would that be communicated back to production managers? The Proof of Concept enabled us to demonstrate that Enact was a total success. Everyone enjoys using it, and the functionality provides exactly what we need. In the end, Enact works perfectly, and everyone is 100% happy with it.”

How does an Enact Proof of Concept Work?

Starting small is key to a successful Enact deployment. Focusing on only one process helps you get quick wins with minimal effort.

An Enact Proof of Concept typically involves the following steps:

1. Choose a single process (one line or machine)
2. Pick a small number of parts, all subject to your selected process
3. Create a simple data collection and begin collecting data
4. Analyze your quality data to expose any production issues
5. Investigate and identify appropriate corrective actions
6. Assess Proof of Concept results to justify program expansion

Why Conduct a Proof of Concept?

A Focused Program Leads to Success

Successful Enact deployments follow a phased approach. A Proof of Concept enables you to roll out a small-scale deployment that focuses on collecting and analyzing data against a single process. Starting with a focused Proof of Concept will help you learn the software, build a strong foundation for your Enact deployment, and get results fast.

The Benefit of a Guided Experience

During an Enact Proof of Concept, a member of your team works with an InfinityQS Applications Engineer—in guided remote sessions—to accomplish the following: ›Establish and clearly define your goals for Enact

›Share the fundamentals of Enact administration

›Build a foundation for your implementation—and gain a starting point for success

›Demonstrate the value of using Enact by collecting and reviewing data

›Plan next steps for your Enact deployment

Quickly Grow Your Enact Expertise

After completing an Enact Proof of Concept, you will be better equipped to administer your new Enact system—and begin plans to expand Enact across your organization. By the end of your Enact PoC, you will have:

›Gained foundational knowledge of Enact’s core features

›Configured a data collection, and collected production data in Enact

›Created dashboards for viewing and analyzing data

›Built a functional system that you can use to rapidly expand your implementation