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CASE STUDY SLICE OF EXPERTISE HELPS BAKERY PROJECT TO RISE We at Pollen endeavour to use our capabilities and services for a good cause wherever possible, and with this in mind we reached out to The Bread & Butter Project, a not-for-profit organisation as well as Sydney’s first artisan bakery run as a social enterprise. DCase study provided by Pollen Consulting Group. elivering result-oriented support to organisations throughout the value stream is in our DNA and as part of our social responsibility and one per cent charity pledge, working with The Bread & Butter Project was, well, our bread and butter. The bakery employs refugees and asylum seekers from all over the world as trainees to work alongside its qualified artisan bakers. While learning the craft of artisan baking, trainees get to also learn English and are coached to ensure they can kick off a successful career after their traineeship. The bread and pastries are then wholesaled to more than 200 cafes, restaurants, and delis across the greater Sydney region as well as Woolworths Metro and Harris Farm Markets. “We loved the mission behind the business and felt we had the perfect skillset and experience to make improvements to the business’s profitability,” Pollen Director Stephan Mang said. “In return we’d get spoilt with delicious pastries and baked goods. So, the collaboration was launched. “We care a lot about The Bread & Butter Project’s high-quality products and especially their mission, which is extremely important. We love helping the people behind the company and appreciate the opportunity to really make a difference by sharing our industry experience.” Using our expertise and industry knowledge, we provided solutions to some of the challenges The Bread & Butter Project were facing, and delivered projects to optimise business operations: • Strategy in action. To achieve the aspiration of becoming self-sustaining, The Bread & Butter Project revenues need to increase by 15 per cent. We facilitated the business in developing a 12-month growth plan and determining products and target customers to focus on. With our practical approach to strategy planning, we ensured the outcome was an implementation roadmap with clear actions for The Bread & Butter Project to make the rollout of the strategy a success. • Manufacturing excellence. In a deep dive on The Bread & Butter Project production process, Pollen made recommendations for cost improvements. We performed a bottleneck study and investigated both equipment and people utilisation. An opportunity to save $250,000 annually was identified by streamlining the workload by reallocating staff to identified bottlenecks and streamlining the utilisation of the ovens throughout the day. Examples of tips for quick wins were the introduction of Gemba Walks and standardising the cutting process to reduce waste. • Supply chain efficiency. The Bread & Butter Project’s fresh baked goods are delivered daily by drivers in minivans. We investigated the distribution process to ensure the optimal number of delivery vans, most efficient delivery routes and maximum time spent per delivery were determined to increase labour productivity. • Technology. The Bread & Butter Project was experiencing increases in its production volumes due to new sales. Pollen built a detailed digital twin capacity model to simulate variances in production volumes, point out resource requirements to reach operational targets and test schedule changes. A 3D model was generated and validated that mimicked the manufacturing production processes in detail while considering all constraints. The system also quantified extra resources needed to meet desired DIFOT \\\[delivery in full, on time\\\] percentage and demand increase as well as running ‘what-if’ scenarios and bottleneck analyses for planning optimisation purposes. The most beneficial change to the planning allowed the site to increase 60 per cent of loaf production without impacting current DIFOT percentage levels and required no CAPEX investment. • Lean training academy. The Bread & Butter Project’s supervisor participated in our ‘frontline leadership’ program. This is especially designed to help frontline leaders develop the right skill set to lead teams, coach individuals, and get the best out of their teams so they’ll become tomorrow’s confident operations managers. “It was a real pleasure to work with Pollen,” The Bread & Butter Project General Manager Philip Hoban said. “With their hands- on approach, they were able to make recommendations for efficiency improvements in just a few sessions. The implementation has been very valuable for us and we learned to think with a continuous improvement mindset.” We plan to continue supporting the team with structure and efficiency improvements to ensure the business is set up for a successful journey of continuous improvement. Learn more about The Bread & Butter Project at thebreadandbutterproject.com. 30 RETAIL WORLD APR, 2021