Mission Statement: The mission for the cheesecake process improvement is to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of cheesecake production in order to meet customer demand in both quantity and quality of the cheesecakes.

Team:Jeremy Smith – MEMatt Syska - IEKevin Rodas – MEAndreana Crance - IERob Santora - IE

Sponsors: Scott YoungChris IsaacsonJamie RothfussPaul Adams

Advisor: John Kaemmerlen

Special Thanks to the Cheesecake Team!

Cheesecake Process Improvement

P10712 - Winter 2009

Proposal 2: Automatic Water Pouring Unit

Proposal 3: Depanning Kaizen Proposal 4: New Pan Design

Cheesecake Process Evaluation Fishbone Diagram

• Reduce total depanning time by 50%

• Reduce repetitive motion• Reduce depanning queue

Goals:• Improve labor utilization • Improve cheesecake making techniques • Create standard work for employees

The team used Pugh analysis to determine which area of cheesecake process to focus on.Through this analysis, the team chose to focus on pre-and post-tunnel oven processes. The fishbone diagram to the right relates the issues found in the focus areas to the four proposed solutions.

Low worker efficiency due to Marble Cheesecake Process (pre-tunnel oven)

Low worker efficiency and ergonomic concerns due to water pouring (pre-tunnel oven)

Low process efficiency at bottleneck of tunnel oven due to current depanning process (post-tunnel oven)

Not using tunnel oven to full pan capacity due to pan size limitations, causing production issues during peak demand

Problems Addressed:• Queue in front of depanning

station with small cheesecakes• Quality issues associated with

current process

Kaizen Solutions:• Reduced queue• Sense of urgency to depan• No obvious quality issues

• Reduce ergonomic strain by bringing the

water to the operator’s fingertips.

• Ensure consistent water amounts in the

sheet pans to eliminate burning and reduce excess water at depanning.

• Pneumatically operated and timed

• Custom designed handle and nozzle• Cart mounted for mobility

Due to the high cost of this proposal, the team decided not to pursue this option further.

As Wegmans expands its stores and the demand for cheesecakes grow, this option may be necessary in order to meet the growing demand.

The proposed sheet pans reduce the excess space both in each individual sheet pan and on the oven belt, increasing the number of cheesecakes baked per row.

AWP Unit

Kaizen

Kaizen

AWP Unit

Table Move

Kaizen

Kaizen

Table Move

Overall Process Flow

Proposal 1: Marble Cheesecake Move• Increase worker visibility of process• Reduce worker/product travel distance by

50%• Time saved when moving racks of batter

Problems addressed:• Marble cheesecake procedure

performed in adjacent room• Difficult for workers to know if

they are needed to help reduce queue in adjacent room

Large Small

420 446420800Cheesecake Throughput

Before ChangesAfter Changes

Results:

• Proposals 1-3 generated a substantial increase in throughput of small cheesecake as well as putting processes in place for less variability in the baking process.

• The changes will result in a savings of at least $15,400 per year.