B.C. Bundt Bundt Cakes, Ring Cake Baking Company Parfait

The office handles payroll, billing, purchase orders, invoicing, human resources, and so forth. “Not one these employees has ever stepped foot into a bakery manufacturing operation,” Hokes says.

B.C. Bundt wants its production employees to be “multi-taskers,” performing multiple production tasks as well as equipment maintenance. To achieve these dual goals, Bundt brought Taylor personnel to the Birmingham plant in 1993. The employees learned how the plant operated and also assembled the production line to be installed at Taylor, then tore it down, shipped it to Taylor, where they reassembled it.

Standardization is another concept applied at both production operations. “We standardize everything at the two plants,” Hokes says.

McRee adds, “I could go to a hardware store, purchase two 9/16-in. wrenches, and be able to take apart the whole plant.” The two plants also have the same gearboxes and electrical switches and wiring configurations.

Hokes adds the company takes advantage of automation technology to help personnel do their jobs better. For example, Bundt is currently installing interactive automation technology at Birmingham that tells operators where a problem is occurring. “This will eventually come to Taylor,” he adds.

Although Bundt has been tempted to add capacity, it applies the simple concept that “bigger is not better.” There is an optimum operating speed and operation at each of its facilities, and the goal is not to add capacity, but rather to maximize operating rates.

“We know exactly how much our ingredients cost, our manufacturing costs, or transportation costs,” McRee says, “and we don’t want one to be out-of-kilter with the other.” Freight costs for example, are 7-8% of the total costs. With rising oil prices, freight costs can rise to 12% “When that occurs, we look at building another plant to reduce transportation costs, “McRee says.

Site selection is not random either. Birmingham and Taylor are truck hub areas. “Draw a radius of 600-700 miles around our plants and we can send trucks to metropolitan areas with 80% of the population,” McRee says. This also applies to the new plant in Salt Lake City scheduled for opening in early 2001. “It’s a question of demographics and trucking costs,” McRee adds.

Salt Lake City will have the same production capacity as Birmingham and Taylor with only differences between the operations being cake varieties. “We started with one variety in 1986, now we have more than 70 varieties, and will add more with Salt Lake City,” McRee says. The company is looking to produce Hispanic cake products for the growing Hispanic population in the Southwest U.S.