How Do We Calculate Biscuit Plant Output

When ever people think of putting up  a new biscuit plant  , the first question which come s in mind is the plant output or  capacity . This  is important for  design and  project  of new biscuit plant .Unit could be tons /hr or kg /hr of  production . Biscuit output  is required for  material planning and plant specifications .

There  different methods  to calculate  biscuit plant output  as mentioned below


a .  Baking time   x  with  rows x columns  in  one minute from cutter /molder  rpm. moulder and cutter have dies or cups  as per biscuit shape and size .

b.   Oven  band surface  area  x baking time of biscuit oven .( tunnel oven )
Oven length and width depends upon  the volume of biscuit to be produced 

On the basis of capacity ,  Mixers  and Packing machine  are  selected  for line  balancing

c.   Mixing  time with   batch size processed in  unit  time
 
d.   Number of packing machine  used to pack with  packet per minute  for calculation .


Oven capacity (lbs/hr) = R x N x L 1/C x60/T
R = rows of goods per foot of band length
N = rows of goods across the band width
L = baking chamber length in ft.
C = count of baked biscuits per lb.
T = baking time in mins.maximum baked size of the coojie

To determine N & R.
Let W = actual product width in inches
D = maximum baked size of the cookie
S = spacing from centre to centre of adjacent rows
X = clear band space at each edge
Then, W = ( N x S ) - S + D +2X
or, N = W + S - D - 2X / S and R + 12 / S
Capacities of other machinery prior to the oven can be referenced to the oven capacity
Published May 1967 Cookie & Cracker Technology
Samual A Matz and Theresa D Matz

Putting up a New Biscuit Line ! Keep these points in mind

Entrepreneurs or businessmen who are in process of buying , installation of new biscuit line should keep following points in mind ,apart from legal requirement of industrial licenses , pollution clearance's and of course finances

Orders
Should have confirmed orders either for his own brand or as a Co -packer or Contract manufacturer.

Space
As space requirement for biscuit is large as normal biscuit oven would be 250ft - 300 ft long and width would be 10 ft in width hence for such a line with provision for second line one has take an area of 700 ft x100 ft area . Single plant could be started with a provision to install second plant .Try to avoid bends and curves on the line . H shaped halls or I shape halls are highly recommended for biscuit plant with mixing on first floor . Had provision for lifts and escalators .

Versatility of the line
You should ask your biscuit plant manufacturer to give you a complete versatile plant where you can produce hard dough and short dough variety with all the accessories like salt spray , milk sprays , oil sprays .

Roof height
Oven generates heat and with numbers oven installed adjacent to each other heat generate would be substantial hence roof height from the oven roof should be more than 30 ft . Better if packing hall is differentiated through partitions . Roof could be of metallic sheet with natural ventillation concept .

Fuel storage and safety
What ever fuel you select as per the costing and availability do check the safety angle and legal provision. LPG and LDO storage requires fire safety and fire hydrants and these must be installed in the storage area .Its highly recommended to keep these storage tank as far from the main production building .

Storage Area
Have provision for raw material , finished good , workshop , lab , office s , You can make mezzanines floor for these requirements .

Traffic movement - In bound and Out bound
Space for movement of truck carrying raw material and Finished good

A visit to a Biscuit Factory

A Day in a Biscuit Factory


Have you ever wondered what goes inside a biscuit factory and how do you get such delicious biscuit made. A visit to biscuit factory has been detailed below in brief so that ones get s an idea of biscuit manufacturing, process and people. Biscuit factory has it own ways, lingo and people who manage the production. I would tell you more about people who are directly involved in the production process or activities on the shop floor.

Premixing area

Operators checks the variety and weighs ingredient as per the recipes waits for mixers operators signals .Once he gets the signal , starts putting up all ingredients manually or in case system is automated he starts the discharge options. Automated additions could be flour , butter , sugar solution , milk , water etc . Food Additives which are in very small quantities are added manually. Pre mixing area have storage tanks, pumps, votators , sifter and in many cases dough truck tilters . Operators has to get the material arranged from the stores for the days production . In case of cracker varieties the preparation s starts as early as 18 – 20 hrs . Gets stocks for sugar , flour ,hvo and other ingredients .Does cleaning operations at the end of the shift .Sifts Flour , Ammonia and Sugar .

Mixing Area

Mixer Operators gets the Ingredients from pre mixing area, cleans the mixer and checks the timers setting on the mixer for mixing process. Gets following material for addition such as biscuit powder from biscuit grinding room and dough in case of any left out in earlier process . Mixing operators does the mixing in stages . Checks the dough consistency , temperature and forwards the dough in a dough truck to tilting device .Operator has to be careful about the quality of flour take certain corrective measures in case he does under mixing or over mixing .


Forming Area

Operator checks the variety of product whether it is a molding variety or cutting variety . Check the cutter or the molder as per variety of the biscuit. Changes the speed and pressure of the molding or cutting as required .Install accessories like milk spray or salt or sugar spray units if required . Adjust speed of forming units like laminator, gauge rolls . Changes conveyors if required. In case of change over from one variety to other he selects the moulder or the cutter and install it on the biscuit production line .Add flour dust to the flour duster in case of sticky dough . Checks the wetness of the cutting web .Drops deformed biscuits . Return scrap dough to the


Baking Area

Oven operators checks the variety and adjust the oven zones temperature , adjusts the dampers as per the requirement .Adjust burner setting as per temperature requirement .

Increase or decrease speed of the traveling oven band as per the requirement . Simultaneously instruct forming section operator to adjust the speed of the forming unit . Drops burnt biscuits . Checks the tracking of oven band, make a note of damaged band area . Important roles comes into picture in case of power failure when he has to get the biscuit trapped in the oven zone out with help of manual arrangement .This is very important as any delay by him can result in fire in the oven .Checks the safety sheets of the oven .Hence oven operator has big role in baking quality of the product .


Packing Area

Packing area can be most populated in case of semi – automatic packaging but for automated area one or two operators are sufficient per machine .Biscuits are fed into feeding chutes manually by feeder s . Packaging operators checks the date , labels and product setting on the packing machine . Checks the wrapper and adjust the setting of the machine . Adjust the speed of the packing machine as per incoming quantity of biscuit. Checks temperature of sealers to avoid any defective packaging .Does the change over of the packing machine as per the product. Then ensure that cartons are taped and then passed on to the finished good ware house.

All operators has been provided with pre formatted form to be filled in . Each section fills these form s to be submitted to the shift supervisors who then send it to the production manager who checks for the data , outputs , break down , wastage etc and log it on the ERP software .

Other functions

Store – Receives and inspect incoming material . Updates stock position, Store these material at predefined place .

Purchase – They are responsible for arranging material for production On request generated by production planning they release orders for vendors to deliver the material on time .

Production planning- Gets sales requirement from sales deptt . Plan production accordingly with taking view of raw material, plants availability, personnel and packing material .

Dispatch- Co ordinate with sales dept and dispatches material to the destination in time .Has to follow up with transporter for dispatches .

Quality team - Responsible for quality of the ingredients , packing material and standards of the process , product and keep monitoring on critical control points , Maintain documents for

Maintenance team - Responsible for break down maintenance and upkeep of the plant and machinery.

Hygiene team - Maintains the hygienic and cleanliness of the factory .

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