Modular kitchen solves processing puzzle: a custom thermal processing system that feeds a new candy former heads the list of upgrades at the world's largest candy plant

Prepared Foods, Nov, 1991 by Rick Lingle

A custom thermal processing system that feeds a new candy former heads the list of upgrades at the world's largest candy Plant.

Like "teaching an elephant how to dance" is how Michael Coltart describes the transition of E.J. Brach's expansive Chicago plant from an unwieldy behemoth to a flexible and responsive 1990s candy manufacturing facility. Coltart is Brach senior vice president of operations.

Turning on a dime is a formidable task at a plant the size of 38 football fields that manufactures 2,000 stock keeping units (SKUS) of candy. But the impossible has been rendered possible by major process improvements and an advanced informational management system. The computer-based information system (see casebook, page 76) already is paying dividends by reducing inventories of both raw material and packaging material.

E.J. Brach Corp., based in Oakbrook Terrace, Ill., is determined to be the most successful company in general-line confectionery. According to Coltart, manufacturing's contributions to that mission are three-fold:

1. Ensure appropriate flexibility.

2. Maintain state-of-the-art processing.

3. Orient towards execution/results.

Perhaps nothing exemplifies this approach better than Brach's new thermal processing system for soft candies at the company's flagship plant on Chicago's west side.

Called "the kitchen," the system is like no other kitchen you've ever seen. It is unique in the world, working in tandem with the candy-making machine-the Mogul-that it supplies product to. Mogul is the candy industry's term for this type of candy-making machine.

The two systems comprise Brach's Mogul Project, representing a $15million investment that also includes a second Mogul to be installed in 1992. Dan Leffert, plant manager of soft candies, calls the Mogul Project "by far the most technologically advanced project we've had here."

The installation was originally intended as a greenfield plant, according to Bill Welker, vice president manufacturing. "We've tried to create a greenfield environment within our own factory," he says of the plant area, which has the feel of an operation distinct from the rest of the plant.

The project also reflects a greenfield approach in other respects. According to Welker, it was one of the first company endeavors to "get everyone involved," everyone being personnel from e neering, manufacturing and research and development, as well as line operators. For staffing, Brach sought volunteers for key positions from among plant personnel. For the more than 20 line positions needed to run the 24hour-a-day operation, personnel underwent three months of special training before the May 1991 start-up.

The kitchen was commissioned in December 1990 and delivered in March. By May, it was in production mode. Those dates highlight detailed planning that helped ensure a smooth start-up. Brach's manager of technical services, Lee Anderson, went to the supplier location in The Netherlands for two weeks to monitor a pilot-plant scale of the installation as it ran actual product. Three English-speaking technicians from the Dutch manufacturer came to Brach for three months beginning in December 1990 to supervise the installation.

In the kitchen

The kitchen's ultimate function is to "make candy in a continuous system that has the quality of carefully prepared batch-made candy," says Leffert.

The Brach installation is one of the most sophisticated candy production systems in the world. The kitchen, located on the plant's second level, supplies product to the Mogul on the main floor at a rate of 8,000-lbs. an hour. The kitchen is a computer-controlled automated system in which ingredients are batched, mixed, heated and blended together.

The 5,000-sq.-ft. kitchen is the processing equivalent of 25 batch kettles situated in less than half the floor space the kettles would have required.

The kitchen consists of 12 processing sections or modules. The modules were preassembled and tested at the supplier's location in The Netherlands, then they were shipped and reassembled here like pieces to a jigsaw puzzle. Each module performs a specific function and may operate in parallel or in series with other modules, depending on the product; for certain products, not all 12 modules operate.

We'll follow the steps for candy corn, the product made during our visit and the most complex product run on the system: "If we can run candy corn on this system, we can run anything," says Leffert.

For candy corn, the kitchen modules produce four components: fondant, mazzetta, body bob and tip bob. "Bob" refers to cooked syrup. These four candy ingredients are made simultaneously in 1,000-liter (approximately 1,000-lb.) batches from bulk sugar, corn syrup starches and minor ingredients that are weighed automatically. From this point, after the batch is made, the rest of the kitchen process is continuous.

These four streams are heated separately through continuous coil cookers to product temperatures around 250 [degrees]F before pumping to hold tanks. From there, the streams-fondant, mazzetta, and the two bobs-are mixed together into two product streams of different blends that each go into twin in-line rotary mixers followed by static mixers. Colors and flavors are added at this time, and the product goes to hold tanks ahead of the Mogul.