Clif Bar’s visual bakery project has the company ahead of the game

Clif Bar Indianapolis bakery — Clif Bar’s 5 Aspirations, as seen on the wall in this photo from the Indianapolis bakery, focus on supporting people, brands, community, business and the planet.

*Photo courtesy of Clif Bar*

Clif Bar Twin Falls bakery — Clif Bar’s Twin Falls, Idaho bakery, pictured here, was a greenfield implementation of the visual bakery project. The bakery won Food Engineering’s Sustainable Plant of the Year in 2017.

*Photo courtesy of Clif Bar*

visual bakery huddle — The real-time data reporting and management available through the visual bakery system allows operators and managers to adjust on the fly.

*Photo courtesy of Clif Bar*

When Clif Bar launched its visual bakery project, the goal was to implement it in two bakeries almost simultaneously.

That goal was ultimately achieved, but not without some roadblocks along the way. The differences between implementation in a greenfield project in Twin Falls, Idaho, and an existing bakery in Indianapolis forced some adaptation and rethinking. In addition to the normal differences between greenfield and expansion/renovation projects, the company had to take into account Indianapolis’ existing workforce, which included multiple language barriers.

By being flexible, adaptable and committed to listening to and implementing feedback, the dual projects were a success, with Twin Falls coming online in May 2016 and Indianapolis going live in November 2016.

The Twin Falls bakery was named Food Engineering’s Sustainable Plant of the Year in 2017. The Indianapolis bakery has a different—although equally successful—story to tell. Transforming a traditional bakery into a visual bakery was a big challenge, especially considering it had to fit within Clif Bar’s 5 Aspirations, which the company defines as: sustaining our people, planet, community, brands and business.

Read more at foodengineeringmag.com.

This article was originally posted on www.foodengineeringmag.com.

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Casey Laughman is the Editor in Chief of Food Engineering magazine. He has almost two decades’ experience as a writer and editor for mainstream and trade publications. He spent several years as a writer and editor for two news services before becoming the editor of a legal publication and managing editor of a trade magazine that covered the commercial facilities market.