Customer


Fantasy Cookie, Sylmar, CA, USA

Challenge

Constant problems with one particular line at the customer’s production facility were resulting in significant lost production.

Solution

IPCO proposed a complete technical solution to include replacement of all major conveyor components as well as the steel belt.

Result

A carefully scheduled installation saw the work completed with minimal downtime, and the upgraded line is now performing with 100 percent reliability.

____________________________________________________________________________

IPCO engineering team delivers complete bake oven line upgrade

Effective cooperation between IPCO teams in North America and Sweden has helped premium bakery Fantasy Cookie resolve the challenge of an unreliable bake oven line. The solution, encompassing a comprehensive range of conveyor components as well as a new steel bake oven belt, has run without issue ever since.

Complete technical solution delivered to tight timescale brings optimized performance and reliability

The customer

Fantasy Cookie Co. is a family-owned bakery business based in Sylmar, just north of Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1979, the company started out producing hand cut and decorated character cookies. Today Fantasy Cookie supplies a wide range of premium quality cookie ranges to grocery stores and other retailers throughout West Coast USA. Such has been the growth in demand for the company’s baked products that Fantasy Cookie now operates five bake oven lines at its production facility.

The challenge

While four of the production lines were providing relatively trouble-free operation, one had been the cause of almost constant problems resulting in costly downtime and lost production.

With stoppages occurring around the clock – the factory operates 24 hours a day – the line required constant monitoring, removing personnel from productive work. The problems with the line therefore represented a significant disruption to normal operations and Fantasy Cookie approached IPCO’s North America sales team with a view to replacing the bake oven belt. Investigations made it clear that a simple belt replacement would not be sufficient to resolve these issues and IPCO decided to propose a more comprehensive solution.

The solution

In order to ensure that the solution optimised overall system performance and tackled the root cause of the problems, IPCO’s Swedish-based engineering team joined the NA team to carry out a detailed site inspection. Their recommendation was that, in addition to the new belt (IPCO grade 1100C, 1000 mm wide x 1.2 mm thick and 106 m long) and Compact Belt Tracker (CBT), the whole system be upgraded via the installation of more advanced components including:

• Tension/drive drums and bearing houses
• Belt and drum scrapers
• Safety plow
• Spring guide rollers
• Cast iron and graphite skid bars

The project received the approval of Fantasy Cookie’s management on condition that IPCO’s teams could meet tight time frame targets, and a schedule covering design, manufacture, assembly, shipping and installation was agreed. Regular meetings were held throughout the design and manufacturing stages to keep the client up to date with progress and to confirm onsite specifications. A detailed installation plan was produced to ensure that work was carried out as efficiently as possible, keeping oven downtime to the absolute minimum.

The result

The completed line was successfully commissioned by IPCO’s installation team with the support of Fantasy Cookie’s team, and has provided reliable, trouble free operation ever since. So satisfied is the client that they are actively promoting the benefits of this upgrade to their own clients, and are hoping that their investment will help to secure new business from a major target customer in the US. The success of the project relied on close cooperation between all concerned: IPCO’s North America sales and engineering teams; the Swedish engineering team; IPCO’s Global Service Team who were closely involved in the installation plan; and, last but not least, the customer’s own teams who were supportive throughout.

(Left to right) IPCO’s Mauro Piastra and Jorge Solidario with
Fantasy Cookie’s CEO Russ Case and plant manager Joe Rivera.