Maximizing Your Bakery Space
Like any other business, the primary goal of a bakery is to turn a profit. This is done in several ways, primarily through addressing customer needs and filling them with great service and responsiveness.
At Stratton Sales, we’re here to help your bakery succeed by providing you with the highest quality baking supplies to service your customers with. We can also provide repair and maintenance for this equipment as needed, ensuring you’re never at risk of falling behind on your bakery’s demands. Best of all, we can help you with some of the detail and planning items that go into optimizing your bakery and the space you have. Arranging equipment and storage areas properly can make the difference between a profit and a loss due to the way it impacts efficiency. Let’s look at some important themes when it comes to arranging your bakery.
Survey the Space
Before you make any big purchases or installations of equipment, take some time to survey the space in detail. Walk it through from front to back, identifying primary areas where certain important work or storage areas might go. Envision the various processes you need to go through for your different baking needs, then think about how you and your employees will need to move around in the space.
In addition, look for a few practical items. Identify your electrical outlets early on, as they’re an important factor in dictating where certain equipment like ovens and mixers will go. Once you’ve done this, you can be a bit more precise about planning for the size of larger items like your oven or prep spaces.
Assess Storage Options
Another important area to consider as you’re moving through the space is where storage will be coordinated. Are there separate rooms that might serve well as primary storage areas? If not, you will have to consider how setting up shelves and cabinets will work given the rest of your needs. Try to overestimate here – things like pans, baking materials and other pieces of equipment take up a lot of space, and the last thing you want is to be overloaded on storage. Making things simple and easy to find will save you both time and money.
Consider Flow
When your profits depend on your ability to meet capacity goals, every bit of efficiency matters. A few extra seconds or minutes to accomplish a given process may not seem like much at first, but when you multiply this by the dozens or hundreds of times these processes are repeated per day, suddenly you’re looking at a major loss in productivity.
This is why considering the flow of your bakery is vital. Think about the common steps employees have to take while doing their jobs, then create a layout that optimizes the ease of these steps. In particular, the prep table, oven and proof box should all be close enough together that you can move between the three easily.
For more on how to arrange your bakery to maximize efficiency, or to learn about any of our industrial kitchen equipment, speak to the pros at Stratton Sales today.
