Operational initiative
Root-Cause Analysis of a Bakery Weight-Control Problem
Korewa's Kitchen & Events
- Role
- Founder & Managing Director
- Period
- Korewa's Kitchen & Events
- Status
- Implemented
The business problem
Some bakery portions were finishing below their expected weight, putting product consistency, customer trust and cost accuracy at risk.
Objective
Find the underlying cause rather than treat the symptom, and restore a reliable product standard.
Analysis
- Reviewed the weighing process step by step rather than reviewing the finished product.
- Found that the scale was not consistently tared before ingredients and portions were weighed.
- Confirmed the cause was a missing control step — not staff capability and not the recipe.
Corrective action
- Taring the scale became a required step before every weighing activity.
- Expected dough and portion weights were recorded as part of production.
- A verification step was added to the SOP and reinforced through staff instruction.
Outcome
Process control was restored and the risk of underweight product removed at source. No quantified error reduction is claimed, because the improvement was not measured formally at the time.
Business value
Protected product consistency, customer trust and cost accuracy through a change that cost nothing to implement.
A single missing control step can become a quality problem, a customer problem and a cost problem at the same time.
Working through a similar problem?
Tell me what is not working and I will tell you how I would approach the analysis.