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 of my bakery portions were finishing below their expected weight, putting product consistency, customer trust and cost accuracy at risk.
Objective
I set out to find the underlying cause rather than treat the symptom, and to 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
- I made taring the scale a required step before every weighing activity.
- I recorded expected dough and portion weights as part of production.
- I added a verification step to the SOP and reinforced it through staff instruction.
Outcome
I restored process control and removed the risk of underweight product at source. I claim no quantified error reduction, because I did not measure the improvement formally at the time.
Business value
I protected product consistency, customer trust and cost accuracy through a change that cost nothing to implement.
I learned that 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.