The automated bakery produced pie shells for two demanding audiences at once: the manufacturer’s own internal facilities and external customers buying the same product. Both depended on the plant delivering a consistent supply at a competitive cost, and both objectives were slipping. Leadership wanted assurance that the line could meet demand reliably while bringing purchasing costs down, and the cook room was not producing enough to make that promise hold.
A pie shell manufacturer nearly doubled cook-room batch volume and lifted pieces per labor hour 50% to land a 208% annualized ROI, all from a sharper operating system rather than new equipment.
Pie Shell Manufacturer
Results at a Glance
208%
Annualized ROI
50%
Labor Efficiency Gain
89%
Filling Yield
Executive Brief
An automated bakery supplying pie shells to its own facilities and to outside customers was missing on the two things its customers cared about most: consistent supply and competitive cost. The cook room could not hit the daily batch volumes it needed, turnover kept draining trained labor, and a reactive supervisory culture treated firefighting as normal. Over a 12-week sprint, POWERS installed a Management Operating System built on hourly performance monitoring and attainment tracking, and developed cook- and pack-room leaders to run the floor proactively. Cook-room output climbed from 25 batches a day toward a 40-plus target, pieces per labor hour rose 50%, filling yield improved from 75% to 89%, and the engagement returned 208% on an annualized basis.
The Situation
The bakery was automated, but the way it was run was not. Output, retention, and supervision all drifted because nothing on the floor was being measured.
The automated bakery produced pie shells for two demanding audiences at once: the manufacturer’s own internal facilities and external customers buying the same product. Both depended on the plant delivering a consistent supply at a competitive cost, and both objectives were slipping. Leadership wanted assurance that the line could meet demand reliably while bringing purchasing costs down, and the cook room was not producing enough to make that promise hold.
Underneath the supply problem sat three structural issues that reinforced one another. Throughput was low, with the cook room turning out subpar volumes and falling short of the daily batch counts the business needed. Employee turnover ran high, so workforce instability kept the plant paying to retrain people instead of building on experience. And the supervisory culture was reactive, with floor leadership normalizing firefighting rather than getting ahead of problems before they cost a shift.
What made the situation worse was the near-total absence of measurement. There was no effective performance tracking and no real visibility into operational efficiency, so the team could not see where output was being lost or who owned the loss. Fixing this called for a system rather than a one-time push: a way to manage the floor by the hour, hold supervisors accountable to clear targets, and make the gains stick after the engagement ended.
The Diagnosis
Six structural gaps producing the same outcome from six directions.
Cook room running below the volume it needed
Subpar output and insufficient daily batch counts left the cook room at roughly 25 batches a day against a 40-plus target, so consistent supply was never assured.
Turnover draining trained labor
High employee turnover created workforce instability that drove substantial training costs and kept the plant rebuilding capability instead of compounding it.
A reactive supervisory culture
Floor leadership normalized firefighting over proactive management, so problems were handled after they cost output rather than prevented.
No KPIs and no visibility into efficiency
There was no effective performance tracking and no defined Schedule Attainment, Plan to Capacity, Throughput, or Efficiency metrics, leaving the floor blind to its own losses.
A Management Operating System in name only
The existing MOS lacked roughly 75% of its elements or underutilized the ones that existed, so there was no real mechanism to run the floor by the hour.
Unreliable starts and hidden downtime
The cook and pack rooms started on time only 59% of the time, and 47% of downtime was non-mechanical, pointing to execution gaps rather than equipment failure.
What POWERS Did
Turned an automated bakery into a measured, proactively led operation.
POWERS ran the engagement as a focused 12-week sprint with three components moving in parallel. Leadership development came first, empowering supervisors and managers in both the cook and pack rooms, building the leadership skills the floor had been missing, and shifting the culture from reactive firefighting toward proactive response and a standard of excellence.
Alongside that, the team rebuilt the Management Operating System into something the plant could actually run. Hourly performance monitoring put output in front of supervisors as it happened, attainment tracking systems made losses visible by the hour, and data-driven decision-making replaced habit and guesswork on the floor.
With leadership and the operating system in place, the work converged on hard performance goals. The cook room was pushed from 25 daily batches toward more than 40, pack-room operational efficiency was tightened through accountability routines, and every area was given clear, measurable targets to run against. Together, the three components turned a well-equipped bakery into one that was managed minute to minute, and the throughput, yield, and labor gains followed.
The Full Result
Five measurable gains, all earned from a sharper operating system rather than new capital.
208%
Annualized ROI
The engagement returned 208% on an annualized basis, built on throughput, yield, and labor gains from the new operating system rather than new equipment.
50%
Labor Efficiency Gain
Pieces per labor hour rose 50%, from 17.2 to 25.8, as hourly performance monitoring and proactive supervision tightened execution.
89%
Filling Yield
Filling yield improved from 75% to 89%, an 18% increase, once attainment tracking made losses visible by the hour.
68%
Mix Performance
Mix performance rose from 53% to 68%, a 28% improvement, as the cook room ran to defined targets rather than habit.
65%
Pack Performance
Pack performance climbed from 53% to 65%, a 22% improvement, as pack-room efficiency routines and accountability took hold.
Ready to builddisciplined execution in your operation?
Every POWERS engagement starts with our intensive Discovery Process. We work with everyone on your team, identify the gaps in the five disciplines that hold execution back, and build the partnership that closes them. The results stay built long after we’re gone.
Stronger Execution. Stronger Performance.
Frontline Leadership · MOS
A pie shell manufacturer nearly doubled cook-room batch volume and lifted pieces per labor hour 50% to land a 208% annualized ROI, all from a sharper operating system rather than new equipment.
Pie Shell Manufacturer
Executive Brief
An automated bakery supplying pie shells to its own facilities and to outside customers was missing on the two things its customers cared about most: consistent supply and competitive cost. The cook room could not hit the daily batch volumes it needed, turnover kept draining trained labor, and a reactive supervisory culture treated firefighting as normal. Over a 12-week sprint, POWERS installed a Management Operating System built on hourly performance monitoring and attainment tracking, and developed cook- and pack-room leaders to run the floor proactively. Cook-room output climbed from 25 batches a day toward a 40-plus target, pieces per labor hour rose 50%, filling yield improved from 75% to 89%, and the engagement returned 208% on an annualized basis.
Results at a Glance
208%
Annualized ROI
50%
Labor Efficiency Gain
89%
Filling Yield
The Situation
The bakery was automated, but the way it was run was not. Output, retention, and supervision all drifted because nothing on the floor was being measured.
Underneath the supply problem sat three structural issues that reinforced one another. Throughput was low, with the cook room turning out subpar volumes and falling short of the daily batch counts the business needed. Employee turnover ran high, so workforce instability kept the plant paying to retrain people instead of building on experience. And the supervisory culture was reactive, with floor leadership normalizing firefighting rather than getting ahead of problems before they cost a shift.
What made the situation worse was the near-total absence of measurement. There was no effective performance tracking and no real visibility into operational efficiency, so the team could not see where output was being lost or who owned the loss. Fixing this called for a system rather than a one-time push: a way to manage the floor by the hour, hold supervisors accountable to clear targets, and make the gains stick after the engagement ended.
The Diagnosis
Six structural gaps producing the same outcome from six directions.
Cook room running below the volume it needed
Subpar output and insufficient daily batch counts left the cook room at roughly 25 batches a day against a 40-plus target, so consistent supply was never assured.
Turnover draining trained labor
High employee turnover created workforce instability that drove substantial training costs and kept the plant rebuilding capability instead of compounding it.
A reactive supervisory culture
Floor leadership normalized firefighting over proactive management, so problems were handled after they cost output rather than prevented.
No KPIs and no visibility into efficiency
There was no effective performance tracking and no defined Schedule Attainment, Plan to Capacity, Throughput, or Efficiency metrics, leaving the floor blind to its own losses.
A Management Operating System in name only
The existing MOS lacked roughly 75% of its elements or underutilized the ones that existed, so there was no real mechanism to run the floor by the hour.
Unreliable starts and hidden downtime
The cook and pack rooms started on time only 59% of the time, and 47% of downtime was non-mechanical, pointing to execution gaps rather than equipment failure.
What POWERS Did
Turned an automated bakery into a measured, proactively led operation.
POWERS ran the engagement as a focused 12-week sprint with three components moving in parallel. Leadership development came first, empowering supervisors and managers in both the cook and pack rooms, building the leadership skills the floor had been missing, and shifting the culture from reactive firefighting toward proactive response and a standard of excellence.
Alongside that, the team rebuilt the Management Operating System into something the plant could actually run. Hourly performance monitoring put output in front of supervisors as it happened, attainment tracking systems made losses visible by the hour, and data-driven decision-making replaced habit and guesswork on the floor.
With leadership and the operating system in place, the work converged on hard performance goals. The cook room was pushed from 25 daily batches toward more than 40, pack-room operational efficiency was tightened through accountability routines, and every area was given clear, measurable targets to run against. Together, the three components turned a well-equipped bakery into one that was managed minute to minute, and the throughput, yield, and labor gains followed.
The Full Result
208%
Annualized ROI
The engagement returned 208% on an annualized basis, built on throughput, yield, and labor gains from the new operating system rather than new equipment.
50%
Labor Efficiency Gain
Pieces per labor hour rose 50%, from 17.2 to 25.8, as hourly performance monitoring and proactive supervision tightened execution.
89%
Filling Yield
Filling yield improved from 75% to 89%, an 18% increase, once attainment tracking made losses visible by the hour.
68%
Mix Performance
Mix performance rose from 53% to 68%, a 28% improvement, as the cook room ran to defined targets rather than habit.
65%
Pack Performance
Pack performance climbed from 53% to 65%, a 22% improvement, as pack-room efficiency routines and accountability took hold.
POWERS|+1 678-971-4711|info@thepowerscompany.com|1801 Peachtree St NE, Suite 200, Atlanta, GA 303091 / 1