Situation: Sara Lee’s bagels surged in popularity with consumers and required a dramatic increase in throughput to
meet the increased demand.

Mission: With a strong desire to maintain margin while growing throughput, Sara Lee tasked MEMCO with designing a
solution to automate tray and rack handling on the bagel lines which would reduce the labor requirements by 10%.

Execution: Using proven Industrial Engineering and Lean Manufacturing techniques, MEMCO re-designed the bagel line
which allowed the entire bagel line transport system to be removed while also integrating a new automated tray and
rack handling system which moved the bagels from formers to oven infeed with no manual labor. Additionally, the tray
cleaning, stacking and surge control was enhanced with a vertical accumulator.

Result: MEMCO’s unique approach to this project resulted in a massive 45% reduction in manual labor requirements
and allowed Sara Lee to re-task Front Line Team Members to more value-added activities on the shop floor.