Retailer’s In House Bakery Rack Wheels
Were A Serious Safety Concern–
P&H designed a new bakery wheel to address this potential hazardous in our customer’s operations.
Our Challenge
The in-store bakery has a high level of visibility with unique operational requirements from other store departments. Equipment used in food preparation comes with hazards not found in other areas of the store’s operations. Our customer had chronic problems with bakery racks. The wheels that were installed on the racks were not rolling smoothly and were seizing up. Bakery personnel continued to try to push the cart, not realizing that the wheels were frozen, causing the racks to tip over. This presented a serious potential safety hazard for bakery personnel.
Our Approach
P&H observed that in the bakery environment the wheels were subjected to stresses that were not anticipated by the manufacturer.
- Recommended operating temperature ranges were often exceeded, particularly the range for “continuous” versus “intermittent”.
- Bakery rack wheels were rarely greased on a weekly basis as per the manufacturer’s recommendations.
Our Solution
P&H thought that changing the product was more likely to be a successful solution than changing the behavior of bakery personnel. Designing a better product eliminated relying on personnel to do routine or scheduled maintenance.
P&H developed a unique high temperature bakery wheel and bearing mechanism that eliminated the need for wheel maintenance during the entire wheel life cycle!
Our Results
Our high temperature wheel went from the cooler to the oven and back again with no maintenance required. The bakery racks operated smoothly without the wheels freezing up. Employee safety was enhanced, and liability concerns reduced.
End of Story
The P&H High Temperature wheel has gone on to become a bakery industry standard for performance in high temperature environments. P&H has developed several types of high temperature wheels to accommodate differences in flooring materials and applications.
