How the bakery runs, and how each figure travels

1. Planning the day's bake

• Should: salesmen bring feedback on what each route needs; Abu Bakr and Safi plan the shifts. No file holds planned production (S8, S15).
• Actually: a supervisor writes the plan the same morning in a diary ("Planning from material") and along the top of the requisition voucher. It is not discussed with or checked by the bakery manager. 6 October: 25 Deluxe batches, 3,050 kg of flour, against 14 to 16 on the days before (S40).
• Gap: the plan exists only on paper, is never typed in, and drives the requisition unchecked (Z5).

2. Stores issue to the bakery

• Should: the main store issues to the bakery's intermediate store against a requisition.
• Actually: each morning the bakery writes a numbered Material Issue Voucher from the plan less yesterday's leftovers (worked out in the diary). Abu Bakr signs; supervisors call stores, who issue into the bakery. 6 October (voucher 19479): started 09:05, signed about 09:27, stores arrived about 09:55, items out by 10:32. Stores issued exactly what was asked, except yeast (collected from the factory against an office invoice) and a cleaning cloth (S39, S42, S48, S56, S57, S76).
• Gaps: it takes about an hour and a half end to end, staff were given three different windows for drawing stock, and it's unclear whether there's one store or two (Z7). Flour is issued in equal thirds across Royal, Nyati and Nyimba, which does not follow the recipes (S73). The store locks from inside and was open to walk-ins (S60). Eggs and milk come in outside this process (S86).

3. Mixing, proofing and baking

• Should: water measured per batch by a flow meter; ideal proof 46 to 50 minutes; oven 220 degrees for 40 minutes (S18, S59, S31).
• Actually: the flow meter gives too much or too little, so staff add water or flour by hand; proof is judged by eye (Deluxe 30 to 35 minutes on 6 October), and there's no thermometer for frying oil or timer on the fritter mixer. Table time depends on crew size. The moulder was down Saturday to Monday 16:00 (S21, S22, S54, S55, S59).
• Gap: several steps run on feel (finding 12).

4. The production sheet

• Should: the shift supervisor writes each batch as it is counted on the table before the proof room: raw materials used and loaves (S1).
• Actually: one sheet covers the morning and afternoon shifts, stays open between them, is signed by all three shift supervisors and is submitted the next day. Every Deluxe batch carries the same 216 loaves, 122 kg of flour and 72 litres of water, and the water is a standard. A batch written 212 went into a total of 16 x 216. The raw-material table at the foot is filled in by hand and mostly closes (S32, S34, S35, S36, S41, S79).
• Typed in: by someone in accounts, usually within a day, sometimes one or two days late; 27 and 28 September were still missing on 5 October (S13, S80).
• Gaps: the shifts can't be told apart, and the figures are standards rather than counts (finding 04).

5. Cooling and slicing

• Should: not described.
• Actually: bread cools about an hour outside, or 25 to 30 minutes in the cooling room. Slicing takes about 17 seconds a loaf, about an hour per batch on one slicer; at 14:00 on 6 October a large backlog waited (S58, S68, S77).
• Gap: nothing is counted between the proof room and dispatch, so loss in the oven, cooling and slicing has no count of its own (S78; Z2, Z3).

6. Damages

• Should: supervisors record damages daily with the production report, numbers only. Damaged bread is written off: some breadcrumbs, the rest to the skip (S4, S5).
• Actually: production damages go on the production sheet and delivery damages in a log book. Damaged returns are kept aside overnight for accounts to check (S80, S85).
• Gap: damages are written in two places with no cause, and the yield is counted before most damage happens (finding 03; Z6, A5).

7. Loading and dispatch

• Should: trucks loaded 03:00 to 04:00 by the night shift, away by 06:00; same driver and salesman per route (S6, S12).
• Actually: each load is written three times: the security book at the gate (each guard in his own format), the bakery's loading book (loaded, sold, returned per route) and the salesman report. The loading book and two salesman reports agreed cell for cell on 6 October (S69).
• Gap: nobody we know of compares the three, and on our reading the security book misses two top-ups (finding 15; M1, Z1).

8. The gate shop

• Should: one salesman, selling today's bread in the afternoon once yesterday's runs out, plus undamaged returns (S5, S12).
• Actually: two shifts (06:00 to 14:00, 14:00 to 22:00) with two salesmen each. Each shift requisitions on a handwritten slip copied into the loading book; the morning's leftovers become the afternoon's stock; money is counted each shift. 806 Deluxe sold in the morning of 6 October. It also sells 25 to 40 test-bakery loaves a day (S71, S72, S75, S81).
• Gap: on 6 October the shop was closed from 14:00 to at least 14:40, waiting for sliced bread (finding 09, finding 10).

9. Returns and cash-up

• Should: salesmen return about 14:00, hand in returns, count the money and give it to the cashier; mostly cash, some mobile money (S11).
• Actually: a printed salesman report per salesman: loaded, returned, sold, price, value and a cash count by note and coin. The supervisor receives the returns, checks the sales and signs; the driver takes the sheet and money to the cashier. Both reports seen closed exactly. Cash-up falls in the lunch hour, so on 6 October the assistant supervisor received the returns (S65, S66, S67, S80).
• Typed in: accounts type each route's sheet into Excel and raise one bulk invoice that must match the cash; driver shortages charged on the 20th (S84; finding 16).

10. Stock checks

• Should: accounts count finished goods every two or three days and work back through production and sales (S9).
• Actually (told): Munir checks finished goods and the intermediate store each morning at about 08:00, daily or every second day. The store man's bin cards are updated every two or three days and posted to Tally as one lump at month end (S83, S85).
• Gap: no daily raw-material figure in the books (finding 11); whether the finished-goods count is written before seeing the book is open (finding 05).

Timings measured so far

The 5 October timings were taken the afternoon the moulder came back, so they are not a clean baseline; Zubair repeats them this week.