Paper

1. Describe Barilla’s manufacturing and distribution operations. Barilla's has 25 manufacturing plants located all throughout Italy where each plant has a dedicated product that they manufacture ranging from pasta, flour mills, fresh bread and specialty products such as croissants and Christmas cakes. Raw materials, in the manufacturing process, were transformed to packaged pasta on fully-automated 120 meter long production lines. Each plant specialized in manufacturing a type of pasta with the main distinction being the composite of the pasta i.e. dry or fresh pasta, or pasta with or without eggs and spinach. Even within the same family of pasta products, individual products were assigned to plants based on the size and shape of the pasta. For example “short” pasta products, such as macaroni or fusilli, and “long” products, such as spaghetti or capellini, were made in separate facilities due to the different sizes of equipment required. The manufacturing process at Barilla was very precise. Flour and water were mixed to form dough, which was then rolled into a long, thin sheet. Once the dough was rolled to the desired thickness, the dough was forced through a bronze die screen which gave the dough its shape. After being passed through an extruder, the pasta was cut to a desired length. The pasta was then hung over dowels or placed into trays and moved slowly through a long tunnel kiln and moved across the factory floor. The temperature and humidity in the kiln were precisely specified for each size and shape of pasta and to keep changeover costs low and product quality high Barilla followed a carefully chosen production sequence that minimized changes in the kiln temperature and humidity. After being dried for 4 hours, the pasta was weighed and packaged. From a distribution standpoint, Barilla segregated their products into dry and fresh product categories with a different distribution system for each category due to perishability and retail service