Maidstone Bakery improves its quality with Six Sigma

Dyadem, a leading provider of Quality Lifecycle Management and Risk Lifecycle Management solutions, on November 8 announced a new deal with Maidstone Bakeries, a joint venture between IAWS Group and Tim Hortons. Maidstone has saved hundreds of thousands of dollars through the use of Six Sigma methodology and Dyadem's FMEA Pro-7 Risk Management Software – commonly used to improve quality in manufacturing but rarely seen in the consumer products sector.

Maidstone produces more than 60 million donuts per week and wanted to ensure top quality while making sure its production operations were as efficient as possible. Dyadem has helped Maidstone significantly reduce costs while improving quality at its 400,000-square-foot facility in

Brantford, Ontario.

"Six Sigma is a standard, disciplined methodology and Dyadem's FMEA Pro-7 gave us an easy and painless way to take this approach, helping us solve problems using data rather than gut feel," said Brett Kyle, Continuous Improvement training manager at Maidstone and Six Sigma master black belt. "Since the implementation, we've significantly reduced costs and clearly shifted to the next level of quality. FMEA-Pro showed us new ways to solve old problems, by helping us find the roots and develop new procedures to address them. The results were very often surprising."

As the standard tool of choice for thousands of companies worldwide, including much of the Fortune 500, FMEA Pro-7 is designed to better analyze product designs and manufacturing processes, dramatically shorten study time and prevent failures from happening. Maidstone had relied heavily on informal processes based on Excel spreadsheets and scattered paperwork and with FMEA- Pro project management features was able to document and retain Six Sigma across the Brantford operations using a single program, which is a significant improvement over previous methods.

"Safety is always the top concern in any kind of manufacturing facility – whether it is cars or other consumer products, managing risk to both employees and consumers, without compromising quality, is a challenge that few companies are meeting effectively," said Kevin North, president and CEO of Dyadem. "Maidstone, however, has raised the bar for its industry with this ground- breaking implementation of Six Sigma in the consumer products manufacturing industry. For example, by identifying areas of production waste and leftover dough and oil, Maidstone eliminated 80 percent of the waste, improved its environmental efficiencies and saved significant dollars in the process. While many companies avoid changing their quality management methodologies because of the perceived investments in time and money, Maidstone has proven that the transition has already paid for itself tenfold."

With the success of its initial implementation of Dyadem FMEA-Pro, Maidstone's committed next steps are to continue to apply the FMEA-Pro process to future projects, with a main focus on quality and costs savings.

About Dyadem International

Founded in 1993, Dyadem is the market leader in Quality Lifecycle Management and Risk Lifecycle Management solutions. Dyadem provides software and services that empower companies to manage quality, mitigate risks, achieve regulatory compliance, plan for business continuity and improve profitability. Dyadem serves the high tech & electronics, medical devices, oil and gas, chemical, automotive, pharmaceutical, and aerospace and defense industries.