Daub, the Hamburg (Germany) oven constructor, has changed. Integrated into the Kaak Group, it now sees itself as a process analyst, adviser and supplier of automated baking systems.
One thing remains, the Daub name still stands for thermo-oil-heated baking ovens. Otherwise, new work priorities for the Hamburg business have emerged in recent years. Building on preparatory work from Hamburg, this is due partly to the fact that sales and marketing take place nowadays in the Kaak Group’s network, and partly it is also due to the customers. According to Managing Director Andreas Ranft: “Our contacts have become more professional and discerning, and the advisory and organizational effort
to install modern lines has increased. Therefore, one of the focuses of our advisory work is on requirement analysis aimed at efficient production flow. We focus on the overall process, in which the occurrence of bottlenecks is not acceptable.”
Production at Daub in Hamburg
Meticulous recording of baking and loading times at the planned oven and, in it, is just as much a part of this analysis as discussion of the process steps before and after. Ranft says: “What’s the use of an efficient baking process if the outgoing conveying and dispatch systems cannot cope with the volume?” Only after a coherent product and production concept has come into existence, in minds and on paper, is it possible to decide which oven is appropriate for them, either one of the numerous tunnel oven variants in a single or multi-deck version, one or more Daub Thermorolls together with loading and unloading systems, usually built by Kaak, or a cyclotherm tunnel oven from the Italian sister company MCS. According to Ranft: “90% of the decisions nowadays are for a tunnel system, with the result that efficiency then becomes one of the decisive arguments. But regardless of which solution wins, the decisive factor is automation of the whole baking system.”
Placement of oven modules in an existing plant by crane
The aspiration to increase efficiency also applies to the provision of service. Daub maintains a network of 24 permanently employed specialist technicians in der DACH region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland), who also operate as a rapid reaction force. A team in the Hamburg headquarters coordinates the service. Worldwide provision of service on the spot, in the local language, is ensured by 53 subcontractors trained by Daub. Together with its sister companies, Daub is currently testing a new service organization. This involves technicians, trained in all the systems, being able to take care of entire lines, and needing to call in one of the manufacturer’s technicians only for specific issues. In parallel with this, we are also setting up a web shop in which customers can find the entire technical documentation for their plant, together with its history, and a spare parts shop that shows 3-D images of the components and explains their function.
Changes at the Hamburg site also match the orientation towards efficiency and automation. The assembly building was enlarged in the fall of last year, resulting in the ability to build three large ovens in parallel. Two fully-automatic press brakes with a shared tool shuttle were installed at the same time. The next step in the plan is to install a new large-format laser cutter in the production building on the south side of the Elbe, which can process large parts of the cutting work fully automatically according to predefined programs, and can possibly also do that for other Kaak Group subsidiaries.
Concentrating on the further development of thermo-oil technology and process efficiency has given the Hanseatic city’s business a significant tailwind. Nowadays, its thermo-oil ovens are in use not only for classical bread and bread roll product ranges, but also in pizza lines, in producing lye-dipped baked goods or, with vertical turbulence, as a toast-bread oven. Turnover also rose to EUR 23 million in the past three years, and the current number of employees is 94.
