He checks the incoming ingredients, visits with workers on the production line, checks out the cookies as they are being made and generally ensures the operation is running smoothly. The people who work for him are the key ingredient to his success, Fehr said. At the same time, one of the biggest challenges is finding enough good people with a good work ethic, education and who are willing to take on new challenges. And an understanding wife. The bakery operates 24 hours a day, five days a week.
Workers man four production lines in three, eight-hour shifts during the week.
They produce about 30 million pounds of cookies per year. Workers process 1.5 million pounds of flour per month into tasty treats using about 45 different recipes. The re-tooled facility will increase production from the current level of about 1,200 pounds of cookies an hour to a capacity of 1,800 to 2,000 pounds. The dough is mixed in huge vats and trundled over to bins that sit at one end of a long conveyer belt. Rollers press the cookie dough into the proper shape for the flavor being produced.