PAPAYE FAST FOOD LTD

RICE PRODUCTION

Observations on Rice Production

SAMER KALMONI
4/3/2017

Observations made to the reason why fried rice has received so much complains.
 ABSTRACT

This report was written to outline the challenges with the production of rice from cooking
through its entire stages till fried rice. All variables related to the production of fried rice were
looked into carefully through observations, experiments and investigations. The findings of this
report will outline disturbing practices that have been turned into systems by the employees.
Standard operating procedures set by management are not being followed with careful due
diligence. These findings are to enable management act quickly in the restructuring of the rice
production section and solve the existing rice problems.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract......................................................................................................................................... 2

Report............................................................................................................................................4

Cleanliness of Production Area.........................................................................................4

Washing of Trays..................................................................................................4

Preheating of Machines.....................................................................................................5

Setting of Rice for Cooking...............................................................................................5

Cooking of Rice.................................................................................................................5

Water used for Setting Rice...................................................................................5

Cooling Table........................................................................................................6

Cooking Habits......................................................................................................6

Cooking of Chicken Stock Oil...........................................................................................7

Frying of Rice....................................................................................................................8

Ingredients.............................................................................................................8

Recommendations.........................................................................................................................8

Appendix.......................................................................................................................................11

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 REPORT
For the past year, complains have been lodged with management regarding the standard of our
fried rice. Some complains were related to the texture and taste. Customers are losing faith in
Papaye maintaining its standard as its well known for. Many attempts were made to try to correct
the problem, but never arrived at a concrete solution. It has become absolutely necessary to
restore customer’s perception in Papaye's standard. Digging deep to the root of the problem, and
solving this problem once and for all is key to the company's success. I have taking it upon
myself to investigate what has gone wrong and how it can be corrected quickly. Through
observations, experiments and investigations, I arrived to conclusions why Papaye's rice has
become the way it is now.

CLEANLINESS OF PRODUCTION AREA

The place is kept as clean as possible; however, it is well below our standards. Reporting to work
at 5:30am for a few days and observing how the day starts was disturbing.

 Machines are not cleaned.

 Hidden areas are left unclean for a period.
 Washing of trays

 The Morning shift do not wash their trays before using them. They are left
with some rice particles in them over night, and are used as they are the next
day.
In some cases, when the trays are left in the hot steamer overnight, the
temperature becomes ideal for fermentation. It speeds up the fermentation
process overnight giving some trays a foul odor.
This was observed on two occasions. Attempts made to implement
corrective actions were proving futile.

 It was also observed that when the tray is washed and used, there is far less
formation of starchy layer at the bottom.
The bottom of an unwashed tray has an oily, starchy layer that adds to the
rice cooked after it. After a full day production, the buildup is thick. If that
tray is used the next day, it makes the bottom of the cooked rice look
starchy.
For a while it was not understood why the bottom of the trays were starchy.
But it appears to have a correlation to the fact that trays might not be washed
and causing a buildup of starch and oil.
Another factor contributing to this problem is cooking 4 kilos in one tray at
a time. It speeds the buildup of the starchy layer at the bottom.

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 Using 2 kilos at a time lessens the problem significantly. Using washed trays
and cooking 2 kilos at a time almost eliminates this problem.

PREHEATING OF MACHINES

It is company's standard procedure to preheat the steaming cabinet before rice is cooked.

 Employees do not preheat the oven before putting rice into the steamer. Sometimes
they even leave set rice in seasoned water till the oven preheats, cooling down the
supposedly hot water used to set the rice.
 It is absolutely crucial for rice to be put in the cabinet as the seasoned water
remains hot. Failure to do so prolongs cooking time and contributes to the
rice soft texture.

SETTING OF RICE FOR COOKING

 The setting table is too small.

 When 4 kilos were being cooked at ones, the number of trays were 12. With
the provision of larger machines and cooking 2 kilos at a time, we now have
30 trays. It is an issue accommodating that number of trays on the setting
table and this slows the employees a little by creating congestion on the
table.
For now, they can set 10 trays at a time and put them in the trolley and set
the next batch of trays until the trolley is full. However, it would be quicker
if all trays were laid on the table and every process in setting rice is done to
all trays at once. This will reduce the possibilities for mistakes during
setting.

COOKING OF RICE

The cooking process is a key factor to the outcome of the rice. Every step from setting the rice
till it's out of the steamer affects the outcome. I observed that petty variables put together are
resulting in non-standard rice. Some variables more significant than others, but put together
cause an entire batch to fail quality control tests.

 Water used for Setting Rice

 Water used to season rice for cooking should always be scorching hot (just
below boiling) and immediately put into the steamer. However, employees
fail to do so on several occasions.

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 They claim that the water is already hot and so they switched of the burners.
During the fabrication of the stirrer a thermostat should have been installed
to avoid employees using their judgment of how hot the water is.
Another factor observed is the effectiveness of the stirrer. An upgrade was
done to the stirrer a few months ago and stirring better than before, but is
still not very effective. It can be upgraded further. We will need to consider
adding another stirrer for two reasons.
 . To have a spare machine available in case of unpredicted
breakdowns
 Now that we have a larger cooking capacity, we need to consider
cutting time down by constantly having seasoned water available for
setting rice.
 It takes about 30mins for the employees to set a fresh batch of
seasoned water and that does not help on days with rush. Till the
stirrer is full and until it boils is time consuming. This forces the
employee to use water that is not boiling hot.

 The process used to prepare seasoned water for rice production must also be
changed.
 Adding the seasoning to water by just pouring it in, is not effective.
The water might have taste, but it’s not as strong throughout the whole
batching process. The seasoning appears to be strong during the first setting
and diminishes as the setting continues.
 This is indicative of undissolved seasoning settling at the bottom of the
stirrer. The first set has a yellowish coloration to it. As consequent sets are
prepared the yellowish coloration disappears.
 The process of piping water is done by pumping from the bottom of the
stirrer. As the seasoning settles, the first batch gets more seasoning than
the following batches. That will make the following batches less tasty.
 The first batch that is cooked tastes better than the final batch. You can
easily tell a first batch cooking because of its slight yellowish coloration
from the maggi.

 Before water is added to the rice, they add butter and chicken stock oil. The
process in which it is added is standard operating procedure, but not an
effective one.
 They just pour in the oil and throw the butter in the tray.
 When the hot water is added, there is not enough time for the butter to
melt after stirring the rice and putting the trays in the trolley.
 A better technique would be to create a drum like a concrete mixer and
throw the specified 2½ bags of rice and stir with the oil and butter before

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 batching them into trays. We could even use a large fryer to mix the rice
before batching.

COOLING TABLE

 The table used to cool the rice after it’s being cooked is too small.
 When rice is cooked, and poured unto the cooling table, it needs to sit
there for a few minutes to cool down completely before portioning
them into 10kg trays.
 But here is the case were two steaming cabinets are cooking rice with
a cooking time difference of 15-20mins.
 When the first batch is poured unto the cooling table to cool, the
second batch is also ready after 15mins.
 The employee finds himself in a predicament. At this point the
employee does one of two things. He either leaves the rice in the
steamer till what is on the cooling table is done cooling and then
portion, or they portion the rice into trays as they are hot.

COOKING HABITS

 When the cooling table is occupied, the employee will portion rice while it’s still
hot into trays. By doing this, it makes rice softer.
 The heat and steam is still in the rice as they are portioned into trays, and
the rice will continue to cook slowly. As this happens the rice becomes
softer.
 In some cases, the rice is even sent for frying while it’s still hot. When the
frying boy “beats” the rice to the break the clumps, he rather mashes the
rice because the rice is still hot and soft.

 If the employee decides to leave the rice trolley in the oven till the cooling table is
free, he also causes similar problems.
 Despite the fact that they switch off the steamer, if they are left inside the
cabinet they will also continue to cook gradually.
 This will overcook the rice and make it soft.
 Attempts were made to rather remove the trolley and keep it outside till
the cooling table is free, but doing this also creates a bigger problem.

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  When the tray is allowed to cool down without being poured and forked, it
clumps up badly. This is due to the starch in rice.
 When the tray cools, the starch binds the rice grains together creating
larger and stronger clumps. Even forking them a little till it cools makes
no difference to the clumps.
 The rice must be poured out of the trays and forked as it’s hot.
 When the rice is hot the starch is far less sticky and the clumps break
faster and easier.
 An experiment was conducted to find a solution to this problem and was a success.
 Instead of a cooling table, a drum with screw fins was created to break and cool
the rice.
 The rice pours out of the drum without any breakages and far less clumps
(actually no clumps at all
 During the process of breaking the rice, air is allowed to circulate in the
drum cooling each rice grain independently.
 This cools the starch on the rice grain quickly rendering the starch less
sticky.
 This experiment provides us with a solution of using far less space to cool and
break the rice clumps, rather than creating a huge table for cooling.

 The employees do not need to scoop rice from any cooling table. The
rotating drum can pour the rice directly into the trays cooled and up to
standard. Much faster, and much more guaranteed of reducing clumps.

COOKING OF CHICKEN STOCK OIL

Chicken stock oil is a flavoring variable. For years, we have used this ingredient to give our rice
a unique flavor.

 Lately, careful observations showed that the oil had a light coloration rather than
deep as it used to.
 Watching the preparation of chicken stock oil revealed a flaw in its preparation.
 When the chicken stock is cooked for approximately 4-5 hours to drain all
the oil out of it, the chicken particles are sieved from it.
 Later a fresh batch of soya oil is added to it to increase its volume.
 I could not find any SOP regarding the preparation of chicken stock oil,
but I was told that the quantities and procedure has been this way for
years.
 What I found to be flawed in the whole process was the dilution of the
chicken stock oil.

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  The employee will pour fresh soya oil into fryer until it is full. She will
pour what she can pour, wait for 5 mins and then fetch out a couple of
5 liter buckets to create space and add the remainder of the fresh soya
oil.
 At this point, she has not giving the fresh soya oil and capricorn
enough time to cook with the chicken stock oil.
 The chicken stock oil and fresh soya oil will not blend properly.
Especially when it is poured into the bucket and allowed to cool.
 The denser fresh soya oil will settle at the bottom, while the hotter
chicken stock oil will rise to the top.

FRYING OF RICE

 Papaye has its SOP for frying rice. I tasked the marketing personnel to check their
comment cards regarding rice complains since January. I do not have the exact figures
but, I remember Osu had 20 complains and Tesano had the least complains with only 3.
 All the three were related to texture and not taste. I rushed to Tesano to check if any
observations can be made as to why Tesano had no complaints regarding taste.
 I discovered their fried rice was tasting better than Spintex.
 After observing the “rice boy” I quickly noticed the quantities of white pepper and soya
sauce used in Tesano was different. Tesano was using more in cooking their fried rice.

Ingredients

 Looking back at the SOP for fried rice we must use the following ingredient in their
respective weights.

Carrot 425g
Green Pepper 130g
Onion 325g
Spring Onion 1.5cups
White Pepper 20g
Soya Sauce 1cup

Please refer to the appendix for my results on the quantities being used in Spintex for example.

 It was clear that onion, carrots, white pepper and soya sauce were not being used
according to their ratios.

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  The section is provided with cups that should be equivalent to the weight required;
however, it appears the size of the cups used currently do not measure out correctly.
 They have been replaced because of their appearance after long use.
 As soon as you try the to measure out the right quantities, you get a better taste.
Especially with the white pepper. Currently ⅓ the required quantity is used.

RECOMMENDATIONS / CONCLUSION

In order to resolve the problems with the fried rice in Papaye, the following recommendation
must be implemented.

1. Fried rice ingredients must be corrected immediately.

The ingredients must be weighed out in stainless steel cups bought from a super market.
The cups can be cut down to size to measure out ingredient in their respective weight and
volume.

2. Provision must be made to support the entire batch of chicken stock oil. That way the
entire batch can be heated uniformly till the fresh soya oil blends with the chicken stock
oil.

3. The executive chairman has decided to train new staff on the SOP for cooking rice.

That must be done as soon as possible so we can suspend some of the workers and
transfer other ones out of that section.
The entire work force in the rice section have “system corrupted minds” beyond
correction. This can be proven with the fact that despite my attempts to stop
certain behaviors, they still could not stop bad habits.

4. The cooling procedure for rice must be revised.

I suggest using the rotating drum design with screw fins to break the rice because
it’s a compact and more guaranteed design.
Using a larger cooling table will NEVER be as effective as the rotating drum.
Even when rice is forked to perfection and left on the cooling table to cool, it will
still stick together to a certain degree. This will happen because all the rice grains
are still hot sitting over each other till the starch cools. That will cause the rice to
bind again slightly.

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 However, using the rotating drum cools the rice grains individually before being
poured out into trays. The starch will cool on each rice grain before they sit over
each other, reducing the clumping effect.

5. The seasoning water stirrer must be upgraded. There are a number of solutions here. A
number of concerns can be solved collectively depending on the approach we choose to
correct the problem.
Unlike the cooling table, a drum that works like a concrete mixer or a drum that
behaves like the shitɔ mixer can be used.
The chicken stock oil along with all the seasoning required for 2½ bags can be put
in there and stirred until they mix uniformly.
From this point, all we do is batch the seasoned raw rice into trays and only add
boiling water to it before inserting them into the steamer.
This will solve many of the issues discussed in the report.
 Or we could do exactly like the point above.
This time, instead of batching the raw seasoned rice into trays and then adding
boiling water, we could add the boiling water into the stirrer. We will allow the
whole 2½ bags to mix and absorb all the water before we batch them into trays
and insert them into the steamer. This would be another approach to solving the
problem.
And like the approach above, it also solves many of the issues discussed in the
report.

6. An opening and closing check list must be given to the rice section.
This will not be hard to implement, because we already have a system of batch
recordings. Adding another book to be used shouldn’t be an issue. The workers
have already been conditioned to accept record books as “The Books of Life”.
They all understand its importance and the consequences of breaking the system
of taking records.
“If you want to stay with Papaye, then you must follow the instructions in THE
BOOK OF LIFE.
These books give you the life line support in the company.” That is the
understanding amongst the Staff.
So adding a check list will remind and commit them to their daily activities. Refer
to appendix for sample check list.

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 MORNING REPORTING TICK CLOSING CHECKLIST TICK
CHECKLIST √ √
Date: OR Date: OR
X X
Reporting Time: Closing Time:
AREA WASHED AND PREPARED BY WASH AND PREPARE AREA FOR
NIGHT SHIFT MORNING SHIFT
STEAMING CABINET WASHED BY WASH AND PREPARE STEAMING
NIGHT SHIFT CABINET FOR MORNING SHIFT
STIRRER WASHED AND EMPTIED BY WASH STIRRER AND EMPTY IT FOR
NIGHT SHIFT MORNING SHIFT
ALL TRAYS AND ACCESSORIES WASH TRAYS AND ACCESSORIES FOR
WASHED BY NIGHT SHIFT MORNING SHIFT
ALL EQUIPMENTS WERE SWITCHED SWITCH OF ALL EQUIPMENTS
OF COMPLETELY COMPLETELY BEFORE LEAVING
THE SECTION IS IN ORDER WITH NO THE SECTION IS IN ORDER WITH NO
COMPLAINS COMPLAINS

REMARKS:

EMPLOYEES DURING SHIFT NAME & SIGN. SUPERVISOR NAME & SIGN.

MORNING REPORTING TICK CLOSING CHECKLIST TICK

CHECKLIST √ √
Date: OR Date: OR
X X
Reporting Time: Closing Time:
AREA WASHED AND PREPARED BY WASH AND PREPARE AREA FOR
NIGHT SHIFT MORNING SHIFT
STEAMING CABINET WASHED BY WASH AND PREPARE STEAMING
NIGHT SHIFT CABINET FOR MORNING SHIFT
STIRRER WASHED AND EMPTIED BY WASH STIRRER AND EMPTY IT FOR
NIGHT SHIFT MORNING SHIFT
ALL TRAYS AND ACCESSORIES WASH TRAYS AND ACCESSORIES FOR
WASHED BY NIGHT SHIFT MORNING SHIFT
ALL EQUIPMENTS WERE SWITCHED SWITCH OF ALL EQUIPMENTS
OF COMPLETELY COMPLETELY BEFORE LEAVING
THE SECTION IS IN ORDER WITH NO THE SECTION IS IN ORDER WITH NO
COMPLAINS COMPLAINS

REMARKS:

EMPLOYEES DURING SHIFT NAME & SIGN. SUPERVISOR NAME & SIGN.

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 APPENDIX 1
SOP INGREDIENTS QUANTITY CURRENTLY DIFFERENCE
USED
Carrot 425g 355g -70g
Green Pepper 130g 160g +30g
Onion 325g 260g -65g
Spring Onion 1.5cups 2 cups +0.5cup
White Pepper 20g Approximately 5-7g -15g
Soya Sauce 1cup 1cup (but definitely smaller) -
INGREDIENTS USED TO FRY RICE AND THEIR DIFFERENCES

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