Concept of managing quality in baking industry, in vector representation

Purpose: The goal of the article is to present an innovative process of managing quality in baking industry, in vector representation. Design/methodology/approach: To achieve the planned goal, the author presents an innovative metrisable method of describing a manufacturing process. The article formulates vector representations of a manufacturing process, based on systems engineering models, as well as presents constitutive relations, as three vectors that combine: effects of quality as the product feature vector, loss vector, and input stream vector. The quality management process in baking industry is a purposeful process of an operator, acting on streams that represent an ordered set of relations between their elements, leading to the emergence of a product and inevitable losses. Each of the said streams will contain quantities of activities in time, relevant to its character. The types of activities within each stream will determine the goal of the operator’s activity. The complete set of the input streams is represented by the operator’s vector, formed from the sum of the individual input vectors. The activity of the manufacturing process operator results in the emergence of a product, described by six vectors that describe quality of a bakery product: nutritional value, taste, healthiness, attractiveness, durability, freshness. The losses are represented by four vectors: ecological, human resources, energy losses, and safety. Findings: The author introduced an innovative metrisable method of describing a manufacturing process. The idea of vector structure of a manufacturing process allows to formulate quantitative relations between the activity of input streams, elements of product quality, and measurable effects of losses. The structure was basis for the formulation of the concept of the process of managing product quality in the baking industry in a vector representation. The application of systems engineering allows for a measurable answer to the fundamental questions of the goal of the manufacturing process, its efficiency in the context of combining all the elements, including product quality, as well as other improving activities. Originality/value: The article may be a recommendation for manufacturing companies. The new idea for a metrisable vector structure of a manufacturing process has been designed with the baking industry in mind, but the whole system’s construction makes it applicable to analyse other processes, in e.g. information production, didactics, strategy, etc., as it imposes no limitations on the character of the process, which may also be of immaterial production character.