Case study

The Chiba Plant, located inland, began operations in 1996, however, the effects of global warming began changing the production environment in 2005. The temperature in the area around the factory has risen, and higher outside temperatures during the summer has affected the production of frozen bread dough. Thinking back to the time when the facilities were updated, Mr. Nakajima, manager of the Frozen Production Department says, “Because it had become difficult to maintain the proper temperature to prevent fermentation problems with our existing refrigeration equipment, we needed to replace the system.”

Upon adopting the NewTon system, three areas showed significant improvements, namely energy efficiency, cooling speed, and operating time. Compared with the previous year energy efficiency achieves 30% savings, and up to 40% in some months. The combination of the NewTon system and spiral freezer with air defrost function, which was updated at the same time, resulted in 21 hours of continuous operation, increased from the previous 16, thereby improving productivity.

The most significant effect, however, was noise reduction. Reducing the noise of the refrigeration equipment in order to provide a quiet environment for neighboring residents was a long-standing issue. It was such a concern that Kobeya representatives visited locations where NewTon was installed to check noise levels. “Machine vibration is minimal, and it is so quiet that you can’t tell if it’s operating unless you open the door to the machine case,” Nakajima relates, with a relieved look on his face.
“Every effort we made was to deliver our best-tasting bread to as many customers as possible. We plan on adopting the NewTon system in other production lines as well. We want our other plants to be just as successful as this one,” Nakajima says enthusiastically.