Centralized pizza dough production

Staff in the American supply chain centers of Domino’s Pizza produce dough for franchise outlets, among others. This also guarantees the quality of the pizzas.

+Das D omino’s Pizza, an American listed company, specializes in producing and supplying pizza. The company operates mainly in North America, Europe and Japan. Domino’s in the USA and Canada relies on supply chain centers to produce pizza dough for the branches, among other things. There are 18 of these distribution centers in North America alone. They vary in size, the smallest serving around 125 branches and the biggest approx. 650 branches. There are also supply chain centers in Alaska, on Hawaii and five more in Canada. On the one hand, the task of these supply chain centers is to check raw materials quality, and on the other they guarantee that each pizza in every outlet has the same flavor.

Dough production

One of these North American distribution centers is at Hartford, Connecticut, in the USA. It consists of a building with an area of approx. 3,715 m 2 that serves about 400 branches in New England, upstate New York, Buffalo, Rochester and New York City. The respective franchise branches in this arrangement have a supply plan that provides for one or three deliveries per week. Branches can submit their orders up to midday each day. These orders are collected and pooled. Production in the distribution centers is then planned, and transports are organized in such a way that they can be optimally used. This involves trucks starting deliveries on the same evening. A delivery to the Bronx, New York, for example, needs about a three-hour drive, but it can still be received before midnight on the same day if the branch orders by midday. Half of these deliveries take place overnight when no-one is in the branch. The drivers open the branches, deliver their goods, and lock up afterwards. It’s the best and quickest way to deliver in big towns with a lot of traffic.

Staff in Hartford load goods into around 20 transporters every night. These leave the center from 20:00 hrs. onwards. Each truck supplies 10 to 12 branches, starting with the branches that are furthest away. The branch furthest from the distribution center in Connecticut is in Maine, which needs an eleven-hour journey. As well as delivering pizza dough, the distribution center acts as a redistribution point for all the items needed to operate a branch of Domino’s, including cheese, salad, paprika, desserts and even serviettes etc. For this, the distribution center carries up to 200 article items. This process guarantees that branches don’t need to worry about running out of a particular ingredient or article; they must just look after the order and receiving the incoming delivery.

Dough production

The Connecticut supply chain center produces around 140,000 fresh pizza dough balls per day on six days a week. Each dough ball is made from six basic ingredients: water, flour, salt, oil and yeast, together with sugar. A special “Domino’s ingredient” – the so-called “secret ingredient” – is also added to turn the dough into Domino’s dough. The company was unwilling to give away anything more.

Dough production in Connecticut starts at 3:00 a.m. and continues until all the orders from the branches have been worked through. The center has two flour silos holding approx. 31 tons of flour per silo. Between 10 and 14 trucks deliver wheat flour to the center every week. Dough preparation starts with batches weighing approx. 230 kg. A total of three Diosna wendel mixers are in operation in Connecticut, so production can continue even if one mixer breaks down.

After all the ingredients have been put into the mixing bowl, the bowl is rolled into the Diosna mixer by hand. The ingredients are mixed and kneaded for about five minutes, after which a sample is taken from each batch to check its temperature and dough elasticity. After mixing, a bowl tipper is used to transfer the dough to an AMF dough divider. Knives cut the dough to the correct size and/or weight. This is followed by round-molding.

All the balls of dough then pass through a metal detector before being loaded into blue crates by hand. Each plastic box holds an average of seven dough balls, although this can vary depending on their size. The crates are then immediately taken into a cold store where the dough is cooled down from 26.7°C to 4.4°C. This must happen quickly so the dough does not already develop in the supply chain, but only when it is in the branch. The specification is that the dough must be brought from the mixing bowl into the cooler within 15 minutes. Staff stack the crates crisscross in the cold store to ensure efficient removal of heat and moisture from the dough balls. After cooling, the boxes are then stacked one on top of another before being transported to the branches. The dough must now always be stored at a temperature between 0.5°C and 3.3°C. In this respect, maintenance of the cooling chain is what decides the dough’s quality.

Only fresh dough

Domino’s has numerous recipes for its own branches. However, it also produces dough balls for school meals programs in the USA. In this case, the recipe must conform to government school meals specifications. However, these rules applicable to pizza can vary from one school district to another. Pizzas supplied to cater for children in schools are then baked in Domino’s branches.