Making snacks is both a business and an art, and every aspect of it requires solid math skills. The right equipment has to be designed and must work with all other pieces of equipment on that production line in the bakery. A company wants to insure that its snacks taste good and can be offered at a competitive price.

Above is an animated diagram which shows you one of the key processes at the Keebler Company Cincinnati bakery — the rolling or gushing of the dough.

Let's take a step back first. After the ingredients are mixed, the dough is “dumped” into a hopper. It is then fed into a machine called a “lapper,” when then spreads the dough into eight layers, which are lapped or folded over from side to side. The lapped dough is 3-1/2 inches thick.

Then the “rolling” or “gushing” of the dough starts. The lapped layers are first rolled, or flattened, to a thickness of 1-1/16 inches. A second roller flattens the dough further to a thickness of 5/8 inch. The third roller takes the dough to 7/32 of an inch; a fourth roller reduces the dough to a thickness of 1/16th inch. The final cylinder or roller has a pattern on it, which it “cuts” into the dough to make the shape of the cracker. This final roller is called the “cutter.”

From there, the dough is baked and packaged and sent to the stores for you to buy off the shelf.