The Jornal Brasileiro de Pneumologia (Brazilian Journal of Pulmonology) is focused on the publication of scientific papers regarding Pulmonology and related areas. Manuscripts may be submitted in Portuguese, Spanish or English. Upon being accepted, articles originally written in Portuguese and Spanish will be translated into English, and the English version will be available on this site. Original articles, brief communications and letters to the editor, among others, will be considered for publication. Although review articles are written upon request, if spontaneously submitted, they may be considered for publication subject to the approval of the Editorial Board. We ask the authors interested in submitting a review article to do so only after consultation with the Editor-in-Chief.
Submitted articles that present significant errors in methodology or that are not in accordance with the editorial priorities of the journal may be directly rejected by the Editorial Board, with no recourse. All other manuscripts will be assessed through peer review. The Jornal Brasileiro de Pneumologia adopts a policy of anonymity in the assessment process, both for authors and reviewers. The Journal Instructions for Authors must be strictly followed during manuscript preparation. Failure to comply with these norms will result in the manuscript being returned for corrections, thereby delaying the review process.
Manuscripts must be submitted exclusively online, through the Sistema de Gestão de Publicações (SGP, Publishing Management System). All manuscripts must be accompanied by a Cover Letter signed by all authors and by a Conflict of Interest Statement, based on the models presented on this site. These documents must be sent to the journal by mail or fax.
Salas 203/204 - Ed. Denasa.


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Family Research Council is urging Members of the U.S. House of Representatives to sign onto a discharge petition introduced yesterday by House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.) that is intended to force a vote on the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act (H.R. 962).
Yesterday, Congresswoman Ann Wagner (R-Mo.) re-introduced the bill in the House (H.R. 962) which was quickly followed by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) filing a unanimous consent request for the House to pass the bill. House Democrats immediately blocked McCarthy's request. On Monday, Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) blocked the companion Senate bill (S. 311) after Senator Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) sought to pass it by unanimous consent.
"Democrats in both the House and Senate rushed to the floor to block unanimous consent requests on a bill that would require the same comfort and care to an infant who survives an abortion as any other infant who is born. The radicalization of the Democratic party is truly complete.
"Infanticide has always been unacceptable in a civilized society, regardless of what one may think about abortion itself. The unthinkable—that elected officials would support infanticide–has now become reality.
"The governors of New York and Virginia want to talk about abortion in euphemisms and broad strokes — instead of what it really is: a gruesome and barbaric form of killing children even up through birth and possibly after.
"Family Research Council calls on House Members to sign Minority Whip Scalise's discharge petition so that infants born alive will be fully protected by federal law. I thank Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), and Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.) for their persistence to demand a vote on the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. The American people stand ready to hold Members of Congress accountable for their votes," concluded Perkins.
Glenn Straub: Palm Beach #MeToo Investigation?


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The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) commissioned perhaps the largest ever Voter Survey in any country. The survey was conducted between October 2018 and December 2018, prior to the General Elections to the Lok Sabha 2019. It covered 534 Lok Sabha constituencies with 2,73,487 voters participating in this exercise spread among various demographics. The three main objectives of this survey were to identify the following: (i) voters' priorities on specific governance issues, (ii) voters' ratings of the government's performance on those issues, and (iii) factors affecting voting behaviour.
Focusing on Tamil Nadu, this report provides an analysis of 10 most important governance issues as rated by the voters of Tamil Nadu (out of the 31 listed in the questionnaire). These voters' priorities are further examined in relation to the performance of the Government on those issues as perceived by the respondents. A three-level scale of GOOD, AVERAGE and BAD was used, where GOOD was given weightage equal to 5, Average was weighted 3 and BAD was weighted as 1. The survey covered approximately 19,500 respondents across all 39 parliamentary constituencies of Tamil Nadu.
The Tamil Nadu Survey 2018 shows that Better Employment Opportunities (40.20%), Better Hospitals/Primary Healthcare Centres (37.47%), and Drinking Water (35.02%) are the top three voters'priorities in overall Tamil Nadu.
The performance of the government on all top three voters' priorities of Better Employment Opportunities (2.25 on a scale of 5), Better Hospitals/Primary Healthcare Centres (2.34), and Drinking Water (2.41) was rated as Below Average.
In rural Tamil Nadu, top most voters' priorities were Availability of Water for Agriculture (40%), Agriculture Loan Availability (40%), and Agriculture Subsidy for Seeds/Fertilisers (37%).
The performance of the government on rural voters' priorities of Availability of Water for Agriculture (2.19 on a scale of 5), Agriculture Loan Availability (2.14), and Agriculture Subsidy for Seeds/Fertilisers (2.35) was rated as Below Average.
In addition, the government has performed poorly on Higher Price Realization for Farm Products (2.29) and Better Employment Opportunities (2.3) in rural Tamil Nadu.
For the urban voters in Tamil Nadu, the top most priorities were Better Employment Opportunities (48%), Traffic Congestion (46%), and Better Hospitals/Primary Healthcare Centres (43%).
The performance of the government on urban voters' priorities of Better Employment Opportunities (2.21 on a scale of 5), Traffic Congestion (2.27), and Better Hospitals/Primary Healthcare Centres (2.15) was rated as Below Average.
In addition, the government has performed poorly on Noise Pollution (2.17) and Drinking Water (2.27) in urban Tamil Nadu.


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text:
Bill to Require Those Under 18 to Wear Helmet Riding a Horse Passes Both Houses
Will protect our children, prevent serious injuries and help save lives.
New York State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele, Jr. (I, D, WF-Sag Harbor) announced that a bill he sponsored (A.1890) to require children to wear a helmet when riding a horse has passed both the Assembly and Senate. Senator Kenneth P. LaValle had sponsored the Senate version, S. 2007. In addition to increasing the age at which a helmet is required from 14 to 18, the bill also increases the maximum fine for violating the requirement from $50 to $250.
Assemblyman Thiele was first approached by Southampton resident Gary Hornstein during the summer of 2011 in an effort to strengthen New York's helmet laws. While New York was the first state to enact a statute requiring the wearing of an approved equestrian helmet, the law does not adequately protect all children. Under current law, only children fourteen years of age and under are required to wear a helmet. Mr. Hornstein's 12-year-old daughter, Nicole, had tragically died after suffering brain injuries after falling off a horse in Florida while not wearing a helmet in 2006.
Since 2011, Assemblyman Thiele and Mr. Hornstein have worked side by side in Albany lobbying for passage for the bill. This week, in the last few days of Session, a victory was won.
"I commend Mr. Hornstein's dedication in helping to prevent anyone else's child from being injured or any family from having to suffer the tremendous loss that he did. I thank Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Assembly Transportation Committee Chairman David Gantt, Assembly Codes Committee Chairman Joseph Lentol and my fellow colleagues who recognized the importance and need for this legislation and moved the bill in the last few hours of Session."
Mr. Hornstein, who was instrumental in passing a similar bill in Florida and is currently working with several other states to introduce the same, noted, "I'm humbly so grateful to be a part of something so special- all the children are worth it. I want to give special thanks to our Assemblyman Fred Thiele, his assistant Laura Stephenson, Senator Kenneth P. LaValle, Assemblyman David Gantt, and the support of my family and God."
It has been estimated that 19 million people aged 16 years and older participate in riding activities. Horseback riding is the eighth leading cause of emergency room treated, sports and recreation related injuries, and has been identified as a higher-risk activity than automobile racing, motorcycle riding, football and skiing. Approximately 70,000 people are treated in emergency rooms annually because of equestrian-related injuries, while thousands more are treated in physicians' offices. Head injuries account for approximately 60% of deaths resulting from equestrian accidents.
Wearing a helmet can significantly reduce chances of sustaining serious injury. The New England Journal of Medicine has reported that wearing helmets reduces head and brain injuries by 85%.
The bill will now be forward to the Governor for consideration.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Report finds problems with student loan servicing, oversight
Originally published February 14, 2019 at 8:34 am Updated February 15, 2019 at 6:25 am
The report shows some borrowers weren't getting the guidance and protection they needed as they sought the best plan for paying off their student loans. The nation's student loan debt now stands at $1.5 trillion.
KEN SWEET
NEW YORK (AP) — The nine companies and organizations tasked with servicing the accounts of the nation's 30 million student loan borrowers repeatedly failed to do their jobs properly over a period of years and their regulator neglected to hold them responsible, a new report finds.
The report released Thursday by the Department of Education's independent inspector general's office shows some borrowers weren't getting the guidance and protection they needed as they sought the best plan for paying off their student loans. The nation's student loan debt now stands at $1.5 trillion.
The Inspector General's report focused on the operations of Federal Student Aid, a part of the Department of Education that oversees student loans, from January 2015 to September 2017. FSA also oversees student loan servicers, making sure they are in compliance with their contracts with the federal government.
The report found, in many cases, FSA was not holding student loan servicers accountable when they failed to follow the rules. For example, the report says FSA found a problem at a student loan servicer six out of 10 times the regulator did a formal observation, with some servicers having the same issue repeatedly. Instead of ordering changes at the servicers, FSA often let the company off with a slap on the wrist.
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"In most cases … FSA did not take actions stronger than correcting the accounts of those affected (and) rarely did the FSA require the servicer to conduct a full file review," the report said. "FSA also rarely penalizes servicers for recurring noncompliance."
In its response to the inspector general, the FSA disagreed with the report's conclusions but agreed to follow its recommendations.
"We fundamentally disagree with the (Inspector General's) assertion that we do not have processes and procedures in place to ensure loan servicing vendors provide high-quality, compliant service to borrowers," said Liz Hill, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education. "That said, we also are continuously looking for ways to improve."
The federal government does not manage student loans on its own. FSA outsources student loan accounts to a handful of private companies and state-run loan authorities. Navient, Great Lakes Educational Loan Services, Nelnet Servicing and the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency are the largest. The companies are paid a monthly fee per account and are responsible for making sure borrowers pay on time, and that the borrower is in the correct repayment plan.
In its report, the inspector general highlighted two recurring problems in particular: Loan servicer representatives failed to inform borrowers of all their repayment options and they miscalculated a borrower's monthly payments under certain types of repayment plans.
"The report makes clear that the issues borrowers have been facing in the student loan market are far more pronounced and more significant than we even realized," said Seth Frotman, president of the Student Borrower Protection Center and a former government official who oversaw student loans at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Under its contracts with the servicers, FSA can penalize them in cases of noncompliance. But investigators found FSA only required servicers to return $181,000 in revenue for failing to properly handle student loans. In its response to the Inspector General, FSA said the financial penalties have grown to $2 million since September 2017. The Inspector General noted that amount is still a fraction of the $1.7 billion FSA paid student loan servicing companies between 2018 and 2019 for managing loan accounts.
The Inspector General's report concludes that FSA's pattern of not holding student loans servicers to account may have "harmed students" and may have hurt taxpayers because student loans servicers were paid for services they provided poorly.
"FSA's not holding servicers accountable could lead to servicers being paid more than they should have (and) borrowers might not have been protected from poor services," the report says.
One servicer, Navient, has been sued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and five states on allegations that the company failed to put borrowers into the correct repayment plans. But the report found that all nine companies monitored by FSA failed to some degree to properly advise borrowers.
The inspector general looked at two months of call records: April and May 2017. In those months, Navient was among the better performers of all the servicers, receiving a failing grade on fewer than 1 percent of calls in both months. In a statement, Navient said, "This report shows that Navient had among the highest compliance rates."
Navient also said it refutes conclusions made in the inspector general's report that it sometimes fails to inform borrowers about all their repayment options, a critique also made in an earlier report from the FSA.
Some servicers were worse than others. The Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Authority, which is known better as FedLoan Servicing, was given failure ratings on 10.6 percent of its calls that FSA monitored in April 2017. The next month was no better, with FSA given a failure rating to 8.6 percent of the authority's monitored calls.
A spokesman for Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Authority was not immediately available for comment.
AP Education Reporter Collin Binkley contributed to this report from Boston.
Ken Sweet covers banks, student loans and other financial issues for The Associated Press. Follow him on Twitter at @kensweet.


This weekend we started off by looking at the Flames top-6 type forwards – Jarome Iginla, Mike Cammalleri, Alex Tanguay, Olli Jokinen and Curtis Glencross. We'll continue the report card today by grading the remainder of the forward corps.
The bottom-end was difficult to fairly assess. In aggregate, the group was plagued by either injury (limiting their sample size), bad luck (rotten percentages) or both. As a team, the Flames were rather average when it came to SH% and SV% this year, but that's because the club had two extremes which seemed to cancel each other out – for example, Curtis Glencross 23.7% shooting percentage vs Backlund's 4.7% (!).
As with the big guns, my grades are a subjective weighting of output, underlying numbers and expectations based on age, role and pay-grade.
It was a pretty disappointing season for the young center for a number of reasons. Not only did he appear in just 41-games due to separate finger and shoulder injuries, but his scoring rate took a significant step back despite improved ice time with better players.
As has been mentioned before, Backlund's poor counting numbers have a lot to do with bad percentages which tend to be heavily influenced by variance. That said, it's becoming pretty evident that the kid probably isn't a goal scorer at the pro level. He has had a single digit SH% since he became a pro (going back to the AHL), so while I doubt his true talent level is 4.7%, it wouldn't surprise me if he settles into the 8% range, which tends to be the bottom-end for forward in the NHL.
The good news is, Backlund's underlying possession numbers were some of the best on the team even though his circumstances were drastically more difficult this year relative to his rookie season. Backlund was the only regular skater outside of the big guns to regularly face top-6 opposition and he did so with a 44.6% zone start – the lowest on the team outside of Blair Jones. Despite that, his relative corsi was a team best +11.7/60. That means, the Flames managed 11.7 more shots at the opposing net with Backlund on the ice versus when he was on the bench.
That is an extremely encouraging sign even in light of the poor output and suggests the kid can become a useful NHL pivot even if his scoring never attains the level most fans had hoped for.
When He's Good: A slick puck handler, and smooth skater, Backlund can stickhandle in traffic and has above average vision. He made tremendous strides this year in terms of controlling the puck in tough areas along the boards and in his own zone which were areas of concern when he boke into the league. Backlund's positioning and defensive awareness continue to creep upwards and he's likely the best forward under the age of 25 on the Flames in terms of these qualities.
When He's Bad: Backlund seemed to lack offensive assertiveness at times this past season and often failed to bear down on shots in scoring positions. The kid missed a lot of nets and hit a lot of crests in prime areas of the ice this year. He also tended to cheat for defense a lot, staying high in the offensive zone, choosing to begin the backcheck early rather than engage the attack. Like all young players, he was prone to the rare but spectacular gaffe and still needs to work on winning face-offs (45.4%).
Acquired for Daymond Langkow last year, Lee Stempniak pretty much came as advertised: a streaky, 40-point type winger who can score 20-goals. He managed 14 in 61 games, some of them of the highlight reel variety, but also disappeared for long stretches of time.
Like Backlund, Stempniak was one of the few Flames who finished in the black in terms of possession. His relative corsi rate was second only to Mikael (+10.5/60), although he played against lesser lights and started about 50% of his shifts in the offensive zone versus the defensive end. Stempniak also had the highest point production rate of any forward outside the top-end at even strength (1.72 points/60).
That's all pretty good value for a middle rotation guy making less than $2M per year. I would have no complaints if the organization decided to bring him back on a similar ticket.
When He's Good: A fast, clever player Stempniak can make even first pairing defenders look foolish on occasion (see video above). Stempniak has a quick release and an eagerness around the net that is similar to Mike Cammalleri. When he's on, Stempniak can carry the puck through the neutral zone and into scoring areas of the ice, forcing defenders to scramble which creates gaps in coverage.
When He Struggles: If the dangles don't work or if the opposing team is limiting his time and space, Stempniak can disappear from the game completely. He has some issues fighting off bigger players in tougher areas and isn't the best puck distributor in the world. Stempniak has never been able to stick in any team's top-6 rotation since he struggles to excel against other team's big guns, so while he can play as a second line winger in a pinch, his ceiling is probably that as a 40-point third liner.
After scoring 24-goals and 46-points the prior season, Blake Comeau landed a new contract in the proceeding summer and then laid an egg to start off the year. When the Flames plucked the 26-year old off of waivers in November, he had managed precisely 0 points in 16 games for NYI and was -11 to boot.
Things didn't get too much better for him in Flames colors in terms of output. He managed 15-points for Calgary in the next 58 games, although he fired 117 shots on net in that time and it was a ghastly 4.3% SH% that suppressed his output. During his 20+ goal season, Comeau shot at 13.2%. At that rate, he would have scored 15 for the Flames, which would have been a nice number from a third-line, waiver wire pick-up. His career average is above to 10% so it's safe to expect a rebound from Comeau going forward.
The erstwhile Islander drew ire from a lot of fans down the stretch because, like Backlund, he made a habit of squandering a lot of high-end scoring chances. The frustration in response is natural, although I tend to give high marks for creating the chances in the first place, even if they don't end up in the back of the net. When the line-up was in total flux due to all the injuries, I thought Comeau was a strong, steady presence at the bottom-end and consistently brought both speed and physical element to his game. He finished third amongst forwards in terms of relative corsi (+10.3), so the puck definitely traveled the right direction when he was on the ice.
Comeau is a pending RFA and his qualifying offer will have to be slightly north of the 2.5M he earned this year. That's probably about $1M too much given his performance last season, so the best route to take would be not to qualify Comeau, but attempt to re-sign him as an UFA at about $1.5M. He's a useful third liner who, at 26, may improve and fills a big gap in terms of players at the age range on the roster, but the team shouldn't pay any more than it has to in order to retain him.
When He's Good: Comeau is an impressively swift skater who can potentially beat defenders wide on the rush. He's tenacious on the forecheck and isn't afraid to lay the body. When he first arrived in Calgary he surprised me with more than one bone-jarring hit, which wasn't something I previously associated with the player. He also seems like a guy who could develop into a useful penalty killer.
When He Struggles: To be blunt, Comeau can be dumb. His most annoying habit as a Flame was breaking into the offensive zone with the puck, circling the net and then swooping wide back towards the blueline rather than doing anything useful. Sometimes he would succeed in bringing the puck back deep into the zone, sometimes he'd take a prayer of a shot and sometimes he'd just lose it to a defender.
Comeau doesn't have the puck skills nor the vision that would cause the opposition to respect him when he goes on such journeys, so the typical outcome was a give-away or Comeau essentially playing keep away with himself on the periphery.
Another disaster year for Matty Franchise. It's been a tough go for Stajan since he arrived in Calgary, in part because he was miscast in the role of "new guy to center Jarome!" and in part because he was re-signed to a bad deal due to those expectations. As soon as his big brother was pushed out of the picture, Brent Sutter consistently and openly displayed his disdain for Stajan by burying him as far down on the depth chart as possible. So although he made 4.5M in real salary this year (more than any other Flames forward besides Iginla and Cammalleri), Stajan averaged just 13-minutes of ice time per game. That's in a season where the Flames lost well over 300-man games to injury keep in mind.
Not that Stajan has ever made a compelling case to be moved up the rotation. His possession and scoring rates were both mediocre this year even though he routinely played against nobodies. His scoring chance ratio was spot on at 50% – not bad, but uninspiring for a guy taking home a giant dollar figure and mostly playing against grinders and goons.
Like Moss or Backlund the year before, Stajan should have dominated other 3rd and 4th liners during his tour of duty at the bottom-end, but he simply didn't. Which is why both Moss and Backlund moved ahead of him – permanently – in the batting order.
So even though Stajan had a nice little redemptive run near the end of the year (almost all percentages based), his season was still completely underwhelming. If the next CBA indeed carries a one-time, no penalty buy-out clause, the Flames should certainly consider using it to get rid of the last of Darryl's lingering errors.
When He's Good: There's no question Stajan has some offensive gifts. He can handle the puck relatively well and is a decent passer with good vision. Stajan can find guys in the crease and in traffic at high speeds and can sometimes pull a move in the neutral zone or at the opposing blueline that creates odd-man rushes.
When He Struggles: Few players on the Flames are weaker on the puck or more prone to giving it up along the boards or in the neutral zone during puck battles. Stajan also tends to get caught in vulnerable positions with his head down by opposing defenders a lot – he's taken Chuck Kobasew's long abandoned role as the token guy who gets absolutely run over at least once a week.
Stajan also can't shoot worth a damn. Both his wrist and slap shots are complete muffins, so as a result he doesn't tend to shoot very often. That's why Stajan also has one of the lowest shot volumes amongst regular skaters on the team – this year he garnered just 77 shots on net, for example. To put that in context, Mikael Backlund had 85 shots in 20 less games.
When he was healthy, Moss routinely skated with Jokinen and Glencross, a trio that was deployed as a shut-down line against other top units. He nevertheless finished with a team best raw corsi rate of +6.85/60, making it the 4th straight Moss has finished in the Flames top-3 in terms of possession metrics.
That said, the points weren't there for David. Even though he fired 82 shots in just 32 games, he finished with a SH% of 2.4. He also struggled to stay healthy for the third season in a row, which is rapidly becoming a very real issue for the 30-year old. Moss has had endless problems staying off of IR and it may be those fears that lead the team to not re-sign the pending UFA this summer.
He's a useful, no-frills forward who can play up and down the roster and make whatever line he's on better. Problem is, he's 30, not a great bet to remain healthy and his scoring is a question mark.
When He's Good: There's nothing fancy about David Moss. All he does is drive play. Neither overly big nor fast, Moss is nevertheless a committed, hard working winger who can win his share of board battles and very rarely finds himself out of position or on the wrong end of a bad decision. Moss is adept at battling for position in front of the net and is very quietly the type of guy who can play 15 minutes in a game but end leading the team in shots on goal. Moss' biggest assets are his decision making, the fact that he never tries to play outside himself and his strength on the puck.
When He Struggles: Again, there's nothing fancy about David Moss. He doesn't have blazing speed, a notable shot or fancy moves. Moss moves north-south efficiently, but doesn't have the skill or creativity to do much beyond that. He's the type of guy who might make you groan if you see him on a break-away or if he is the skater with the puck during a two-on-one. Also, the aforementioned health troubles are probably now his biggest Achilles heel.
Re-signing Tim Jackman was Jay Feaster's lone move at the trade deadline. The rugged fourth liner won his new contract despite a season where he fell to seven points after scoring 23 the year before. The terrible numbers were mostly due to some really rotten luck – Jackman had a PDO (on-ice SV%+SH%) of 93.4 this year, the 8th lowest of any forward who appeared in 30 or more games (related – Backlund was 11th at 94.8). So the low scoring totals and terrible -21 plus/minus can be somewhat excused as bad fortune.
That said, Jackman also didn't drive possession like he did last year either. That's probably due to his change in circumstances: in 2010-11, he spent a lot more time with Moss and Backlund rather kids like Horak and Bouma. In addition, Sutter actively sheltered the 4th line in 2010-11, giving them some of the easier zone start ratios on the team. Not so much this year with both Kostopolous and Jackman sitting below the 50% ratio.
The good news with Tim is he plays the role of enforcer while being better than your average goon. His relative possession rate was still on the positive side (+5.3/60), so although he's not a good bet to beat anyone into submission, he at least fills a the perceived need of a tough guy without being completely terrible at actually playing hockey.
When He's Good: A tireless worker who will throw his body around and drop the gloves with anyone, Jackman is good enough to pin other fourth lines in their own end for entire shifts. He also isn't shy about driving the puck to the net, can skate pretty well for a big man and is hard to knock off the puck down low.
When He Struggles: Jackman doesn't have the hands or the puck handling skills to rise above the station of fourth liner, so he can be exposed if he gets stuck on the ice with top-9 type guys. He's also not a feared heavyweight, so even though he's game to fight against anybody, ackman mostly tries to just hang on against the league's true bruisers.
Not much to say about Kostopolous. He is what he is: a consummate, professional, 4th line player. Kostoplous is tough enough to compete for the puck, drop the gloves on occasion and works hard enough to keep his place in the line-up. He remains a few strides ahead of kids trying to break into the league owing to his strength and veteran savvy, but at 33-years old is rapidly approaching a point where he will have to endlessly fight off usurpers from the minor leagues in order to keep his place on an NHL roster.
I assume the team will let Kostopolous walk this summer and will allow guys like Lance Bouma a shot at replacing him.
When He's Good: Kostopolous is big and a decent skater, so like Jackman he can play other 4th liners to even (at least) most nights. He can also moved up the depth chart when injuries demand it and kill penalties.
When He Struggles: Tom doesn't have the hands or the offensive acumen to be much more than replacement level in the NHL. His career high in points is 22 and that came in 2008-09.
Horak surprised everyone by making the team out of training camp. Brent Sutter seemed to favor the kid's mix of speed, stick skills and defensive awareness which allowed him to beat out so many others for a spot on the roster.
As the season progressed, however, it was clear Horak was in over his head at the NHL level. Like so many other youngsters, he started losing puck battles all over the ice and was mostly detrimental in the defensive zone, even against 4th players. By March, Horak was seeing between 5-7 minutes a night before finally being sent back down to the Abbotsford for good.
When He's Good: Horak seems comfortable with the puck on his stick and isn't afraid to try to deke defenders or try to find teammates through traffic. He is also pretty quick and capable of skating the puck out of trouble areas.
When He Struggles: Horak's skills aren't high-end enough at this point to make up for his lack of experience or strength relative to established pros. At 20-years old, he is bound to lose more board battles than he wins and things tended to get very ugly in the Flames defensive end if the opposition managed to sustain pressure and get Horak running around. In the offensive end, more patience and a better shot will help him score a few more points down the road.
Lance Bouma (C+) – Fast skating and hard hitting, Bouma looks like a prototypical "energy player" who could develop into a checker/PK specialist with experience and an improvement in hockey IQ. Probably no real offensive upside however.
Paul Byron (C) – Agile and with decent puck skills, Byron is also pretty tough to knock down even though he's one of the smallest guys on the ice. He didn't make much of an impact in many of his contests in the show, however, and his scoring totals in the AHL weren't terribly impressive either.
Blair Jones (B-) – The former Lightning center became a favorite of Brent Sutter's right away. He was deployed heavily on the PK and started to take on tough, checking-line center type responsibilities before being injured in February. A decent skater who has a heavy shot, Jones makes for an effective forechecker. He's never going to be a scorer, however, and needs to greatly improve his face-off abilities (42.4%) if he's to be much more than a 4th liner.
Krys Kolanos (B-) – The Abbotsford Heat's MVP had a tough time translating his scoring at the NHL level. In 13-games, Kolanos only managed one point, although he drove both possession and scoring numbers at a better than average rate. Kolanos managed to generate at least one 10-bell chance per game, but could never seem to finish them off.
He's over 30 years old and isn't the best skater, so Kolanos probably won't rise above "13th forward" at best in the NHL. That said, he's probably as good or better than some guys regularly drawing pay checks in the league.
These marks are not realistic. Backlund the same "B-" as Jokinen?
Just to add. Jokinen last year was a "B" and Backlund a "C+". Backlund was better? Jokinen was worse?
Tom Kostopoulos won the 3rd fight of his career this year. He still has the worst won-loss record of any NHL pugilist (minimum 20 fights), but at least he's working his way towards the pack.
Man if a great team could be made out of only 3rd and 4th liners, the flames would have another cup to celebrate.
I say we're looking at a 3 year refresh. Next year doesn't look like it will be appreciably better but there's enough to keep me positive for now.
If Feaster is seriously looking to make changes… Stajan has got to go!! Enough is enough… Buy him out, Demote him to the minors, or trade him if you can… but DO something!
I do hope TK comes back… watching him this last season I did appreciate his ability to try to stir things up or to try to get the team going… no complaints about his work ethic.. good fourth liner!
Why would say Joker deserves a better grade?
Well, what are we grading on?.. maybe that's the important question.
Solely, Corsi and Zone start and nothing else?
What would Backlund have to do to get an "A"? Score 7 goals and play 60 games?
I agree that if we want to look at summarizing the enitrety of a player in one "grade" metric it's got to be more than goals and assists, but it's also got to be more than corsi and zone start.
What would Stajan have to do to get a "C-"? Score 20 goals and get 60 pts? or just have a 45% zone start?
Lee Stempniak had the softest zone start of ANY regular player… 53.2%. He was 8th of forwards in Qual comp -0.037. 9th in Corsi REL QualComp (.437) according to behindthenet.ca. He got 28 pts and was a "B". Better than Jokinen who faced the toughest comp of any player .113, had the second best CORSI Rel QoC 2.056 and got 61 pts?
Maybe I'm looking at better/different/wrong numbers? Who knows?
I do think the Flames have done well with Backlunds developement, but it's time he starts putting up some points. I think Sutter really drilled it into him to be defense-first kind of forward.. but I hope the next coach will encourage him to drive to the net a little more.
I can see the argument for Jokinen getting a better (or more likely, equivalent) grade. Backlund, however, has absolutely been better this season.
Kent stated in the first of these player grade articles that "Top 6" forwards and bottom 6 forwards would be graded differently, because on a team each group serves a different purpose.
Are we not allowed to scrutinize? Can't we discuss vs our own opinions? If it's such a subjective one way conversation that it's meaningless… then it's meaningless. I don't think Kent wants that.
It wouldn't mean anything to anyone but me, but at least it'd be clear what I'm telling you. I'm not sure why there would ever be resistance to critical analysis.
I'm trying to understand against my analysis of expectations and performance. So, I'm thinking… why am I so far off base?
So mediocrity in the top six and mediocrity in the bottom six. I'm going to hazard a guess and say that the same overall theme will carry into the evaluation of the defensive corps and goaltending (except perhaps for Irving as his expecations may have been lower and his performance, Boston aside, was encouraging).
I don't want to pre-empt Kent here, but should fans draw the conclusion that mediocre play from all four forward lines, as well as league-average goaltending from Kiprusoff, is a contributing factor in the Flames essentially ending up just shy of the exact middle of the league?
I have a question for Flames fans, somewhat unrelated to this article: If Doug Wilson were to start taking apart the Sharks, do you believe that Feaster (and by extension King and Edwards) would be interested in acquiring Joe Thornton if the price were something like this year's first round pick, Micheal Ferland, and Laurent Brossoit? I know there are circumstances (NMCs) that would come into play, and I'm not asking if Flames fans want the trade, but rather if any here believe it is something which Feaster would pursue.
Actually The bottom two lines were pretty effective. The second was good at times. The first line was generally mediocre.
I don't see that Calgary has what it would take to trade for Thornton, short of emptying the cupboards for a player that is probably coming onto the downward side of his career.
Giving up that much for a 33 year old Thornton would be a terrible idea. Considering it's gonna take the Flames a solid 3 years to put some talent together and the fact he's a UFA after next season. Not to mention paying more for him now than they paid Boston 7 years ago.
If anything, I think the Sharks would dangle Marleau first, and it's pretty clear he's washed up. The only guy out of San Jose I'd go after is Torrey Mitchell as a UFA.
But isn't what Rex proposed more or less the same of what we all expect for Iggy? Don't get me wrong, I don't want the FLames to mortgage the furute any longer. However, Most people think it'd be fair to get a 1st round pick, a roster player, and a prospect for Iggy. To be fair, what Rex said would be more of a bargain for the Flames in acquiring Thornton than what another team would be giving up to acquire Iggy.
We should trade two of our three 3rd lines for two top line players, or even one of our 3 3rd lines for one top line player!
Rex: The main killer for the Flames this season has been a combination of a weak top 6 F and top 4 D. Despite these depth rankings, the Flames depth is significantly better than a lot of other teams. And Kiprusoff, this season, has been much better than league average.
Don't bring back stemp, comeau or kostopolos. Find younger guys who want to play. Stemp is like bouquet with less upside. Comeau is a flash in the pan. Kost, already have lots of 4th liners. Plus his actions when a fan threw jersey on ice was unacceptable.
You have to rate the players against the league as a whole, not against the teams statistical database.
Bryon was at best a fourth line player, so he should be evaluated against other fourth line players. Bryon would rank below average as fourth line talent, so his rating should be in 'D' to 'D-' range. The rating for an average player being C / C+.
Backlund shouldn't rank a B-, much more like a 'C' and so on.
I agree only 5 players with a failing grade? Have another glass of the Feaster koolaid Ken or maybe it's time to tweak the "spreadsheet"!
These are grades are a joke.
Ask the players and I bet another 5 failing grades would be added.
Thornton has two years remaining on his contract at a $7 million cap hit. Acquiring Thornton would allow Feaster, King and Edwards to essentially say that they are going to spend the next two years "going for it". Kiprusoff has two more years, Iginla would have to sign an extension, but a trade for Thornton would probably convince him to do that. They would be able then to have Cammalleri centre for Baertschi on the second line and could attempt to re-sign Jokinen as a 3rd line centre for two more years (yes, I know about Jokinen wanting a longer term for financial security, but for the sake of the argument…).
I'm not advocating this idea, because at this point Wilson hasn't even broached the idea publicly of a rebuild in San Jose, but I think it is a question that Flames fans have to ask themselves. If only because of the franchise's stated goal of taking this group and pursuing a championship for as long as possible.
Thanks for bringing up the trade value, Chri$. In suggesting a price I purposely avoided the easy names (Stajan, Baertschi, Bouwmeester, etc) because those are either unavailable or unmoveable.
As for Marleau, I don't doubt that he is offered up for trade, but I suspect it would be to a team looking to slot him in as a depth scoring winger, not a centrepiece. He has shown, repeatedly now, that he cannot shoulder that load.
@Gange, my impression is that the bottom two lines were entirely that: effective, but not good enough to complement the inadequecies of the top six players for the duration of the season. Mediocrity, in this case, means exactly what I think the Flames have become. A team that can beat any other team if they play a very controlled and disciplined game to the coach's instructions. They can't shirk on responsibilities because they don't have the talent to get by, and too often their work ethic isn't uniform in the roster and they fall to harder working teams.
@SOV, Kiprusoff's save % this past season was .921 which was right in the range for average goaltenders with his number of games, from what I can tell. He did more to keep Calgary close to the playoff hunt than any other team member, but it was still, in the end, an average result. Don't misunderstand what I say to mean that I feel he had a particularly bad year or is a run-of-the-mill goalie. He gives the Flames a better chance to win on any given night, than any other player on that team in my recent memory (Iginla included).
Did you even look up the numbers? That's a serious question. Kipper's raw sv% .921% is 9th for goalies who played over 30games, and 5th for goalies playing over 60.
It was better than Tim Thomas, Tomas Vokoun and Roberto Luongo… the three highest sv% goalies since the lockout.
This "average" goalie sv% business that is floated around here is about the stupidest, least grounded in reality comment that I consistently read.
Fair statement. I see where you are coming from and I've read some of your other comments about the statistical analyses being offered on the Nations.
I did look up the numbers, but I have to place them in the context of the other information that I have on save %'s in the league today and work off of the opinion and analysis offered up by those who are better at it than I.
This is probably the source of our disagreement.
From my personal point of view, I would suggest that had Kiprusoff been playing the last five years in an Eastern market he would be as popular and well-regarded as any of the Leafs' backup goaltenders (which is to say, he'd be a superstar with his own fashion line). While I think that his career is in the proverbial gloaming, were I picking a goaltender for a playoff game today, I'd much rather have him than Luongo or Vokoun. Perhaps even Thomas.
That being said, when I scanned the save %s of veteran goalies around the league, his number was in the middle range of the numbers I saw. So perhaps his save% is the mode or median rather than the mean.
@Chris: Difference is, we are talking about trading Iggy & Kipper to contenders who have good talent who hasnt even had a whiff of the NHL but are ready & a 1st rounder. Calgary in under any stretch of any kind of imagination is a Joe Thornton away from being a contender. So the trade is a non starter, even for the likes of Feaster, King or Ownership.
3/Yes, Yapukov is the best player coming out of this draft, he is Russian & we have seen how that goes, he has had injuries & he is still unproven at the NHL level. The risk is all Calgary's. The Oilers get a top sniper to lead the kids to their peak. Oilers with a few other moves could put a few defensive pieces together & may very well threaten for the playoffs. The lottery they won literally gets them Iggy.
I had to admit there was logic to deal like that that would be beneficial. What seems like an overpayment by the oilers, really is it? Maybe 3 years from now Yapukov could be phenomenal, then maybe not. Maybe next Oilers challenge for playoffs with Iggy instead of continuing with their long rebuild. Just an interesting take.
I'm not going to trash your trade idea. It is the same as what I suggested in the Thornton idea. Its an idea, a starting point for discussion and debate.
I get your point on Iginla providing veteran leadership and being a role model. Those points are certainly valid within the context of some of Iginla's time in Calgary.
Conversely, those same two topics are often brought up in terms of Iginla's potential shortcomings. The veracity of either of those qualities being either a strength or weakness of his is something best left to those both with and against whom he plays. I don't think there is a stat that can measure it and a fan's perspective is inevitably skewed to their own experience.
However, I will make this point about Yakupov's value and risk. Yakupov's value is in his potential, that which he may yet accomplish and the performance that he may yet contribute. There is some degree of Iginla's value that is in the past tense. This means that one has a better idea of what to expect from Iginla in the short term than Yakupov in that same time span.
However, the expectations for Yakupov over the next five years are more likely to offer a far better return than Iginla. Beyond that point is almost immaterial to the argument as it is unlikely (but never impossible) that Iginla plays past 40 years old. I say almost immaterial because one cannot compare a player who is playing to one who is retired when discussing their value as a playing asset. It does, however, weigh in to the position of the team that employs the two players.
At this time there is more value, in the Oilers' situation, in keeping the pick that could become Yakupov than in trading it for a 35 year old perennial 30 goal right winger with playoff experience. For another team, whose position is one of being closer to a championship (as in, that very season) then their valuation of Iginla relative to a prospect who may be two or three years from achieving real success may differ greatly.
No team is likely to exchange Iginla for a star player whose performance vastly outstrips their financial cost, though. That has become apparent under the new economic realities of the current (and likely new) CBA.
In many ways, the discussion and the logic that you and Mr. Buddy (I use that same term all the time, so no offense) were using speaks volumes about the difference in perspectives and philosophies between the fan base of the Oilers and that of the Flames.
This isn't meant to be derogatory.
I mean that Flames fans value consistency, predictability and "a sure thing" whereas Oiler fans have become accustomed to embracing a riskier style, of late. Put it this way, Would Flames fans move Iginla to a team for a 1st round pick in 2013, knowing that that pick could be anywhere from 1st to 30th overall? Probably not. Oiler fans might be willing to entertain the idea if it meant getting a return for an expiring UFA. The fans in Edmonton have had to adopt this strategy because since the team entered the NHL they have routinely been forced to sell off star player after star player for prospects, picks, and sometimes flat-out cash. Through all of this the fans have come to look forward to the influx of talent, though not always without some healthy cynicism. Flames fans have had a remarkably consistent roster core over the last decade and longer and as such may be risk-averse in trading away the final remaining pieces of that core. More so, I would think, given their more recent returns on those trades (Phaneuf especially, and Regehr to a lesser extent).
This in not meant to be an opinion on political ideology or civic temperament, just an observation of the predilections of variant fan bases who have had very different recent experiences.
Anyway, what I'm ultimately trying to say is that it's a case of apples and oranges. Flames fans are totally justified in looking at that trade and seeing the merit of it. It puts the greater risk/reward on the part of the Flames while providing the Oilers with what Flames fans perceive as some of the more pressing needs of a young roster (probably along the lines of a Guerin/Recchi/Andreychuk influence).
Oiler fans will look at it and tear it to pieces saying that the Oilers will have, in three years, a player who could be every bit as good as Iginla and provide enough scoring depth to be the envy of the league while Iginla will be finishing his career as a complementary scorer or powerplay specialist (I'm paraphrasing fan response here).
I don't think either side will necessarily be able to fully appreciate the arguments of the other.
That being said, it does add to the conversation: is Iginla worth a first overall pick when the concensus prospect at that position has the portfolio of Yakupov?
My opinion is that Iginla is not, and in this case, and almost regardless of which team held that pick, of equal value.
I wonder how many cups of coffee that'll take VF to get through? If I keep posting here Kent is going to have to start paying him in Tim Hortons rechargeable gift cards.
I realize that on the long term & if Yapukov turned into the player many hope & expect, Flames win that all day long. As much as you dont feel Iggy is worth that number 1 overall to anyone, there will be fans that would be furious if Feaster were to trade Iggy to the Oilers for potential. I for one never thought Iggy would garner that kind of pick just because any team with that number 1 pick are just starting the rebuild. Oilers, already have 3, & I clarify that by saying Eberle has turned out as good as any 1st overall pick & I would take him over Yapukov all day long. How many teams can say that in the last decade. I guess it comes down to expectation & I know Rex, you are a very logical well thought hockey mind. You dont let being partial to your team let you think from the heart. But are you an Oiler season ticket holder? If you were or better put, how many season ticket holders & even the owner for that matter think losing for another 2-3 years so you can ooze in early picks and prospects? At some point, I would say stick your potential where the sun dont shine, I want a winning team. You see things more logically & subsequently more patiently. I dont think that can be said for all Oiler fans. 2-3 more pieces with the youth core you have & you should be playoff bound & making some noise like Ottawa are this year.
The Dallas stars did basically the very same thing with trading Iggy for Nieuy & so did Colorado trade Regehr for Fleury. That piece to win a cup. Sometimes I think some of you have suffered so long that you are now waiting for the perfect team with all the same aged young guys peaking & dominating the game & winning cup after cup. Not sure that can ever happen. 2 reasons, the cap creates parity & everything equal, you can only afford so many top line forwards & expect to compensate & keep them all happy with role & ice time, kind of the Jordon Staal syndrome. How long do you think he wants to ride in Crosby & Malkins shadow & be the best 3rd line centre in the game?
2/ dont you think if a player in the next 3 years could be instrumental in getting this youthful core one cup not be considered successful & worth the gamble. I just agreed with buddy that the Oilers time should be focused now especially if I was dishing out the dollars I pay for my season tickets. I also wonder how much longer Katz wants to get ribbed for owning the worst team in the league. There is a lot of pride amongst the owners.
Okay, so for Drewski, I'm going to try and make this one a little more concise.
I don't see the Oilers finishing in the bottom five next season (barring outrageous injuries) and so this year is likely the last time they'll have a first overall or perhaps (and this is a leap of faith) even a lottery pick for a while. My expectation is that the team probably ends up drafting somewhere around 8th to 10th overall next June, perhaps lower.
To that end I think that the Oilers feel they need to capitalize on this pick and then find their remaining needed pieces through a combination of free agency and the development of their drafted prospects.
No, I'm not a season-ticket holder, but that argument came up this season when a fan who is called in to 630 CHED and said that because of his financial commitment to the team, his voice ought to carry more weight than "those patient fans who don't spend a cent".
I think fans, and the team, feel that there are more holes than can be filled by just adding two or three star players. This team needed improvement in every category. You're observation about some fans waiting for the perfect team are good, but I'm not sure if its perfectionism or just cynicism that not all of these players will actually end up being as good as some people think.
@RexLibris , love your two cents…living in Shelbyville myself, you hear a lot of unrealistic garbage about the Oiler's future (Not unlike what comes out of Calgary in regards to our present, although that seems to finally be changing). You seem to have a solid grasp of reality, which is commendable for an Oil fan. That being said, your posts are about as concise as a English Lit. textbook. Chop it down! (But keep up the good work).
I like your idea about Thornton, but it would have been a great move three years ago. You know SJ would need some solid/young pieces in return in order to move Big Joe. We just don't have the organizational depth to even consider a trade like that. In the end, I dont think the return justifies what we would have to give up (given our current state of affairs).
MY two cents? We need SPEED, and forwards who will work as hard in our zone as they do on the rush. If anything, watching the first round of the playoffs has made me realize just how far the flames have fallen. Kipper would have had to stand on his end for us to even have a sniff at a series win.
Thanks, I'll try and keep this one short.
Some people in Edmonton were saying that the Oilers could get into the playoffs last year, but those were the same people who said Horcoff was the best 5-3 centre in the league. They are fans who, as Kent is fond of saying, can't see the forest for the trees. Most Oiler fans were not that delusional.
Next season, most fans expect a finish around the 20s, around the Colorado, Winnipeg, Tampa Bay range. Anyone who says higher is likely high themselves or writes for a hockey rumour blog.
Re: Thornton, I wasn't advocating the idea. It just seemed that, if he were made available, it seemed like the kind of thing Feaster may have pursued. Acquiring Thornton would fit into all of King and Feaster's talking points about "the now" and "a big centre" and "making a splash", etc etc.
I do think the Flames have enough to offer (the assets I proposed) and while it would re-exhaust their system, I was only asking if this is something Flames fans would either like, or even agree that they could expect, to see.
The Flames need speed, but not just Cogliano-speed. They'll need some speedy guys who can actually do something with the puck.
So, Gaunce or Collberg then at the Flames draft? Speed, skill, size in Gaunce.
I agree, Flames need speed. I don't really think the issue is individual speed, but team speed. The right mix of athleticism, skill and HOCKEY IQ while employing an offensive, possession-first system would accomplish that IMO.
Thornton coming to Calgary would be sweet to watch. I'm sure he'd make Cammalleri a 35 + goal scorer and that would be awesome but that would just push the Flames further from the bottom of the standings, where they probably belong until they finally clean up the Darryl Sutter mess.


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The Queen Mary was launched in 1934 and now permanently docked in Long Beach, California, as a floating hotel and historic attraction, the world's most haunted cruise ship? Maybe!
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The guys from the popular SyFy series, "Ghost Hunters," have investigated reports of paranormal activity aboard the Queen Mary as well as in an exhibit of Titanic artifacts.
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Home » Flowers Foods: Setting a New Benchmark
Flowers Foods: Setting a New Benchmark
By Dan Malovany and Laurie Gorton
Make no mistake about it. The top-line manufacturing imperative at Flowers Foods, Thomasville, GA, is to be the industry's low-cost producer. In fact, that's been "The Flowers Way" for decades. It's also been the primary objective for Robert Benton, corporate vice-president of manufacturing, and the company's engineering staff since Flowers launched its long-term strategy for sustainable growth in 2004. That's when the company began to steadily expand beyond its core market in the South to contiguous territories throughout the Southwest, Mid-Atlantic and lower Midwest.
To accomplish this initiative throughout the past six years, Flowers has made eight acquisitions, spent an industry-leading $482 million in capital investments and added 15 new production lines as well as hundreds of new routes that now deliver its products to 40 million additional consumers or nearly 50% of the US population. "We've been growing so fast and had to build bakeries so quickly that we've been concentrating on how fast we can go, how fast we can build the bakery and how fast we can get out and be effective in the market," Mr. Benton said.
In 2009 with the opening of the new $57 million bread and bun bakery at Bardstown, KY, however, Flowers found itself entering uncharted territory in more ways than one. From an operations perspective, the facility's energy management system is turning out to be a game changer when it comes to building new bakeries as the company continues to expand in the future. Specifically, the Rockwell Automation RSEnergyMetrix program architecturally sits on top of information gathered by the other Allen-Bradley PLCs and control devices throughout the bakery and provides a central warehouse of data that tracks energy, electricity, natural gas and water usage. It also monitors heating, cooling and air quality systems that the company hadn't been able to consistently gauge, according to Eric Lewis, manufacturing manager for Flowers Baking Co. of Bardstown.
"I can see the humidity in the building, the temperature in the building, the temperature outside the building and the differential pressure within the building," Mr. Lewis said. "In the past, we had to guess how to change the process. Now we're putting numbers to how we have to change the process in ways that we never could before."
BENCHMARK STATUS. While many bakeries designate a flagship plant that defines their operations, the Bardstown bakery can be best described as Flowers Foods' new benchmark facility. The data gathered from this operation will likely create new criteria for improving the company's 39 other plants and for developing additional parameters for designing facilities and even selecting what equipment it buys, noted Ken Buxton, senior staff engineer for Flowers Foods. "We typically build off of what we found works in the past," he said. "We learn from our successes and our mistakes."
Because of this learning process, the Bardstown facility, not surprisingly, resembles the company's more recently built bread and bun bakeries that opened at Denton, TX, in 2004 and at Newton, NC, in late 2006. In fact, its bread line, which produces 10,000 loaves an hour, is a near replica of the line at Newton. What may not be so apparent to the eye are how Bardstown's energy management system as well as other advances in process technology provide different ways for Flowers not only to remain the industry's low-cost producer, but also to more consistently control product quality. For an engineering team that learns from the past, that's the ultimate win-win proposition.
"RSEnergyMetrix is the key to making us better going down the road from an efficiency standpoint, from a productivity standpoint and from a quality standpoint," Mr. Benton explained. "This program has given us an education and an opportunity to see what's going on. In the past, we thought we knew what was happening, but we weren't exactly sure. Now, we have hard numbers and facts.
"With this bakery, everything is measurable, so it's going to be our baseline in the future," he said. "That is what makes this plant unique, more than any other plant we have right now."
Mr. Benton and Mr. Buxton also discovered their first big jaunt into energy conservation may result in building future facilities that could be certified for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), the green building rating system developed and administered by the US Green Building Council. Reviewing a checklist for LEED certification, in fact, they discovered that the company had been pursuing green initiatives albeit under the name of good manufacturing practices. "It's always been on our mind when we think about effi ciency and about saving more money, but we just never had a name for it," Mr. Buxton said.
Specifically, the review pinpointed several surprising areas of savings that the company had previously taken for granted. For instance, it revealed that the bakery's ventilation system consumed the second largest amount of energy, even though the building is the first Flowers facility with variable-speed drives on its intake and exhaust fans to add some seasonal "creature comforts" for employees, according to Mr. Buxton. "What we found out in making it more comfortable for the people working here is that we can improve the process and product and save on energy as well," he said.
CHARTER MEMBER. Just three years ago, Flowers became the charter company occupying the city's new Nelson County Industrial Park, located right off the Bluegrass Parkway. Set on a 30-acre site, the 200,000-sq-ft building allocates 70,000 sq ft to production, 36,000 sq ft to packaging operations, 12,000 sq ft to warehousing and 30,000 sq ft to shipping. Offices on the first and second floors occupy 36,000 sq ft, and ancillary functions require 16,000 sq ft. Motion sensors control all lighting throughout the facility. Shop flooring consists of polished hardened concrete.
Because Flowers couldn't find an existing facility to meet its needs, the company built the Bardstown facility from the ground up, which provided certain advantages.
"When you design a new building, you can lay things out the way you want to maximize speed and effi ciency through the plant," Mr. Benton said. "When you get down to counting the dollars, you really don't save that much money by buying an existing building and then having to modify and expand it. What you do save is a lot of time. We had the luxury of time that we normally don't have."
The Bardstown bakery is the biggest of the company's one bread line/one bun line plants. Technically, the Villa Rica, GA, bakery is larger in capacity because it was recently enlarged to bake additional product styles. Bardstown makes white and soft variety breads, 8- and 12-count retail hamburger and hot dog buns and 4-and 5-in. bulk restaurant buns. Varieties include 100% Wheat, Honey Wheat, Whitewheat, 100% Whole Grain, Whole Grain White, 35-calorie varieties, Giant Sandwich and Old Fashioned.
Earlier this summer, Bardstown's route system started supplying retail and food service customers in Kentucky, southern and central Indiana, southern Ohio, central Tennessee and a few markets in West Virginia and southern Illinois, according to Billy Donaldson, plant president of Flowers Baking Co. of Bardstown. Previously, these markets had been served by the Morristown, TN, bakery's distribution network. In addition to covering such metropolitan areas as Louisville, KY; Cincinnati, OH; Nashville, TN; and Indianapolis, IN, the Bardstown bakery, which is Flowers' northernmost facility, also ships products to the company's bakeries in Morristown and Batesville, AR, where products are then distributed throughout their territories.
MOVING THE STANDARDS. When equipping Bardstown, the engineering/manufacturing team opted for the familiar as well as the innovative. Although Mr. Benton and Mr. Buxton described the bread and bun lines as "cookie cutter" installations in terms of their design, each is subtly different from the ones installed before … and those to come in the future. "The bread line here is pretty much the same as at Newton and Villa Rica differing only in size, but the footprint is pretty much the same," Mr. Benton said. "The roll line has a few tweaks." Specifically, the Baking Technology Systems (BakeTech) conveyorized proofer and oven system is technologically more advanced and larger in capacity than previous installations, but because Flowers' unique "maxi" bun pans run the wide way, its conveyors operate at slower speeds.
Having built a new bakery about every 18 months for the past several years, Flowers Foods maintains a number of longtime vendor relationships . For example, Register Construction, Lakeland, FL, managed the building work while equipment vendors included AMF Bakery Systems, BakeTech, Burford, Cannon, Fortress Technology, Laramore, LeMatic, Oshikiri, Pfening, Stewart Systems, Trinity Process Solutions, Turkington USA, UBE and Workhorse Automation. Flowers also put FANUC, pcdata and Rockwell Automation on its roster to add new technologies for robots, warehouse management and energy monitoring, respectively.
Vendor selection, according to Mr. Benton, all goes back to what the market is demanding. "That determines the kind, size and capabilities of equipment on every line," he observed.
As bakers realize that sustainability can be part of good business, bakery equipment manufacturers are responding with new designs and innovations, according to Mr. Buxton. "Several equipment vendors approached us with ideas for making current equipment designs more energy effi cient," he said.
The new energy management system was recommended by another long-term vendor, Higgins Electric, Dothan, AL. "Flowers came to us wanting to start a project to monitor energy use," said Jim Knighton, Higgins' president. He recommended Rockwell's RSEnergyMetrix system because the bakery used so many Allen-Bradley devices, thus simplifying the integration of communication.
In terms of electricity, the goal was to minimize Kwh per lb of product produced, but the implementation taught Flowers a great deal more. For example, the bakery found it was spending more energy and water dollars in cleaning mixers than labor dollars. So cleaning procedures were changed to employ dry methods such as scraping first, with water washout second.
Such methods have already been deployed to other bakeries. "As with cleaning the mixers, we can now weigh the electrical consumption versus manpower," Mr. Benton observed . "We see higher energy costs coming, so we need to drive these costs out as much as possible."
Web implementation of RSEnergyMetrix enables around-the-clock, across-the-globe availability of data from the Bardstown bakery. "It's live 24/7, and we can log onto it at any time and study exactly what is happening," Mr. Benton said.
AUTO TO THE MAX. Laying out the Bardstown bakery in a greenfield plant provided certain advantages, according to Mr. Buxton, who was on-site for the entire project. Like other recent Flowers bread and bun plants, the two lines run side-by-side, separated by an open corridor down the middle. These lines parallel the front of the building, with perimeter locations for bulk ingredients and ancillary services.
A series of large overhead roll-up doors in the raw materials warehouse and adjacent to the enclosed flour silos provide access for equipment. The building's 2-story layout accommodates offi ces, labs and work bays for production, engineering, maintenance and QA on the first floor, with management and sales offices on the second. A large training room is located adjacent to the bakery's entrance.
Closed-circuit cameras stationed around the property provide physical security, which is also incorporated in the building's traffi c pattern. "There's one way in and one way out," Mr. Benton commented.
As a "technician labor" plant, Bardstown is laid out and equipped to maximize automation, which is amply demonstrated by its approach to ingredient delivery. "The only manual addition is the oxidation and enzyme tablets," Mr. Benton remarked. All other ingredients are either pneumatically delivered or pumped to dispensing points at the mixers.
Six Pfening 150,000-lb-capacity silos supply flour, two for whole-wheat and four for enriched white. Set on load cells, the silos provide constant verification of their contents. Three in-line sifters feed three flour holding bins. The bulk system also encompasses four large liquid storage tanks for sugar, molasses, pan oil and soy oil. Other liquid ingredients come in via tote bins. A Pfening supersack system, comprised of four unloading stations, dispenses the bulk minor ingredients. A 2-tank cream yeast system accepts bulk yeast supplied by USA Yeast's Hattiesburg, MS, facility. A Trinity Process Solutions batching system manages ingredient delivery.
PROTECTIVE MEASURES. Both bread and bun lines employ the sponge-and-dough method for dough preparation. For bread, an AMF 2,800-lb horizontal tilt-bowl mixer prepares sponges, which dump into large troughs that carry the sponge through the AMF fermentation room. Troughs emerge and are hoisted to one of two AMF 3,200-lb final mixers. Flowers selected its mixers to use 250-hp motors, all interchangeable.
Finished doughs are tilted out into a pump that feeds a vertical conveyor to transport the dough to the divider. Mounted on rails, the vertical conveyor can be positioned to serve two different divider/makeup lines. Depending on divider choice, the Bardstown bread line runs 165 loaves per minute on the Oshikiri ram-and-shear divider or up to 185 per minute on the AMF rotary divider.
Flowers took the precautionary step of stationing a Fortress metal detector on the belt feeding dough to the dividers. "Traditionally, metal detection is done at wrapping," Mr. Lewis explained. Bardstown's packaging operation is no exception, but use of this technology at the dough side is unusual. "We now do metal detection prior to the dividers to protect the equipment," he added.
The high rate of production means that up to 30,000 lb of product is present in the system at any given time. Breakdowns are expensive. These are big lines, not only in capacity but also in capital outlay, and their dividers control scaling and, thus, potential loss. "Scar a piston with a nut or bolt, and you're giving away dough until it's replaced," Mr. Benton said.
"If something like that is going to get into the product, it will most likely happen during the early stages of mixing or makeup," Mr. Buxton stated. Thus, the metal detectors on the dough sides protect both food safety and processing equipment.
Also new, a flighted conveyor belt set at a 45° angle delivers dough balls from the divider to the resting belts. Dough pieces complete a short resting period as they travel to the moulding station. Bardstown put in AMF Tend'r Kurl sheeter-moulderpanners for its bread products.
ROBOTS AND PANS. To place lids on pans for baking sandwich-style loaves, the company installed a Stewart lid system that uses a FANUC robot to move lids between stacks and pans. Although a first for Flowers, robotic handling of lids follows successful use of automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS) for pans at the Newton facility. The Bardstown bakery depends on two such systems from Workhorse Automation, one handling the four bread pan sets (two sizes plus their matching lids) and the other managing the seven bun pan sets. Stewart stackers and unstackers complete the pan management systems.
Supplied by American Pan, all bread pans are the same width, so conveyor guides and stacker settings do not need adjusting during changeovers. The 6-strap bread pans are big, and they are heavy. "We have to employ more robotics because of the speeds at which we operate," Mr. Benton said.
"We do not want our staff to stack pans," Mr. Lewis added. Under normal operating circumstances, no human intervention is required for handling pans; however, an emergency stack-off station is provided after the Stewart depanners to remove pans from which bread or buns did not release.
Flowers' manufacturing staff decided to look at robotic lidding because pans and lids are the most expensive "consumables" in bakeries. Knowing that automated handling of pan stacks reduced the potential for damage, the Flowers team decided to explore automated lidding in the form of an articulated-arm robot. More specifically, "we wanted to find out if robotics could be applied to lids and then look at doing it with bun pans," Mr. Benton observed. "After all, a pan lid looks a lot like a bun pan."
Bread proofs in a Stewart conveyorized proofer before the Stewart conveyor system delivers it to the Turkington USA tray oven. An Allen-Bradley PanelView graphic interface terminal at the ovens allows the technician to track pans, zone temperatures, burner status and other variables all the way through the oven. All information feeds back into the RSEnergyMetrix program. This oven also has a direct spark ignition system to control flash heat.
THE WIDE WAY. Even more change characterizes the high-capacity bun line at Bardstown. "When baking 5-in. buns, we run more than 10,000 lb per hour," Mr. Lewis said. Mr. Benton added, "We've been told that this is one of the fastest single-divider lines in the world."
The bun line employs a pair of AMF 3,200-lb horizontal tilt-bowl mixers and an AMF fermentation room for maturing the sponges. Final doughs move into the AMF rotary divider and Accupan intermediate proofing and moulding system. A Laramore flour reclaim system keeps dusting flour contained.
Yet the operating speeds of the bun line conveyors belie the high output numbers. "BakeTech actually slowed the equipment speed but increased the output rates," Mr. Buxton noted. Such results come from a seemingly simple approach: running a specially engineered large bun pan the wide way and traveling as straight a path as possible.
A unique aspect to the Bardstown bun pans is their "inverted" design. In other words, the support band set around the edge is positioned level with the pan's base instead of its top rim. Such placement not only strengthens the pan but also provides a good indexing point, according to Mr. Benton. The cups never extend into the pan below when stacked, thus protecting the cups from damage by incidental contact. Mr. Buxton observed that the inverted placement of the band improves support so bigger pans can be built. The pans are made specifically for Flowers by American Pan and are designed for Flowers' larger bun lines.
Because of its size, the pan determined nearly everything about how the bun line was designed, laid out and operated. The line was laid out to run straight whenever possible, with only curving turns. The BakeTech conveyorized proofer, oven and transport systems carry the pans on stabilized chain-mounted grids, equipped with magnets to hold pans in place.
COOL AND WRAP. Removed from pans by a Stewart wide-way depanner, the buns climb up to a BakeTech overhead conveyor where they cool for 15 minutes. Laid out in racetrack style, the BakeTech wide-way bun cooler can double up on rows of buns, thus conserving space and energy for the chain-driven system. A Stewart overhead conveyor with a center multitier drive carries bread loaves, which require up to 50 minutes to cool because of their larger mass.
Although located side-by-side at the far end of the bakery, the packaging departments for bread and buns involve separate technologies. Improvements in AMF bread baggers, for example, allowed the Bardstown team to go with four machines instead of the five that are usually installed, according to Mr. Benton.
Bread wrapping is fully automated from the horizontal switches that feed the wrapping stations through AMF slicing and bagging systems, Burford twist-tying units and AMF basket loaders. Bun wrapping encompasses both retail items and bulk buns for food service clients. Current volume at Bardstown supports four UBE retailpack lines and three LeMatic lines, each consisting of a slicer and a bulk wrapper.
Both wrapping areas send packaged products to AMF basket loaders, one per wrapping line. Here, the individually packaged loaves or bags of buns travel onto orienting tables. Following programmed instructions, the basket loaders group the packages into optimized patterns and transfer the entire assembly into a waiting plastic basket tray.
Every delivery basket is supplied clean to the wrapping room. As baskets return to the bakery, an AMF tray unstacker separates and routes them to two AMF tray washers. Water jets strip the baskets of soil and debris, and heated air knife blowers dry them.
VERIFIED LOADS. Discharged from the basket loader, the filled delivery trays move into a bottom-up stacker. When the correct number of trays has accumulated, the whole stack moves out onto the Cannon in-floor conveyor that loops around the shipping area. Before reaching the conveyor, however, the shipping operator places on each stack a barcoded tag, generated by Flowers' shipping automation system, which is new to the company and is the result of a joint effort with pcdata.
"This system manages shipping," Mr. Donaldson explained. "Every stack is coded for the proper truck. It won't allow the wrong stack on the wrong truck."
The shipping operator pulls the stack off the chain and stages it for delivery. As the stack enters the trailer, the system reads the tag. If incorrect, the system sounds an alarm and "locks out" the trailer until the shipping operator can clear the error.
"This allows everything to be accounted for," Mr. Donaldson said. "We know that everything is going to the right place."
Bardstown ships to depots and operates no routes directly from the plant. This effort currently supplies 26 distribution locations serving 187 routes. "The bakery runs three full shifts on both bread and buns," Mr. Lewis said, "and we're loading trucks three shifts, too, unloading inbound products transshipped from our other bakeries and loading outbound goods."
IN SUPPORT. Bardstown comes fully equipped with an on-site QA laboratory. Mr. Lewis observed that the company follows the protocols of the Global Food Safety Initiative. "It falls on our people, from receiving to wrapping through shipping," he added. The lab provides testing support for incoming ingredients, products in progress and finished goods.
An ammonia refrigeration system, located in a separate room, cools the glycol supplied to the mixers, chilled water system and yeast holding tanks. "Ammonia is friendlier to the environment than other refrigeration choices," said Bill Countryman, chief engineer, Flowers Baking Co. of Bardstown.
"One aspect of greenfield design is you can centralize the electric system," Mr. Benton stated. Because mixers are typically the largest consumer of electricity, the company located the bakery's electrical room close to them to reduce cabling and installation costs.
Flowers also earned significant energy savings with a new design for the two Ingersoll-Rand air compressors. The air line's loop is configured as its receiver, and compressed air is produced only as needed rather than being kept constantly available. "A lot of power is wasted on air compression at other bakeries," Mr. Benton observed.
Management of boiler capacity differs as well. The bakery has two boilers, and the system shuts off entirely as demand permits, rather than keeping the second boiler on constant standby.
Flowers equipped Bardstown with an emergency propane system and an electrical generator because the region is subject to ice storms. So far, however, weather has not interrupted bakery operations.
IDEA LAB. Having designed and commissioned so many new bakeries in recent years, Flowers managers look at these activities as a way to improve operations throughout the company's facilities. The new sites provide an opportunity to "push the outside of the envelope" and to do so in a real-time, results-oriented setting.
"All of the innovative ideas we pursue are executed in the field at the bakeries," Mr. Benton said. "The challenge for Ken and me is to build a big, effi cient plant that is flexible enough to meet the changing demands of the marketplace."
For its next bakery, currently in the planning phase, the building's design will incorporate several lessons from data gathered from Bardstown. "The next time around, the emphasis will be on LEED, on power consumptions and efficiencies of a different kind, and those factors will determine who supplies our equipment," Mr. Benton noted.
Being the low-cost producer, however, will remain the driving force for manufacturing going forward. The new data simply provides a new benchmark that the company can use to identify additional costs to eliminate in the future, Mr. Benton explained. "We're all long-term bakery people, and we were taught by others who were drilled in the art of baking. Now, we have the technology to better understand the science," he said. •
(Sidebar) Spirit of Bardstown
Market demand dictates when and where Flowers Foods builds new bakeries. In addition to its location near interstate highways that allow easy access to new markets within a 250-mile radius, Bardstown, KY, was selected by the $2.1 billion company because of its highly skilled labor force. Previously, the region had supplied components to the automotive industry, but the recent recession decimated these businesses, resulting in unemployment as high as 15% in November 2007 when Flowers came looking at the property.
"When word got out that Flowers was building in Bardstown, everyone in three counties wanted to work here,"said Donna Hardesty, head of the bakery's human resources department.
Ahead of the bread line's startup in May 2009, in fact, Ms. Hardesty collected a pool of 1,000 applicants by just posting employment ads in local newspapers and going through the state department of employment services. Prior to ramping up of the bread line, a core group of recently hired technicians traveled to the Newton bakery for a week of training, then returned to the Bardstown plant to train newer recruits who would work on additional shifts. Today, the bakery has approximately 250 total positions.