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Trying to speed up my pizza times

Use a stopwatch app or an actual stopwatch and time the following for a large (14"?) pepperoni pizza. Time them in a normal scenario, not with your staff trying to break a speed record.
  1. The time between getting a single dough ball from the cooler, sheeting and handing over to your maker for assembly
  2. The time taken by your maker to top a large pepperoni and put into the oven
  3. The time it takes to bake and remove the large pepperoni
  4. The time it takes to box, cut and bag a large pepperoni
Steps 1 and 2 are crucial to your operation. If these steps aren’t up to par, you’re wasting your money buying conveyor ovens. If your guys can’t fill a single y600, they are going to have a hell of a time getting a conveyor to it’s capacity.

I want to make something clear though… I keep mentioning your employees as if I am speaking poorly about them. I’m not. You said they are hustling, and I bet they are, I just think that your system might be killing their efficiency. Grabbing each dough from the cooler is a dead giveaway on how inefficient your system might actually be…

Take those times above and post each one. Maybe your times aren’t even as bad as you think? Let me know and I can help you speed things up in whichever section is below standard.

@noreason – sorry it took so long to get back with you… Here are the times that we recorded:

SMALL 8 inch (Pepperoni & Bacon) – 1) 1’10" 2) 1’ 02" 3) 6’ 51" 4) 17" Total Time: 9’ 20"

MEDIUM 12" Supreme (9 Toppings) – 1) 1’ 20" 2) 1’ 51" 3) 11’ 21" 4) 15" Total Time: 14" 47"

MEDIUM 12" Pepperoni – 1) 1’ 02" 2) 1’ 21" 3) 11’ 39" 4) 17" Total Time 14’ 19"

I never realized just how long our oven is taking to cook. Now that I see it on paper, those times look extremely long! As stated before, we cook in a Y600 on screens @ 550 degrees. Not sure what could be throwing our cooking times off so much?? How do the other times look?

Thanks again for the help & advice.
 
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we cook in a Y 600 on screens @ 550 degrees. Not sure what could be throwing our cooking times off so much??

Because you are not baking at 550 degrees. Your wishostat is at at 550 degrees but that does not insure you have 500 degrees in the oven.

Get a grill thermometer to show your deck temp and an oven thermometer to show your upper temperature.

One of the major differences between deck and conveyor ovens is that the air impingement conveyors always bake pizzas at the same time as the temperature does not falloff as the day goes on as the decks do

George Mills
 
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Not sure your set up but we have our sheeter on a refrigerated unit. No going to the walk in to get doughballs. That may help speed things up.
 
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@noreason – sorry it took so long to get back with you… Here are the times that we recorded:

SMALL 8 inch (Pepperoni & Bacon) – 1) 1’10" 2) 1’ 02" 3) 6’ 51" 4) 17" Total Time: 9’ 20"

MEDIUM 12" Supreme (9 Toppings) – 1) 1’ 20" 2) 1’ 51" 3) 11’ 21" 4) 15" Total Time: 14" 47"

MEDIUM 12" Pepperoni – 1) 1’ 02" 2) 1’ 21" 3) 11’ 39" 4) 17" Total Time 14’ 19"

I never realized just how long our oven is taking to cook. Now that I see it on paper, those times look extremely long! As stated before, we cook in a Y600 on screens @ 550 degrees. Not sure what could be throwing our cooking times off so much?? How do the other times look?

Thanks again for the help & advice.
  1. This should be at no more than 30 seconds IMO. Pre stretch your dough. We don’t use screens, but the concept is the same. Have a stack of what you need nearby, already stretched and screened for the rush. It should take no more than 30 seconds for your maker to grab his next piece of dough and have it ready for toppings. Even 30 seconds is a long time honestly.
  2. Shouldn’t take much more than 30-45 seconds to top a 12" pepperoni and put it in the oven. Not sure why it took 1m 21s to make a pepperoni and only 30 more seconds to add 8 additional toppings. Maybe its the Sauce and Cheese that’s causing the issue?
  3. That’s a massive difference between an 8" Pepperoni & Bacon and a 12" Pepperoni… We definitely don’t have bake time discrepancies like that. Check the temp with a thermometer like George suggested. Try to always rotate where a pizza goes in to allow the hearth to rebound. Clockwise, counterclockwise, etc… The thing about the y600, and really mostly all deck ovens, is that there is a level of skill involved to operating them to their potential. A mixture of raising the thermostat (to it’s maximum temperature sometimes) and working the push/pull knobs can and will make a huge difference. A quality oven man on these types of ovens make a big difference. Basically, if your deck is getting cold, you will need to compensate by using these adjustments to keep it operating at the proper temp or else your cook time will raise higher and higher during the rush.
  4. Seems about right
15 minutes for a 12" pizza is pretty high. Get that down to around 10-12 minutes and you should be in better shape. Conveyor ovens really decrease cook time, but I haven’t come across one that creates the same product.
 
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