In recent years, the lack of labor is starting to affect more and more sectors of the economy, leaving its mark more and more on milling and baking. Initially felt as a lack of well-trained personnel, the critical moment evolved and turned into a staffing crisis, regardless of whether we are talking about qualified personnel or simple production machinery operators. Under these conditions, staff recruitment begins to be a challenge and, not infrequently, a very serious one, for companies that want to consolidate their place in the market or develop.
Without being a plea against the use of people in the production process, this article aims to highlight automation solutions that are easy to implement. These modern technological alternatives can compensate for the lack of labor force, a phenomenon that most manufacturers face and which, in the current conjuncture, can even block the progress of companies.
The social and economic context
The reasons for this crisis must be sought in the departure of young people abroad, where they are often content to perform even unskilled work, but also in the aging of specialists who, in the absence of apprentices, no longer have anyone to transfer their experience and knowledge to, thus blocking themselves naturally and traditional continuity. The most disturbing aspect of this crisis is the fact that the phenomenon has spread throughout Europe, from emerging economies to heavily industrialized ones. And the personnel crisis affects both companies with artisan production, of medium capacity, as well as those that produce at an industrial level.
The influence of the staffing crisis on the bakery sector
Traditionally, the bread production sector was one in which the labor force involved was numerous, and the amount of physical work, considerable. Although technical innovations greatly eased the effort made by people, they could not be completely replaced and still remained an essential component of the production process. If in the past bakeries were identified with an anthill, nowadays, people have come to be needed only at key points, but indispensable to the production process.
Solutions to fill staff shortages
One of the key points that advertises the presence of man is, for example, that of the supply of flour. Regardless of whether we are talking about artisanal or industrial production units, flour has an important part in the weight of the finished product, occupying a considerable part of the space intended for storage, and its handling requires the concerted effort of several employees. These aspects are perceived by the business administrators as inconveniences, and in the context of the personnel crisis, they can become serious problems, which slow down the activity and require the detachment of personnel who, normally, should take care of the production activity.
The market of equipment manufacturers reacted to this problem and offered the possibility of automating the flour supply process by simply connecting a flour tank to the silos where it is stored.
Some manufacturers, such as CEPI Italy, have developed silos for both exterior and interior, adapting to the customers' location possibilities and offering integrated solutions for storage, transport and dosing of flour and other ingredients used. Thus, the operator chooses the recipe from the control panel, and the system is able to manage the automatic bringing of the ingredients into the mixer tank, in the predetermined quantities.
In addition to the minimal role of the operator, the use of such a system has the advantage of ensuring the traceability of the production process and ensuring a constant dosage, without deviations from the recipe.
An important advantage is the economy of space, the silos can store tens of tons, occupying a floor footprint of only a few square meters. In addition, the pneumatic fluidization systems inside the silos have a beneficial influence on the maturation of the flour and implicitly on the degree of hydration of the dough. In conclusion, in addition to the reduced number of operators and the economy of space, the use of storage silos also offers advantages that can beneficially influence the quality of the finished product.
Dividing, pre-baking and shaping the dough can be automated
Another stage of the technological process that can be automated is dividing, pre-rising and modeling the dough. If in the past these operations could only be done by humans, today there are many solutions in which humans only supervise, and machines perform all these tasks.
In addition to considerably higher productivity (we mention here the solution of the SD600 divider produced by SWEBA DAHLEN, capable of dividing 6000 pieces/hour!), the quality and appearance of the finished product can be far superior to those made by hand. For example, the existence of a series of options such as the "no-banana shape" device from the same manufacturer SWEBA DAHLEN it allows an impeccable modeling of the fringes, removing tension from the dough and preventing it from taking the annoying banana shape.
The use of an automatic division, pre-stirring and modeling group also presents advantages from the point of view of the doughs used, they cope brilliantly both with low hydration and sticky ones, in which the percentage of water is very high.
Automatic loading and unloading of ovens
Another sequence of the manufacturing process that can be automated is that of the automatic loading and unloading of the ovens. This operation usually involves two or more people and requires a considerable amount of physical effort. Thanks to complex automation, there are systems that take the leavened bread from the carts, put it in the oven and take it out automatically at the end of the baking time.
Such a system is composed of FIX BOX and ASSISTANT from KORNFEIL The Czech Republic, which reduces the role of the operator when placing the cart in the pick-up system, the rest of the operations being performed automatically.
The installation can be completed with a counter of pieces, so that a control of the manufactured products can be ensured. It should be noted that the automatic loading/unloading system can serve several ovens at once and is able to set its priorities, optimally managing between the introduction of the leavened dough into the oven and avoiding too long times, which can lead to overbaking the products. From the point of view of productivity, these lines can reach figures comparable to those of tunnel furnaces, but having the advantage of lower energy consumption per ton of finished product.
Dosing and packaging at speeds beyond the human operator
Considering an increasingly accentuated orientation towards products with high added value (such as for example cookies, macarons or any other "one bite"), manufacturers are often overwhelmed by the workload required for their dosing and packaging. Thus, the lower the production price per piece, resulting from large-scale replication of the product, the greater the problem raised by its dosing and packaging.
To cover such situations, we retain the solutions of manufacturers such as TECHNO D, outstanding in terms of flexibility and the special appearance of the product packaging. Also, another manufacturer recognized for the wide range of options offered is the group HAYSEN which has in its portfolio several prestigious brands from Europe and the world. And we cannot end the discussion about automation without mentioning the integration of "pick and place" type robots (such as the solutions proposed by DSC) that work at speeds often unattainable for a human operator.
