Kneading dough and shaping it into the perfect baguette or tapered roll can often take precious time away from a baker’s busy day. And while bakeries pride themselves on their craft, there may come a time where your success demands a simple solution that delivers the same dough integrity and consistency but for much less in time and labor. That is where automation comes in.

Streamlining Your Scratch Baking Equipment

For some, using automation in dough-making is the opposite of what artisan baking is all about. However, bakeries who experience an increase in product demand might want to consider equipment that automates the process. Doing so can reduce labor while increasing throughput without sacrificing the quality or artisan presentation your customers come to expect.

John Giacoio, Rheon USA’s VP of Sales, acknowledges many different forms of automation, and even goes so far as to advocate for bakers to differentiate between steps that need a personal touch and those that can be automated. 

Here are some benefits of using dough handling equipment: 

Scaling up

Dough handling machines allow bakeries to produce more with less; filling a void that can be created by a lack of skilled labor. 

For instance, Oliver’s Bloemhof POCO Countertop Moulder can roll up to 3,600 pieces of bread per hour. That speed is impossible for humans to achieve. Moreover, you can choose to roll anything from demi-baguettes and hot dog buns to bolillos and pan bread. 

Since automated equipment offers ease of use and quick results, it is bound to have a positive effect on production. 

Improved Consistency 

As demand increases, bakeries first instinct is often to hire more workers to speed things up, but with more people, bakeries run the risk of consistency issues. Ten bakers on a line all working the same type of dough are bound to yield different outcomes. But, when a machine does the same job, you can expect consistency, and high-quality results. 

The benefits extend beyond the bread and your bakeries brand recognition. Customers will come to your bakery because they know time and again the experience, they’ll get with the bread you bake.

Lower Labor Cost 

Instead of hiring a staff of bread moulders, investing in a single machine can help you save a lot in the long run. The upfront cost will yield higher output gain, increased consistency, but also with reduced overhead in other areas of your business. 

For instance, the Oliver 860L Deluxe can be operated by a single person. That means getting 3,600 pieces of consistently rolled bread every hour requiring one person to oversee the process. 

Faster Production 

It is a fact that machines lower production time. Like calculators, they reduce the time it takes to complete complex calculations. Dough handling equipment works in much in the same way- reducing the amount of time it takes to ready bread for production.

Your bakery staff might take a day to do something that a machine can do in just an hour. Imagine what you can do with all that saved time. Increased production speed, without sacrificing quality, means you can meet higher demands without making customers wait, not to mention the free time it gives you to tend to other business needs. 

Better Control 

With automation, you can have full control over everything–quantity, production time, and recipe. You set the recipe, choose the manufacturing method, specify the quantity, and the machine does the rest.

That’s total control in a nutshell, or bread roll as the case may be. 

Conclusion 

Like many other industries automation has migrated toward bakeries. Given the benefits of scale, consistency, quality, and control, it only makes sense to use it to your advantage. If you interested in exploring how your bakery can use automated dough making equipment to produce more and spend less check out www.oliverquality.com.