Snack food and wholesale bakery companies had been steadily adding automation to their plants and equipment contained therein for a number of years—and then the pandemic hit, accelerating the process due to both the difficulty in finding qualified people to hire, and the need for social distancing that accompanied at least the early stages of COVID-19. Ovens, proofers, and associated equipment have been among the candidates for automation.

Snack food and wholesale bakery companies are building varying levels of automation in their warehouse shipping and receiving areas, ranging from forklifts to autonomous vehicles, to traceability software and more, all in an effort to make their operations more efficient, effective, safer, and more profitable.

Lean manufacturing and Six Sigma can be applied to the snack and bakery industry—just like any other field—to analyze processes, cut down on unnecessary steps, and work to make the desired end result come about more efficiently and effectively.

Snack, bakery companies look for certain features and benefits when purchasing laminators and sheeters.

Snack and bakery producers are demanding more features than ever from extrusion equipment.

Other priorities include frying more than one product concurrently, handling both older and newer snack and bakery formulations.

Energy efficiency, automation, and ensuring a robust return-on-investment have been top-of-mind for snack food and wholesale bakery companies in the market for ovens and proofers, according to companies that make those machines, who say sales have been strong.

Automation is nothing new for the industry, but the pandemic has revved it up further.

Snack food and wholesale bakery companies in the market for dough-handling equipment such as dividers, depositors, and rounders have been increasingly focused on machines that provide greater automation, along with the corollary efficiency and labor savings.

The tortilla chip category enjoyed a healthy boost in sales during the past year, in spite of the fact that the numbers of bags placed in shopping carts barely budged—thanks to the price increases seen throughout the grocery store and elsewhere.