Milling & Baking News - July 13, 2021 - 36

TUES | 07 13 202 1
Alexander says shortages, costs
enhance appeal of automation
MARCO ISLAND, FLA. - Amid rising
labor costs and a worsening shortage of
workers, the bar for investment in bakery
plant automation appears to be moving
lower, said Bradley K. Alexander, chief
operating officer, Flowers Foods, Inc.,
Thomasville, Ga.
" For us, it's really going to be looking at
those ROIs (returns on investment), " Mr.
Alexander said June 25 in a panel discussion
at the BEMA annual meeting held at
the JW Marriott hotel on Marco Island.
Finding ways to ease the company's labor
challenges are key, he said.
Equipment manufacturers are seeing
evidence of this shift in how bakers are
viewing projects that previously seemed
out of reach. Rick Hoskins, chief executive
officer of Colborne Foodbotics and
Yeaman Machine Technologies, Lake Forest,
Ill., said his company has witnessed a
change of attitude from its customers.
" Lots of projects that didn't make
financial hurdles are back on the
burner, " he said. " Project finance models
seem to be changing with respect to labor
cost calculations, taking X number of
people off the line, payback or whatever
the internal rate of returns. A lot of these
companies are basically saying, 'Hey, I
can't even find the employees. "
As a result, the willingness to spend
money on automation is measurably
greater, Mr. Hoskins, who was chairman
of BEMA, said. Mr. Alexander said financial
discipline remains important, but the
value of automation has risen.
" How do we automate more effectively? "
Mr. Alexander asked. " We need
your ideas. Something that didn't make
sense before because of the cost might
make more sense. You have to be realistic
with your capital numbers. You're using
some number for calculation of ROI, but
now, you think there really are all these
people on overtime most of the time,
so that hourly rate is different. Health
care costs, unfortunately, seem to go up
every year. Labor costs go up every year,
if you can find people. We definitely are
36
MILLING & BAKING NEWS
are because costs for transportation and
fuel can go up, so reduce that as much as
possible but automation is really, really
important. "
Other panelists in the discussion were
Robb MacKie, CEO of the American Bakers
Association, and Kerwin Brown, president
and CEO of BEMA. Mr. MacKie said
for the first time in his career, bakers are
saying they are turning away business
because of the labor shortage.
" If you can't find employees to add a
shift or a partial shift (they are turning
away business), and I think this is really
smart, " he said. " They aren't willing to
overstress their current employees, by
making them work more overtime or
another shift. In 26 years, I've never heard
a baker turn away business ever. "
Mr. Brown spoke optimistically about
IBIE 2022, saying " everything is aligning
for that to be a really positive show. "
Regarding the positive alignment,
Mr. MacKie credited iba, the major
European baking show, for moving the
looking at anything we can to improve
quality. Sustainability is critical and then
also people.
" What's challenging is that we have
bakeries that are flexible and do different
things. That's great, but they are
generally not highly automated. So we
have to think through, what do we want
to be good at? Where can we win? And
make sure our lines are in the right
place. We say, 'Put the pans where the
people are.' Put the bakeries where they
date of its event to 2023, in consultation
with the IBIE committee.
" They did a huge solid for us, " he said.
" The good news for us is that IBIE next fall
will be the first significant global baking
show " (since the start of COVID).
Mr. MacKie predicted efficiency of
operation and sanitation will be themes
that stand out at IBIE 2022.
Asked by Mr. MacKie about sustainability
at Flowers, Mr. Alexander said the
issue is not only a priority of customers
and consumers, it also has emerged as an
issue for the company's workforce.
" We have a great team working on
it, " he said. " It's more and more in the
news. It's also very important to our new
" (Sustainability is) also
very important to our
new employees. "
-Bradley K. Alexander, Flowers Foods, Inc.
employees. They want to know what
your sustainability plan is. That kind of
caught us by surprise, but the new generation
wants to know the cause or why
should I work for this company. If they
don't believe in what you are trying to do,
your mission and your vision and what
you stand for, they'll find someone else. "
The baking industry has added challenges
when it comes to attracting and
retaining workers, Mr. Alexander said.
Mentoring and showing employees a
career path, demonstrating that many
executives at one time started on the production
floor, are part of the onboarding
process, he added.
" What's happening now for us is with
demand up and not a lot of employees,
we're penalizing our good employees and
making them do a lot of overtime, " he said.
" They like overtime the first few weeks,
but after a while, they are like 'I want to
have some work-life balance. I want some
time with my family. Money is not as
important.' It's a new generation. " MBN
bakingbusiness.com
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Milling & Baking News - July 13, 2021

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