COVER STORY
Alongside these operational pressures is a changing product landscape. Doug sees a generational shift in purchasing habits, with younger consumers showing greater interest in products associated with traditional production, fewer preservatives and more natural characteristics. “We’re seeing the commercial bread aisle shrink,” he said. “And we’re seeing artisan products come alive.” That is already reflected in Rademaker’s
project work, according to Doug, with increasing activity around artisan-style products, unique products and smaller batch sizes. The trend reinforces the importance of flexibility. A bakery investing in a production system today needs to consider not only what it is producing now, but what it may need to produce in the future. “I think we’re dealing with the issues of today
and we’re not considering what the issues of tomorrow might be,” Doug said. For him, future- proofing means designing systems with enough flexibility to adapt rather than becoming fixed around a single production requirement. “Otherwise you become obsolete and you can’t respond,” he said. “So it would be a more flexible bakery with the ability to change.” That is a question Rademaker brings into
the conversation from the outset: “Here’s what you’ve asked me to do today. What’s your thoughts about tomorrow?” The same principle applies to emerging
technologies such as AI. Doug is not yet seeing AI fundamentally changing systems integration on a widespread operational level, but he believes the potential lies in equipment learning from production data. “The future is coming where the data that I
put into equipment can become teachable and learnable,” he said. Rather than relying solely on operators
to respond to changing conditions such as temperature or dough tension, he envisages equipment learning those changes and adapting on the fly. The practical value of Rademaker’s
Spencer Hendrickson, Dough Technologist at Rademaker USA, discusses how automation, sensors and AI are influencing pastry production at the Rademaker Experience Centre.
What innovations have had the biggest impact on pastry production in recent years? Automation in commercial pastry production has come a long way. We have a lot of new modules and things that we’ve been working on with weighing tables and lines that react to the dough as it’s coming down the line, making split-second changes to thickness and cutting lengths. That helps control quality and consistency.
What is becoming a key challenge for commercial bakeries? I think controlling waste is a big one — not wasting flour, not wasting dough, things like that. We use our line design to help control rework and waste and minimise throwing away ingredients.
Are customers primarily investing in automation to reduce labour? Reducing labour is a big one for sure. Having equipment that can shape the pastry without human intervention and being able to load trays, load ovens and have everything automated also reduces the chance of mistakes being made. It eliminates the human element
approach became particularly clear when Doug described a customer that had initially attempted to design, purchase, implement and commission a new production line internally. As the project progressed, the demands of the installation began to affect the team’s ability to manage its day-to-day operation. Rademaker was called in to help. “We came alongside them, which then
IT’S NO LONGER ABOUT HOW MANY PEOPLE AM I ABLE TO REPLACE TO GET MY RETURN ON INVESTMENT; IT’S REALLY ABOUT, CAN I EVEN RUN THE PLANT?
allowed them to continue to manage their day- to-day,” Doug said. Rademaker’s involvement also provided
an advocate during commissioning and training, helping the customer achieve a startup curve that was half of what had originally been expected. “We serve as an advocate for them,
especially at ground level when you’re turning the equipment on and people are panicking because they don’t know what they’re doing,” Doug said. “We can be a calming force to just
a little bit, which can help reduce waste in that way too.
Which product trends are you seeing develop? Protein-based products, whether it’s crackers or breads with an increased amount of protein per serving, seem to be a pretty big trend right now for us and in general for production lines.
What role could AI play in the future? I would say AI plays a big role in controls and how the line can make decisions itself when it’s detecting inconsistencies in the dough. Being able to make those quick choices and constantly check the data coming from the line means the system can be reactive. Using sensors on the line, you can
make very small changes that operators have to be trained quite extensively to develop the intuition for. I think AI can be trained similarly and then applied to most general lines as we go — acting as an operator, in short. That’s the most applicable use we’ve found for it.
work with the employees and make it a win.” For Doug, those early wins matter. Getting
product out of the door demonstrates to employees that the system works, allowing confidence to build before production is progressively ramped up. That emphasis on relationships was
particularly striking in the context of my visit to the Innovation Centre. The facility provides
14 • KENNEDY’S BAKERY PRODUCTION • AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2026
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