The higher minimum wage set for the US state of California will see more bakeries turning to automation and robots, says bakery equipment supplier All Bake Technologies.
Anthony Lucisano, sales manager for All Bake Technologies, said that this would spark an automation age across the US bakery sector.
“I believe bakeries are going to lead more toward automation and machinery to do the jobs of workers, being as it is that it costs more money to pay them, and I think that trend will spread across to the east coast as well,” Lucisano said.
Despite this inevitable shift to automation, Lucisano said human skills would still required.
Quality and durability of these machines will be crucial, he said, along with the consistency of an end product.
“Finding people with the technical ability to work and service on the machines – that’s going to be the biggest issue, especially because most machines are European,” he said.
These workers will need to have skills to work on preventative maintenance, cleaning and replacement of parts, he added.
