IBIE - 2022 Special Edition & Show Preview - 21

being on schedule, but suppliers
are getting hit by it on
all sides, whether it's Allen
Bradley or small parts, so I think
we've accepted the fact that 12
months is a realistic timeline for
a lot of equipment.
Mr. Gunnell: IBIE is hopefully a
place where you can get some
answers because you'll have all
your suppliers there, and you'll
have the opportunity to talk
to them about it. None of us
as exhibitors should be going
to the show blindly thinking
that's not going to be a point of
conversation.
Mr. Zarate: I'm sure none of us
coming as a baker are only coming
to try and shorten the delivery times. But obviously,
the situation is forcing us to get into very
close contact with our suppliers, and IBIE is the
perfect moment to do that. You'll have everyone
in the same room, so it's easier to review what's
going on. The other thing bakers are expecting
to gain from IBIE is the market has changed, our
consumers have changed, so we have to learn
quickly how to serve these new markets and
improve our processes, and we'll have all those
resources here: suppliers, ingredients, systems
and sanitation.
Mr. Frye: From a baker perspective, we would
agree that now is the time for relationships. With
the delays that we've seen in the supply chain, the
relationships we've had between bakers and suppliers
is even more important than it's ever been.
You learn who you really can rely on and who you
need to be working with.
Has the labor shortage changed the way baking
companies approach training?
Mark Hotze, Corbion: The need for training has
always been there on the ingredient side, but with
the Great Resignation and people retiring early
because of the pandemic and the pace, you're
going to see a greater need for ingredient companies
to teach bakers how to be bakers. The experienced
folks are retiring, and the new generation
coming in doesn't have that inherent knowledge,
and this is only going to get exacerbated.
Mr. Turano: Equipment suppliers do a wonderful
job of providing very technical training for their
equipment, which they update frequently via portals
and online training. But aside from that, our
industry needs better training opportunities from
our associations. We're discussing this all the time
within the associations: How can we provide an
annual forum to send our people to two- to threeday
training sessions, whether it's in a classroom
or hands-on in a bakery environment. Most companies
are doing it on their own with their own
training systems in their bakeries or in a classroom
environment. We have spent time developing our
own custom training because we need to. And
as Mark said, with newer people coming into the
industry who may not have been trained on bakery
before, it's even more important to prioritize training
because of the lack of core knowledge that our
people used to have.
Has there always been such an emphasis on training
or does this represent a significant shift?
Mr. LeCrone: It's always been critical. The better
the personnel are trained, the better off everyone
is. It's where we had been until we weren't allowed
to go into bakeries anymore because of the pandemic.
It's really accentuated the importance of
the training that we can't do remotely, that we had
to do in person, and that has been a big focus, and
I think you'll see a lot of it at IBIE. You'll see new
technologies with virtual service guys being able
to come in and actually make a difference.
INSIDE IBIE | 21
With
workforce
challenges
being
exacerbated by
the pandemic,
more baking
companies
are looking
for external
training from
suppliers and
agencies.
IBIE
IBIE - 2022 Special Edition & Show Preview

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