When it comes to cookie production, there are no more important factors than understanding what equipment you need, how to maintain it, and when to replace it. Leading experts share important tips and trends to managing these factors with maximum efficiency.

John McIsaac, vice president of strategic business development for Reiser, Canton, Massachusetts, points out that it is important for bakers to procure equipment that fits your needs for both today and tomorrow.

“Many of our customers make multiple products. We aim to provide versatile equipment that allows the baker to portion all of today’s products and tomorrow’s potential products,” he says.

Reiser’s Vemag HP1B series fits the smaller baker’s need in this regard. An array of attachments allows the baker to easily portion doughs, batters, and fillings to produce all types of breads, cookies, muffins, pies, cakes, gluten-free products, and more.

In addition, Reiser’s Vemag 500B machine handles stiff cookie doughs with inclusions, pie doughs, pizza dough – all on the same machine. A change of the Vemag’s attachment allows the same machine to sheet brownie or cookie dough with a great pan fill – without the labor.

“Many of our customers add attachments to their Vemag as they grow their business,” McIsaac elaborates. “They come to our Customer Center and try new products, and simply add the attachment to go into production.”

Budgeting for equipment is paramount.

Austin Archdeacon, operations, Erika Record Baking Equipment, explains that best-case methods for budgeting involve a myriad of important factors. Erika Record offers production solutions for nearly every type of cookie imaginable.

“Something that can’t be stressed enough is to search for quality and available support,” he emphasizes. “Often the lowest prices items come with lower than desired after sales support including an inability to find anyone that supports the machine or where to even acquire parts.”

If you are planning on replacing or upgrading a piece of equipment, target a relatively slow time period as the install date, he advises, and work backward with your equipment supplier to build in setup and installation (if necessary), lead time and delivery, and any equipment discovery that may be required. 

“Often customers are looking for equipment when it is already too late to meet their timing requirements,” Archdeacon explains.