The production of biscuits has become highly complex. The equipment behind such shapes, textures, and outputs, be it thin, crisp, hard biscuits or tender, soft dough types that melt on the tongue, is a big investment. To manufacturers planning expansion or a greenfield plant, industrial production lines cost a lot, and the question arises, why the cost is that high?
This blog discusses the cost drivers of the Hard Biscuit production line and Soft Biscuit Production line systems. We will discuss several factors, including engineering, automation, compliance, customization, materials, lifecycle costs, and return on investment. Let’s have a look at the key factors.
Key Factors: Why Soft and Hard Biscuit Production Lines are Expensive
1. Precision Engineering: Consistency at Scale
Precision engineering is at the core of any high-end biscuit brand. The difference between an acceptable product and a category-winning product lies in the difference of millimeters of thickness, grams of weight, and even the consistency of baking.
- Hard Biscuit Production Line Systems: The type of equipment, like the Rotary Cutting Line used by New Era to make Hard Dough Biscuits, needs highly precise forming, cutting, and layering systems in order to produce uniform edges, precise thickness, and dependable baking (almost thousands of units per hour). Machine cost is influenced by the accuracy of rotary cutters, which make roller tolerances, forming systems, and conveying systems.
- Soft Biscuit Production Line Equipment: New Era’s Rotary Moulding Line in the production of Soft Dough Biscuits is best suited to press and shape the fine dough in such a way that it does not collapse and overwork. The design of the mould, the finish, and the temperature of the material used are essential and demand expert engineering.
The accuracy of components and assembly tolerance increases the complexity of engineering, skilled labor during production, and therefore capital cost.
2. Automation and Control Systems
The factories producing biscuits in the modern age require high throughput and high levels of hygiene with minimum human interference. To do that, intricate automation is needed:
- High-end lines are standard with programmable logic controllers (PLCs), dough weight and humidity sensors, and integrated vision systems to control quality.
- The cookie lines that New Era manufactures with wire cut technologies, deposited technologies, and extrusion technologies are equipped with automated recipe control systems that minimize downtimes and human error.
Also, semi-automatic lines controlled 60.1 percent by the automation level, with fully-automatic lines forecasted to increase at a 10.1 percent CAGR to 2030.
3. Materials, Hygiene, and Food-Grade Construction
There are endless but constant exposures of production lines to heat, moisture, and abrasive ingredients. They should comply with high standards of hygienic regimes and should be easily washed down without being corroded or contaminated.
- The food contact components are normally finished with stainless steel, FDA-compliant seals, and FDA-approved lubricants. These are materials that are more expensive than the regular steel used in industries.
- Bearings, electrical enclosures, and structural components should be of a wash-down and dust/ingress protective rating.
The long-term reliability and the minimization of the risk of contamination through investment in corrosion-resistant, food-grade materials is a trade-off that increases the capital expenditure at the expense of the total ownership cost in the long run.
4. Customization and Product Flexibility
In the case of biscuits, shape, inclusions (chocolate chips, pieces of fruit), and coating are the sources of brand differentiation. The production lines have to be highly specialized or modular in nature:
- Special tooling: Special moulds, special dies, multi-cutting heads, and in-line decorating modules are costly to design and to produce.
- Rapid changeovers: Lines with the capability of changing between a soft biscuit mould and a hard biscuit cutter or a change in size within a short period of time demand modular engineering and tooling kits.
New Era serves such needs with modular and adaptable lines. Their Other Bakery Products category has shown the addition of value and cost to a production asset with multi-product capability.
5. Baking and Thermal Control Systems
Heat provides the final judgment of the quality of the biscuits. Advanced ovens, conveying systems, and thermal zones are needed to stabilize moisture loss and have uniform bake-through.
- Tunnel ovens are designed with attentive airflow arrangements, zonal temperature, and energy recovery units.
- Hard cookies tend to have a longer and drier baking process, whereas soft cookies need milder and more humid profiles.
- The complexity and capital cost of supporting ovens that can be designed to accurately fit both types of profiles, or supporting different types of ovens in an integrated line, raises complexity and capital cost.
6. Testing, Inspection, and Quality Assurance
The quality control of production lines has to be highly stringent:
- Vision systems inspect size, color, surface defects, and inclusions.
- The compliance with regulations is ensured by weight-checkers and metal detectors.
- Traceability systems have in-line sampling and sensor-based monitoring as control points on a batch level.
The integration of these systems into one production flow implies the costs of both the hardware and software; nonetheless, the contemporary food brand has to secure its image and meet the demands of the retailers.
7. Compliance, Certification, and Safety
To comply with HACCP, CE marking, GMP regulations, audits, and the demands of specific customers, design decisions must be made in favor of safe access, cleaning, traceability, and fail-safe mechanisms. Compliance has effects on design and documentation costs:
- Cleanable enclosures and sanitary design.
- Light curtains, safety interlocks, and emergency stop systems.
- Audits, validation, and documentation
These costs are normally included in the systems of suppliers who are able to provide equipment that meets various international standards, like New Era.
Conclusion
The cost of the Hard Biscuit production line and Soft Biscuit Production line equipment is high because it represents the combination of sophisticated engineering, automation of the line, hygienic design, compliance, and support of life cycles. Repeatability and access to challenging retail channels, in brands that require scalability, are a strategic step towards investing in a modern and well-supported production line.
When you are weighing choices, the total cost of ownership is not just the initial price: New Era is a supplier of high-quality equipment that is readily identifiable in their hard dough rotary cutting lines, soft dough rotary moulding lines, cookie lines, and other bakery products solutions. Our equipment is designed to provide predictable quality and cost-effectiveness over time.
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FAQs
- Do hard and soft biscuit production lines differ greatly in cost drivers?
Yes – soft lines will focus on the fine moulding and moisture, whereas hard lines will focus on the accuracy of cutting and drier baking. They both require variations in tooling, oven profiles, and control logic, which impact cost.
- Is it possible to transform a soft biscuit line into a hard biscuit line?
There are also modular plants, which are also capable of handling multiple products, but may need new tooling, changes in ovens, and control. Typically, fully or semi-plug-in hybrid systems are favored in terms of efficiency.
- What is the best way manufacturers can determine the ROI of an expensive line of biscuits?
Divide the cost of ownership by projected throughput: initial investment + installation + utilities + spare parts + downtime risk, compare to the cost of ownership, then divide by estimated payback period.
- What are typical expenses to be hidden in the budget?
Civil/utility upgrades, staff training, commissioning, trial runs, and an initial spare-parts inventory plan can add 20-40% to the underlying machine price.