In-store baking in food retailing is growing while cost pressures are high. A lack of experienced employees, high time requirements, and much more present challenges for operators. Bakisto is the answer.
Revolution: AI-controlled in-store baking
WIESHEU develops Bake-Off Station 4.0 with Wanzl and FANUC
In-store baking in food retail is growing while cost pressure is high. A lack of employees with experience, high time expenditure, rising energy costs, fluctuating quality, rigid production schedules, and markdowns of unsold baked goods pose challenges for operators. Bakisto is the answer to these challenges. At EuroShop 2023, WIESHEU, Wanzl and FANUC presented an AI-controlled, automated baking process in the bake-off area. From loading and baking to presentation and removal at the point of sale, all work steps are integrated. A Bakisto line can produce over 570 baking trays with about 7,000 pieces of baked goods in 12 hours with two Dibas baking stations (S/L) and with two loading systems and one robot each. "The economic success of in-store baking depends on the commitment and qualifications of the employees. Are the ovens and thus the display always sufficiently stocked in good time? Are the baked goods taken out of the oven at the right time? Is demand, which depends on the time of day, in view? Operating bake-off stations requires a lot of time and experience in order to avoid out-of-stock situations, to ensure the consistently high quality of goods and to avoid wasting food. The current shortage of staff makes this even more difficult," explains Julia Rümmele-Hauser, Head of Marketing and Product Management at WIESHEU.
The automated process with the Dibas blue2 baking oven ensures consistent quality and freshness of the baked goods. The robot-controlled operation requires significantly less staff, eliminating the time-consuming staff search and training phase. In addition, the intelligent inventory measurement of the BakeOff i noticeably reduces the workload of employees, as there is no need to manually count and write off the baked goods after closing time. Thanks to AI-driven and demand-oriented bakery planning, out-of-stock situations and food waste are significantly reduced at the same time.
Bakisto consists of three interconnected systems: Wanzl's BakeOff i smart baked goods presenter with artificial intelligence (AI), the Dibas blue2 network-enabled baking oven with TrayMotion automatic loading and unloading system from WIESHEU, and a collaborative robot (Cobot) from FANUC on a rail system. The cobot retrieves the baking trays, which are appropriately loaded with frozen baked goods, from the cooling system and pushes them into the transport trolley, which is placed on rails in front of the preheated oven. The TrayMotion loading system pulls in the loaded trays so that the baking process can be started. After baking, the baking trays are pushed back into the transport trolley, which is moved to the side. This allows the baked goods to cool and also makes room for the next production. The cobot then fills the specified compartments of the BakeOff i with the finished and cooled baked goods. This feeds the AI with new data and optimizes it.
