AMF’s Smart Applicator: Elevating Your Pizza Production
In a world where every ingredient counts, optimizing bakery operations is more crucial than ever. Rising energy and raw material prices put pressure on bakeries to find innovative ways to save costs. This is where the integration of AI and smart data analysis comes into play. While many bakeries have adopted connected equipment for energy savings, ingredient wastage remains a significant challenge, especially in multi-stage assembly products like pizzas. AMF Bakery Intelligence introduces a solution that not only minimizes waste but also ensures exceptional results with minimal operator intervention.
The Power of AI in Bakery Efficiency
The advent of Industry 4.0 has seen a surge in the use of automation and AI to optimize processes and increase profit margins across sectors. Machine learning and other emerging technologies are becoming increasingly common in the bakery sector, too, and it’s no wonder; they can be a huge asset when it comes to streamlining baking processes and increasing production output. AMF has long been an innovator in industrial bakery technology. Below, we’ll zoom in on one application of AI that’s already bringing savings to dozens of bakeries around the world.
Take a Slice Out of your Ingredient Costs
Producing complex, multi-ingredient products like pizzas at an industrial scale can be challenging. The process, especially when it comes to layered topping application, demands precision and efficiency to minimize ingredient wastage. AMF Tromp has introduced an ingenious solution that not only reduces waste but simplifies the entire process — the AMF Tromp Smart Applicator for automated pizza topping.
The “waterfall” method of adding topping ingredients such as cheese has the advantage of speed. But it often requires high operator involvement, and this can lead to variations in product consistency. It also tends to result in the wastage of expensive ingredients. Thanks to AMF Tromp Smart Solutions, we can now automate the process to reduce ingredient wastage and eliminate variations in product quality – meaning you can focus on producing more products that your customers will love. Here are some key facts to whet your appetite …
Automation Never Tasted so Good
The AMF Tromp Smart Applicator addresses three critical challenges in pizza production: ingredient wastage, labor costs, and product consistency. This smart, self-learning system uses advanced imaging technology and artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze pizzas for topping coverage and overall weight. Based on this data, the AI system actively calculates and adjusts machine settings in real-time to maintain consistent product quality. This reduction in ingredient wastage and operator involvement is a game-changer for bakery efficiency.
Using the pizza analysis data, the Smart Applicator artificial intelligence system actively calculates optimal machine settings and adjusts them in real-time to control the baseline product quality. This drastically reduces the amount of cheese and other toppings wasted, as well as the operator involvement required.
The “secret sauce” of our Smart Applicator solution is the AMF Cheese Ratio – it’s the new market-standard indicator that shows you the amount and weight of cheese or topping strewed on pizzas on the production belt. You determine the ratio you want, and our AI will do the rest. Anomalies are detected and remedied automatically, meaning no operator intervention is required!
And thanks to our advanced AI system, the applicator trains itself via machine learning to improve constantly, guaranteeing you ever-better results. With each new shift, the system learns how to optimize your settings to make the most of your operating setup, helping you achieve the ideal topping distribution – and improving the quality of production runs time after time. Best of all, any cheese or other toppings that are not used in the first round are re-circulated to reduce wastage even further.
Advanced Technology, Exceptional Savings
To make sure you’re getting the best value from your solution, we’ll calculate your projected return on investment (ROI) before purchase. The Smart Applicator system can be integrated in any production line, even the ones doing thousands of pizzas per hour, with 16-hour shifts. On average, this means reductions in wastage and give-away of expensive ingredients like cheese by up to 3% annually. In many production environments, that translates into savings of many thousands of euros per year. And most customers see a return on investment in less than one year. You’ll also see savings when it comes to labor costs and the elimination of incomplete and faulty products.
Bakery Intelligence: Your Partner in Profitability
The new Bakery Intelligence service by AMF Tromp is consistently striving to make your bakery more intelligent, efficient, and profitable. And it’s not just for cheese. We’re also developing applicator solutions for seeds, nuts, vegetables, protein, and other toppings. The service is managed centrally to provide you with regular system updates, so you know you’re getting the most advanced AI solutions. And with 24/7 service, we’ll be there to answer all your questions, whenever they arise.
If you’re thinking of preparing your bakery operation for rising ingredient costs with AMF Tromp’s automated solutions, find out more about the AMF Tromp Smart Applicator system or contact Lex Van Houten [email protected]