Bakery equipment and systems solutions supplier AMF Bakery Systems has launched Smart Solutions – a digital solution that aims enables pizza producers to minimise waste and operate more efficiently.
By facilitating automated quality and quantity control for pizza toppings such as cheese, this AI-based system helps pizza manufacturers reduce waste and giveaway, reduce labour requirements and become more efficient. T
Smart Solutions will be offered in conjunction with AMF’s pizza production machines, starting with its Waterfall Applicator (a machine that deposits toppings such as cheese). A ‘smart applicator’ takes images of each item on the production line.
Cloud-based software using artificial intelligence (AI) then collects and analyses these images real-time to determine whether the amount and weight of cheese is correct. While analysing, this software adjusts the applicator’s speed and volume settings to deliver the optimal cheese distribution.
Using machine learning technology, the Smart Solutions system optimises this process over time, detecting and indicating any anomalies. Its baseline settings can also be used for quick production recovery or to make subsequent runs more effective. In this way, Smart Solutions accelerates production speeds and improves topping application accuracy by at least 3%. This results in pizzas with standardised topping distributions regardless of external influences, human interaction, or the sophistication of the AI technology.
This allows pizza producers to minimize the waste and giveaway of cheese – typically an expensive ingredient – as well as lowering their energy consumption. The automation enabled by the system can also reduce labour requirements and costs, since operators will not need to monitor cheese quantity or change the applicator machine’s settings. In this way, the solution drives efficiency, sustainability, and profitability for pizza producers.
Lex van Houten, Regional Marketing Manager EMEA, said: “I’m proud to launch Smart Solutions, a service that brings automation to pizza production and embraces digitalisation. As well as delivering improved quality control and efficiency for our customers, this solution will also provide us with insights into their needs. We’re looking forward to further optimising Smart Solutions in line with our customers’ feedback and expanding the offering to more applications.”
