Bakery production planning software for batches, ovens and early deliveries
A bakery or food plant plans in hours, not weeks. Dough has to be mixed, proofed, baked, cooled and packed in time for a truck that leaves before dawn, and every product competes for the same mixers and ovens. ProductionPlanning.ai schedules that day with finite capacity, so the plan fits the equipment before the shift starts.
What makes food manufacturing scheduling different
- Short lead times: orders for tomorrow arrive this afternoon
- Fixed dispatch times for every route and customer
- Process steps that cannot wait, such as proofing and cooling
- Allergen and recipe changeovers that need cleaning time
- Batch sizes set by mixer and oven capacity
- Shelf life that limits how far ahead you can build
Food manufacturing software that schedules the whole line
- Work centers for each mixer, divider, proofer, oven, cooler and packing line
- Routings per product with minutes per batch at each step
- Changeover times by recipe family, with longer cleans for allergen changes
- Grouping of similar recipes to cut cleans (Plant plan)
- Sequencing by dispatch time, so the first truck's products run first
- Shifts that start at night, planned just like day shifts
The demo on the home page has a bakery ready to load: change tomorrow's orders and watch the oven schedule move.
See the problem at two in the afternoon, not at four in the morning
When tomorrow's orders are in, run the schedule. If the ovens cannot bake everything by the dispatch time, the late products are marked with how late they will be, and the bottleneck step is named. There is still time to add a batch to the evening shift, move a product to the second oven, or tell a customer.
- Late products per dispatch time
- Bottleneck step named, usually the oven or the packing line
- Ingredient shortages listed per product and time needed (Plant plan and above)
Next to your food manufacturing ERP
Food manufacturing ERP software is good at recipes, lots, traceability and costing. It is rarely good at the hour by hour sequence on the ovens. ProductionPlanning.ai schedules the orders, and on the Plant plan and above imports them from your ERP software for food manufacturers or a spreadsheet and exports the plan back. Read more on keeping your ERP and dropping the spreadsheet.
Plan tomorrow's bake against real oven capacity
Load the bakery in the demo, or create your account and enter tomorrow's orders.
Your data stays yours. Export or delete it any time. No card to try the demo.