How AI Transformed a Bakery Supply Chain: Reducing Waste and Boosting Sales with Smart Ordering

In the world of freshly baked goods, timing and accuracy are everything. No one wants yesterday’s eclairs or to walk away empty-handed because the croissants sold out early.

For years, bakeries and stores have grappled with the challenge of placing the right order at the right time. Traditionally, stores would place their orders for fresh products the day or a few days before delivery. While this approach seemed simple, it came with some serious inefficiencies.

The Old Process: Guesswork and Wasted Goods

Stores were responsible for estimating how much of each product they needed the next day. This guesswork often led to:

Over-ordering, resulting in increased wastage.
Under-ordering, which meant lost sales and disappointed customers.
Incorrect product selections, where items that weren’t in demand were ordered unnecessarily.

These problems didn’t just hurt the bottom line — they also contributed to food waste and inefficiencies across the supply chain.

Image describing in an infographic the current problem.

Enter AI: Smarter Decisions with Azure Machine Learning

To tackle these issues, we turned to technology — specifically, Azure Machine Learning. By training AI models on historical ordering data and contextual factors like weather forecasts, we reimagined the entire ordering process.

Here’s how AI made a difference:

Automated Ordering: The AI now generates order suggestions automatically. Store staff only need to validate them — no more manual entry or guesswork.
Improved Accuracy: The system achieves at least 88% prediction accuracy, ensuring stores get exactly what they need.
Better Outcomes: With fewer errors, we’ve seen a sharp drop in both waste and missed sales opportunities.

Image describing in an infographic the solution to the problem.

The Results: Efficiency That Speaks for Itself

This shift to an AI-driven ordering has cleared the path to greater efficiency and sustainability. Stores now operate with more confidence, knowing their stock aligns closely with actual demand. Customers find the products they want, and bakeries reduce the amount of unsold goods and wastage.

This is just one example of how embracing AI and data science can drive smarter business decisions. In a fast-paced world, it’s not just about making more — it’s about making smarter choices.