User update: new things you can do with Cybake
Each month, we update Cybake with a new set of enhancements which we announce in our emailed release notes that users can also see on their home screens when they sign in. Improvements to Cybake are made at such a rapid pace, though, that useful items can be easy to miss for busy users.
Here, then, in the first of this new series, we are proud to present the highlights from Cybake’s recent updates, along with the full lowdown on what they do and how they can help your bakery’s operations.
If need any help with any of these new features, or would like to activate new modules in Cybake, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
New automated inventory ordering module for retailers
Brand-new module alert! Cybake now forecasts and automates the direct-to-store inventory purchases such as ingredients, components, and other sundries needed by retail stores.
The system handles the entire process, preventing human error and over and under ordering. No more out-of-stock issues and no stockpiles of unnecessary items causing variances in stock valuations.
Store colleagues make stock takes with Cybake for inventory management and reconciliation. Cybake then forecasts what is expected to be sold between each store’s delivery date and its next delivery date. Buffer stock can be built in for extra cover.
Store colleagues can adjust each forecast if needed, or finalise it as it is, and Cybake then auto generates a PO.
Cybake’s new Automated Inventory Ordering module includes an SFTP CSV file output which can be sent over for suppliers to upload into their software rather than receiving individual orders for each store. Orders consider product lead time, supplier delivery days by store, and supplier cut off time to make sure that everything is ordered for the right store on the right day.
Record theft and food surplus scheme donations in your retail stores
Also on the retail front, we have made a couple of refinements to Cybake’s Instore retail store management module to address today’s trading environment.
When reporting reasons for waste, shop mangers can now record “theft” as an option for better analysis by head office. And, in order to record any unused retail stock that your store donates to mystery bags for food surplus schemes like Too Good to Go properly, we have added another option, called ‘Reduced to clear’.
Live production progress section and status update for head office
One super cool feature of Cybake for wholesale bakeries is that, by number crunching their historical data, it can plan production runs in advance without having to rely on actual orders.
But what if head office doesn’t have sight of the bakery shop floor or is in a separate location? How can it decide whether products can be added to or cancelled from production?
To answer this question, we have added an “In Progress” section to Cybake’s production planning screen. This displays the live progress of any production plan and can be amended on-the-fly by head office operatives.
Head office now can also view plan statuses and if a plan line has been started, it can no longer be deleted.
New customer category selector enhances wholesale production planning
We have added a handy new customer category selector for wholesale bakers that use Cybake’s production module reports to plan production and generate printed prep sheets or on-screen prep instructions.
Production can be planned in three ways:
1) By product: choosing the quantity or weight to produce
2) By order: choosing order dates to pull product and quantities from
3) By demand: choosing production dates which look at order requirements and production lead times through the levels of the recipes.
Previously, the pop-up screens for these three options had filters on them which related to product and order status, but none for customers.
Now, we have added a customer category filter to ‘Orders’ and ‘By Demand’, so users can plan for orders for specific customers and customer groups.
This means that users can now generate plans for specific customer orders, giving them the ability to tailor production runs to be more efficient and effective.
Plan for over-runs from previous shifts, amend future shift production
We have added an important new capability to the Shifts function in Cybake’s Factory production module which groups production plans together on one work shift.
The upgrade now gives users the option to toggle between their current shift, previous shifts or the future shifts. This means that work can be assigned for any production that has over-run from a previous shift and users can see and amend what work future shifts will do.
This is achieved by clicking the shift at the top of the page, which now generates a pop-out that allows the selection of an alternative shift.
Record wasted mixes made through error
Cybake’s Factory production module has had the option to waste stock or ingredients lots for products that have been made. But what happens if you are part way through a mix and make an error before that?
Cybake’s latest update includes an option to record the waste of a part-made mix. This option lets you waste what you have done so far, and you can now start again without having to add another mix to your production plan.
Cybake corrects your stock data and updates your audit records. Plus, your wasted part mix will now have an auditable reason against it, which is helpful from a traceability perspective.
Record waste in weights
Another neat addition is that when you record waste of stock, ingredients or mixes, you can now record them in weight, rather than of the traditional quantities of containers they were stocked in. This is useful if you want to waste, say, 6kgs of a 16kgs bag of flour, and means no more tricky calculations at the point of the waste process.
Less clicks with auto-selected lots
Here is another nice time-saving refinement for users of Cybake’s lot tracking, traceability, and production Factory module.
With this module, colleagues record the use of ingredient lots for mixes from locations on the shop floor. Previously, colleagues had to tell Cybake if the lot they were using was the only one available. Now, Cybake simply auto-selects a lot if it is the only one available in its default location, meaning less fiddly clicks.
Heather has worked in the baking sector since 2010, most notably for The Bread Factory, Paul Rhodes Bakery, and now Cybake where she ensures that new software development meets our customers’ requirements and is user-friendly.
