In the digital age, bakery operators’ needs, from training to proper equipment maintenance, are changing.

Burford Corp. recognized these needs with a particular piece of equipment.

“That drove us to develop a creative approach for the delivery of data to our customers,” said Clay Miller, vice-president of sales at Burford.

To accomplish this, the company launched Burford Connect, a plug-and-play system designed to provide preventive maintenance tools as well as interactive training features.

For the past year, Burford has been working with customers to identify specific needs for data collection and tracking that will allow for preventive maintenance on the equipment.

Burford Connect also offers training tools in a digital format never before available.

“It’s about giving customers access to the things that were previously paper-based,” Mr. Miller said. “The access will now be at the machine, with touchscreen ability to dive into a manual or 3D animation through the software we used to build the machine. From disassembling and reassembling to training videos, it’s all accessible.”

On the unit, data is housed in two parts: cloud-based and locally on its hard drive. Information can be sent over ethernet/IP to a PLC for collection and analytics, and with a WiFi connection, live updates and real-time troubleshooting are also available.

While the preventive maintenance technology is currently rolled out on Burford’s line of servo tyers, it will be made available for additional machines in early 2020. At the International Baking Industry Exposition, the company is demonstrating Burford Connect for the first time on its 2200M Smart Servo Tyer.