Mobile Cobots 4 Flexible Food Production 2.0

Why it matters

The bakery industry faces labour shortages, inflexible production processes, and increasing demands for food safety and quality. Production often relies on heavy, repetitive, and monotonous tasks that are hard to staff — especially as fewer skilled workers are available and temporary staff may lack the experience to maintain consistency.

This challenge is critical because it directly impacts product quality, operational efficiency, and competitiveness. Inflexible batch-based production makes it difficult to respond to changing demand, while physically demanding work leads to fatigue, errors, and food waste. Without innovation, bakeries risk falling behind in a market that demands flexibility, sustainability, and safe, high-quality products.

What we built

Our project delivered a new generation of mobile, multi-tasking collaborative robots — “cobots” — designed specifically for bakeries. Unlike traditional machines that perform only one task, these cobots can be moved between different workstations and switch tools to handle multiple jobs in a single day, such as demoulding bread, slicing baguettes, decorating pastries, and loading products into the freezer.

They are equipped with smart sensors to check product quality in real time — for example, measuring dough temperature or checking how well it has risen — and are intuitive to operate, even for people without technical skills. This makes the technology accessible to all staff, reduces physical strain, and improves consistency, safety, and flexibility in production.

In short, we’ve created a flexible, user-friendly automation system that supports workers, adapts to changing demand, and can be scaled across the food industry.

Impact so far

The project has delivered measurable efficiency gains and significant potential for waste reduction. By consolidating seven primary bakery tasks into just three cobot-enabled workstations, the number of operators required has dropped from seven to three while maintaining the same output. This streamlining, combined with advanced process monitoring, is expected to substantially cut food waste — currently around 90 tons annually, or 2.8% of production — once the system has been in operation for a longer period. The total investment of €1.03 million accelerated the introduction of technology that would otherwise have taken many years to implement, ensuring that these benefits could be realised in a much shorter timeframe.

Beyond the numbers, the qualitative impact has been equally strong. Food safety has improved thanks to smart sensors that monitor temperature, dough rise, and other quality indicators in real time. Heavy, repetitive work — such as moving over six tons of trays daily — has been automated, greatly reducing physical strain for staff. The flexibility of the cobots enables the bakery to respond more quickly to changing demand, while the precision of automation ensures consistent product quality. Perhaps most importantly, employees see the cobots as a supportive tool rather than a threat, creating a positive environment for further innovation. The system’s scalability also means its benefits can extend well beyond a single bakery, offering potential value across the wider food industry.

The project has reached several key milestones, marking steady progress from concept to real-world application. Both the Multi-Purpose Workspace and the Freezer stations have moved from design reviews to final engineering, with prototypes built and prepared for implementation. Successful internal testing has confirmed the cobots’ ability to handle multiple tasks — from demoulding bread and slicing baguettes to loading freezer tunnels — with the flexibility and precision required for bakery operations. These achievements have kept the project firmly on schedule, with full deployment planned before the end of 2025.

Strong partnerships have been central to this success. Van Wees Waalwijk has provided the technical expertise and hardware integration, while Mariën Bakkerij Producten NV has ensured the solutions fit seamlessly into day-to-day bakery workflows. The project’s progress has been showcased at events such as Vision, Robotics and Motion 2024, Synergy Days Barcelona 2024, and the Food Tech fair Den Bosch, attracting interest from SMEs across the food and manufacturing sectors. This growing recognition not only validates the approach but also paves the way for wider adoption of mobile cobot solutions in the industry.

What's next? 

Building on the success of the initial deployment, the next steps focus on full integration of the cobots into bakery operations and expanding their capabilities. At Mariën Bakkerij Producten NV, the ERP system is being upgraded to enable smarter, data-driven planning and to capture detailed performance data from the production floor. This will not only improve scheduling and efficiency but also allow the bakery to further reduce waste and enhance product consistency. In parallel, investment in a biodigester will transform food waste into renewable biogas for oven heating, closing the loop on sustainability.

From a commercialisation perspective, both partners see strong potential to scale the mobile cobot concept across other bakeries and into the broader food manufacturing sector. Van Wees Waalwijk plans to leverage its technical expertise and the proven results of this project to engage with SMEs at trade fairs and industry events, exploring licensing, lease models, and tailored system integrations. Further R&D will focus on refining sensor technologies, improving AI-driven quality control, and expanding the range of tasks cobots can handle — ensuring the solution remains adaptable to changing market demands and technological opportunities.

Testimonial