AI-powered demand forecasting solution enables largest U.S. commercial baking company to optimize product freshness without sacrificing availability

Zebra Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: ZBRA), a leading digital solution provider enabling businesses to intelligently connect data, assets, and people, today announced Bimbo Bakeries USA is using antuit.ai—now part of Zebra Technologies—to transform its organization by improving order accuracy and team visibility, ultimately increasing customer satisfaction. With the Zebra antuit.ai Predictive Ordering for Direct Store Delivery (DSD) solution, Bimbo Bakeries USA has also minimized waste by reducing forecast errors up to 30% as well as achieving and maintaining forecast efficiency of over 80% for more than five years—including through the pandemic.

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The largest U.S. bakery company, Bimbo Bakeries USA is working with Zebra’s antuit.ai software solution to improve order accuracy and minimize waste without lost sales from understocking and to empower front-line teams with greater visibility and productivity. (Graphic: Business Wire)

Operating 59 bakeries and employing over 20,000 associates, Bimbo Bakeries USA engaged Zebra to leverage the antuit.ai solution to maintain the balance between product freshness and availability. The solution is also simplifying collaboration between planners and route operators. Moreover, antuit.ai has enabled Bimbo Bakeries USA to work in a new way, resulting in a “Perfect Order” solution that has minimized forecast errors—overstocking and understocking—and provided the company with better worker productivity.

“Zebra is the perfect collaborator for the complex and sizeable challenges we’re facing through our transformation,” said Morgan Smith, Vice President, Direct Store Delivery Center of Excellence, Bimbo Bakeries USA. “Their antuit.ai forecasting and planning solution, augmented by a custom-fit user interface and deep industry expertise, enables us to achieve a significant step-change in both our order accuracy and organizational productivity. And the best part is that we did not have to wait years to feel the business impact.”

Stock availability and ordering continue to challenge retailers with nearly 90% of retail decision-makers and associates agreeing these are the top areas to improve with technology, according to Zebra’s Global Shopper Study. Antuit.ai optimizes demand forecasting and planning, allocation, replenishment, and lifecycle pricing for retail and consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies. Its software enables inventory decisions with demand intelligence leveraging both internal and external data, including weather and local events, to make more accurate, granular forecasts and provide better inventory decision-making power to businesses, like Bimbo Bakeries USA.

“I’m especially proud of the success antuit.ai has helped Bimbo Bakeries USA realize,” said Sivakumar Lakshmanan, Head of Software Solutions, Zebra Technologies. “We have collaborated together to embark on a new way of working—augmenting human know-how with AI—to solve the company’s forecasting challenges, empowering them to digitally transform their business and achieve substantial results.”

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The largest U.S. bakery company, Bimbo Bakeries USA is working with Zebra’s antuit.ai software solution to improve order accuracy and minimize waste without lost sales from understocking and to empower front-line teams with greater visibility and productivity.
• Leveraging antuit.ai’s AI-powered demand forecasting and planning solution, Bimbo Bakeries USA achieved the “Perfect Order,” reducing forecast errors by up to 30%.
• Bimbo Bakeries USA forecast accuracy has been consistent for over five years, despite pandemic volatility, thanks to its partnership with Zebra’s antuit.ai.
• To read the full case study, click here.

ABOUT ZEBRA TECHNOLOGIES

Zebra (NASDAQ: ZBRA) helps organizations monitor, anticipate, and accelerate workflows by empowering their frontline and ensuring that everyone and everything is visible, connected and fully optimized. Our award-winning portfolio spans software to innovations in robotics, machine vision, automation and digital decisioning, all backed by a +50-year legacy in scanning, track-and-trace and mobile computing solutions. With an ecosystem of 10,000 partners across more than 100 countries, Zebra’s customers include over 80% of the Fortune 500. Newsweek recently recognized Zebra as one of America’s Most Loved Workplaces and Greatest Workplaces for Diversity, and we are on Fast Company’s list of the Best Workplaces for Innovators. Learn more at www.zebra.com or sign up for news alerts. Follow Zebra’s Your Edge blog, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, and check out our Story Hub: Zebra Perspectives.

ZEBRA and the stylized Zebra head are trademarks of Zebra Technologies Corp., registered in many jurisdictions worldwide. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. ©2023 Zebra Technologies Corp. and/or its affiliates.

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