Custom fresh production app for the specialist shop
The plan for what is being made today may be right in the office, but the work happens in the bakery, the butcher's or the kitchen. There the list hangs on a nail, the recipe is in a notebook and the temperature is written on a form if someone remembers. Appfront builds an app for the production area: the production list per workstation on a tablet, the recipe scaled at the workbench, batch numbers of raw materials per batch, allergens and temperatures recorded at the moment itself, and raw materials counted where they are stored.
What is a fresh production app for specialist food shops?
A fresh production app is the part of production that lives on the shop floor. The employee at the workbench sees on a tablet what needs to be made at their workstation today, in what order and how much. They open the recipe and see the quantities for the batch they are making, not for the standard quantity in the recipe book. For each batch they scan or select the batch number of the raw materials they use, tick off what is done and record the temperature where required. What they do is in the system straight away.
Without an app like this, the shop floor is a paper world. The production list is printed and updated by pen, the recipe is in a greasy notebook in which two versions are mixed up, and the temperature log is filled in at the end of the shift. If a customer asks which batch of flour or meat was in their product, or a supplier issues a recall, the search through delivery notes begins. Under Article 18 of Regulation (EC) 178/2002, you must be able to show who you received an ingredient from and who you supplied the product to; on the shop floor, that is the first thing to go missing.
We build custom software because every production area works differently. A bakery works in baking rounds with dough that needs to rest, a butcher's with cutting plans and its own sausages, a caterer with components that are later combined into a dish. Which steps you want to record, which temperatures your hygiene code requires and what your suppliers' batch numbers look like determines what the app does. The planning, recipe management and cost price sit in the software in the office; this page is about the hands at the workbench.
List at the bench
Per workstation, ticked off.
Recipe to scale
For the batch at hand.
Batch known
Raw material per batch.
How we build your fresh production app for specialist food shops
We start in the production area: how the list currently arrives, where the recipe is looked at, what is recorded on paper and by whom. Then we build a first version with the production list per workstation and the recipe to scale, because that is what is used every day. Your employees work with it for a while, with flour on their hands and a damp floor. Batch numbers, temperatures, the count of raw materials and the integration with the production software follow once that runs well. After that, we maintain the app as your range or your production changes.
List, recipe, recording.
The first version.
Recorded at the batch.
Go-live, monitoring, and maintenance when things change.
What a fresh production app for specialist food shops actually does
The components below appear in almost every production app for a specialist fresh food shop. Which ones you need depends on your type of production and what you currently keep on paper.
Production list
Tick off per workstation.
Recipes
Scaled to the batch.
Batch numbers
Raw material per batch.
Allergens
Alert on changeover.
Temperatures
At the moment itself.
Raw materials
Receipt and counting.
Who we build a fresh production app for specialist food shops for
The app is intended for businesses with their own production area where more than one person works and where recipes, lists and records are currently on paper. The more products and the more employees, the more it delivers.
Bakeries
Baking rounds and dough in batches.
Butchers
Cutting plan, sausages and cold cuts.
Caterers
Components and dishes.
Fishmongers
Supply and preparation per day.
Test your idea first: a working prototype in 1 day
With OneDayBuild, we make your idea tangible in a single day for €1,150, so you know whether further development is worth the investment. Decide to go ahead with the full build? Then we deduct the cost in full.
View OneDayBuild →Technology and integrations
This page is about the production floor. For planning, recipe management, labels and costing in the office, see our page on fresh production software for specialist food shops; for all CCP measurements and what happens when one is out of range, see our page on a HACCP app for CCP registration; and for bakeries as a whole, see our page on bakery software. If your customers' orders come in through an app, take a look at the ordering app for the fresh specialist shop. You can read about our approach on building an app.
Why Appfront for your fresh production app for a specialist food shop?
A batch made with the wrong quantity, an allergen overlooked when a product is swapped, or a recall where nobody knows which batch went into what: all of it costs a specialist shop money and trust. That is what we build around: the list and the recipe at the workbench, and every record captured at the moment the work happens.
Right quantity
Recipe scaled to the batch.
Traceable
Batch number per production run.
Genuine records
At the moment itself.
Security and privacy in a fresh production app for a specialist food shop
The app contains recipes, and those are the shop's trade secrets. An employee sees the recipe for what they are making today and cannot export or change it; that is done by the owner or the chef in the office software. Every tick, record and count is logged with name and time.
The backend runs in a European data centre, with encrypted connections and storage and daily backups. If the wifi drops in the cold room or behind the oven, today's list stays on the device and anything recorded is synced as soon as the connection returns.
Frequently asked questions about a fresh production app for a specialist food shop
Questions that owners and chefs of a fresh specialist shop ask before getting started.
It puts today's production list on a tablet for each workstation, shows the recipe scaled to the size of the batch, and records what was made, with which batch of raw materials, and which temperatures and allergen checks went with it. At the end of the day, the employee counts the waste in the same place.
The software is for the office: how much needs to be made today, plus managing recipes, labels and costing. The app is for the production floor: that is where the list is worked through and what actually happened is recorded. The app gets its list and recipes from the software.
For each batch, the employee scans the barcode of the raw material or picks the batch from the list of what has been received. That way you can trace which batches went into each finished product, and for each batch which products it was used in.
Partly. The app records the temperatures and checks that belong to production against the batch. For all the control points in your HACCP plan, including follow-up on a deviation, there is a separate HACCP app that can work on the same data.
We take that into account: large buttons, minimal typing, scanning instead of searching, and a device in a case that can withstand the production area. We will look at which tablet fits best together in the first step.
No, unless you want it to. A member of staff sees the recipe and can leave a comment, for example that the dough was too wet. The recipe itself is changed in the software, so there is always one valid version.
For businesses with a production area where several people work, dozens of products a day and records that are still kept on paper. If the owner makes everything themselves, a printed list is often enough.
The production list and the recipe at the workbench?
Tell us how your production area works today and what is currently kept on paper. We'll show you how an app can handle that on the shop floor.