Case Study: Bizerba reduces food waste with Microsoft Azure Stream Analytics

Bizerba’s Azure-based ‘smart shelves’ enable predictive approach to inventory and production

Bizerba GmbH & Co. KG, a large German manufacturing company, wanted to reduce food waste by improving inventory monitoring in retail. Working with Microsoft Azure, the company set out to replace manual shelf checks with a digital, data-driven approach using IoT and cloud services such as Azure IoT Hub and Azure Stream Analytics.

Microsoft Azure helped Bizerba build its Smart Shelf solution, combining in-shelf sensors with a center-of-mass algorithm to detect exactly what was removed from shelves and send the data to the cloud. The system supports automated restocking, integration with bakery production, and dynamic pricing to better match supply with demand, helping reduce waste and optimize operations. Bizerba reports that the broader digital business built on Azure contributes to annual sales of about EUR 700 million.

Bizerba

Stefan-Maria Creutz

Vice President, Global Digital Transformation