zlacker

You have a point. If I were doing higher volumes at retail, the thought process would be much simpler. Make up a 60% starter on 8kg of flour in the evening. In the morning, empty a 16kg sack of flour into the mixer, chuck in 500g of salt and 12kg of water at an appropriate temperature to finish at 21C. Mix on first speed for to a shaggy mess (about five minutes), then about 8 minutes on second speed to moderate gluten development. Bulk ferment in a cool part of the bakehouse for 3 hours, with 3 folds 40 minutes apart, scale off large and small loaves, shape, prove until slightly underproved (4.5–6 hours) then retard overnight. Back in the bakery at 4 the next morning and, bake everything off and get it to market by 8am.

But today, my customers want 9 large multigrain loaves, 4 small ones, 3 really small soup bowl loaves, a dozen large white sours, 5 small and a couple of dozen bun loaves. On Friday they will want substantially different quantities. If I want to keep selling 95–100% of everything I bake, then I need accurate quantities, and I’d rather offload that essentially trivial calculation on a tool that gets it right every time. Five minutes after I arrive in the bakehouse, I have an accurate production sheet with the right quantities on it and I can concentrate on the far more important task of actually making the bread. I’ve spent maybe a couple of days, over the last year and a bit implementing the production planning software. Time well spent, I reckon.