Unigrà brings technology to the confectionery industry

When choosing ice cream, it must be appetising and pleasant to the taste. But at the same time it must have the right texture. When you eat one, know that artificial intelligence is also behind the formula for the 'perfect' ice cream, put to work in the IntelliMix application, which came out of Unigrà's laboratory, with the aim of satisfying its customers, which include almost the entire Italian confectionery industry.

Unigrà operates in the sector of processing and sales of edible oils and fats, margarines and semi-finished products for food production, especially confectionery, with a strong international presence: more than one billion euro in revenues (1.2 billion in 2023), about 40 per cent of which are exported, thanks to 25 foreign subsidiaries, two branches and a network of distributors and importers in more than one hundred countries worldwide.

For some time now, the Romagna-based company, based in the province of Ravenna, has chosen to ride on the coattails of artificial intelligence innovation to refine its answers and solutions in the service of its customers. Thanks to a machine learning system developed in conjunction with Accenture's Center fo advanced AI, the IntelliMix web app performs several functions: it ensures complete and precise management of raw materials, guaranteeing the certification and traceability of each individual component; it manages mixtures efficiently by optimising compositions; and it exploits machine learning models to anticipate analysis results and changes. In this way, Unigrà is able to satisfy the customer who asks for a new product, helping him to define characteristics and quality, but also to define the ideal mix of raw materials to achieve certain results, for example to obtain an ice cream with a soft texture even just taken out of the freezer.

"Obviously the immediate and concrete effect of the adoption of artificial intelligence is in terms of efficiency," emphasises Antonio Nicoletti, Cio of Unigrà and architect of the project, "but the technology has had a significant impact in bringing out the ideas and projects that are in people's heads. We have therefore been able to minimise inaccuracies and waste by making the mix of solutions more scientific. At the same time, this has allowed us to connect the different business functionalities within an increasingly integrated context that allows us to release new energies and develop a more orderly workflow'. In fact, the biggest difficulty of the project, which is now in the pilot phase, "was to make the different souls of the company talk, sharing problems and languages," he continues, "but the result was also to enhance people and their skills, putting them in the best conditions to adapt them to operational needs.

The focus from a strategic point of view is therefore on operational efficiency, time-to-market speed and process sustainability with an overall reduction of waste, with an experience made possible by a homogenous and standardised collection of company data that started almost twenty years ago and facilitated the process of fine-tuning the system. "But the ability of Unigrà's people to put aside prejudices and share different skills and cultures in order to better define priorities and objectives was decisive," adds Stefano Grillenzoni of Accenture. It was also thanks to a simple ice cream not to melt.