Semarang – The Smart Oven Wingko innovation created by students of Universitas Dian Nuswantoro (Udinus) can reduce the production cost of Wingko by 30%, as well as improve the production number. The automatic oven was equipped with programming utilizing a thermocouple sensor to automatically adjust the oven temperature.
According to the survey conducted by the Student Creativity Team of the Science and Technology (PKM-PI) of the Engineering Faculty, the high production cost was mainly caused by uncontrolled gas usage. This is because fire does not conduct heat thoroughly, hence the over usage of gas.
“Initially, around 80 percent gas can be used for one mass production only. With our smart oven, we can reduce the gas usage by 30 percent, making it only 50 percent of gas usage for mass production,” Nugroho Adi Pratama, the PKM team leader, explained.
Nugroho explained that the sensor installed in the smart oven would automatically control the temperature so that it would not exceed the normal temperature. Thus, the gas consumption can be more manageable and shorten the wingko production process.
“If the heat could be spread properly, the product would also be better in quality, as the wingko would also be cooked suitably,” said the Industrial Engineering student.
During the designing process, this oven took two months to be fully operational. In addition to Nugroho, this project was also handled by three other team members, namely, Adrian Febriansyah—an Industrial Engineering student, Elisabet Cantika Dhana—a Biomedical Engineering student, and Lingga Aditya Gusman—an Electrical Engineering student.
Increasing Production in Number
The project instructor, Nur Islahudin, S.T., M.T., added that the partner of this project was an SME from Semarang, which has been producing wingko since 2003. Previously, this business enterprise could only produce a total of 868 products using regular ovens.
“With this big smart oven, our partner will be able to put eight baking dishes in the oven and produce more than 1000 wingko products with only a single production. Hopefully, this innovation will eventually be able to reduce the production cost of wingko, which is an iconic food from Semarang, while at the same time also producing better-quality products,” he concluded. (Humas Udinus/Haris. Foto: Humas Udinus)
