MUNICH — Seebo, a supplier of AI-based manufacturing software, has learned a lot from its partnerships with Nestle, Bimbo, Mondelez, Pepsico and Aryzta.
Executives from these companies shared their AI strategies during a presentation at iba.CONNECTING EXPERTS, a virtual tradeshow being held Oct. 25-28, hosted by Seebo.
Artificial intelligence is at the heart of these global baking powerhouses’ efforts to reduce their production losses in quality, waste and yield … and it can be transformative solution for smaller bakeries, too. AI can help bakers combat process inefficiencies, with laser-precision control of color, size, shape and moisture. But AI is about more than fixing age-old problems; it’s a way to innovate into the future.
Here’s what top baking executives said about implementing artificial intelligence in their manufacturing processes.
Eugenio Alvarez | engineering director | Mondelez
“Without this technology, we used to do offline analysis which takes time and a big panel of experts with previous experience. What we have now is online data, real-time recommendations with AI algorithms telling us new findings every time or new insights. These new AI tools help us make a good match between the technology and the need it fills. It’s a way to tackle the right problem with the right solution.”
Gofna Liss-Rubin | open innovation manager | Nestle
“When it comes to our business goals, operational mastership is the general one, but specifically it’s about the continuous improvement of process capabilities. We are constantly looking for advanced tools and solutions like AI to drive our lines up. There is high demand for our products, so this is something that’s always in focus.”
Felix Schoeneman | director of operations excellence and engineering | Aryzta
“At Aryzta, our primary intent is to act with the end result in mind and go forward with that. The ultimate goal is to deploy the right approach, tools and technologies that help us maximize our efficiency across the globe. It’s all about that S curve. We want to identify the point where we can go the one step further that we previously didn’t believe was possible.”
Anna Farberov | head of global venture and innovation | Pepsico
“AI helps us be agile and fast in running our pilots. We all know corporate processes take a long time, and corporate projects can take years. Big company implementation is very long and expensive, which is the opposite of how you want to work with startups. With startups, you want to try as much as you can, you want to fail quickly and move on quickly. And [AI] is something that you need to build into a process because the inherent corporate processes are not designed for this.”
