The food company has signed a multi-year cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) agreement with Microsoft in line with its digital transformation strategy
Kraft Heinz selects Microsoft Azure as its preferred cloud platform. (Credit: Microsoft)
American food company Kraft Heinz has entered into a partnership with Microsoft to build solutions designed to expedite its transformation and make the supply chain more resilient.
The initiative is said to be among the largest technology investments made by Kraft Heinz so far and a major driver of its AGILE@SCALE approach.
The food company has selected Microsoft Azure as its preferred cloud platform. It will move the majority of its global datacentre assets to Azure, while its enterprise resource planning (ERP) software will be migrated to SAP on Azure.
With the transformation, Kraft Heinz aims to reimagine its daily operations, develop a supply chain that is more collaborative, and boost consumer experiences with the help of real-time predictive analytics. It will also try to enhance inventory transparency and predict consumer and channel demand through the transformation.
Kraft Heinz to better address supply chain disruptions is said to be heavily relying on a digitised approach to shifting itself to a more predictive strategy and quick response model.
Kraft Heinz North America executive vice president and president Carlos Abrams-Rivera said: “As part of our AGILE@SCALE transformation, we are building a leading tech ecosystem to benefit the entire value chain.
“Our collaboration with Microsoft is a critical piece of our transformation strategy, providing us with the machine learning and advanced analytics to drive innovation and efficiencies across the supply chain so we can get products into the market faster, better serve our customers and, ultimately, deliver on the sustained and growing consumer demand our iconic brands continue to experience.”
Microsoft will help the food company create a supply chain control tower and digital twins.
The control tower will serve as air traffic control across Kraft Heinz’ full product portfolio. It will offer real-time visibility into operations of the plants and automation of the company’s supply chain distribution across its 85 product categories.
The digital twins will be created for Kraft Heinz’ 34 owned manufacturing facilities across North America. They will help the company evaluate and perfect solutions and processes prior to their implementation on the plant floor, said Microsoft.
Microsoft executive vice president and chief commercial officer Judson Althoff said: “The past two years have highlighted the urgent need for digital-first supply chain solutions across every industry.
“Through this collaboration, we’re working shoulder to shoulder with Kraft Heinz, applying the power of Azure, data analytics and the industrial metaverse to co-innovate and create hybrid experiences that will ultimately put goods in the hands of retailers and consumers when they need and want them.”