Food Chain - Issue 198 - February 2024 | Page 13

_________________________________________________________________________________________________ Main interview
together all the vastly diverse types of data you need in a modern supply chain . We utilize a smart data fabric architecture to normalize and harmonize data in real-time to produce a trusted and accurate source of insight for real-time intelligent decisionmaking . By using our smart data fabric complete with advanced analytics and decision-making capabilities , F & B supply chains can stay competitive in the face of constant , rapid change .
Our supply chain specific product , InterSystems Supply Chain Orchestrator™ , is a decision intelligence data platform that powers supply chain ecosystems with four embedded technologies . Acting as one capability within one product , these four technologies - multi-model DBMS , interoperability , multi-workload DBMS , and advanced analytics - accelerate time to value and lower total cost of ownership . Most of our competitors , if not all , need five or more products to do what we do with just one .
With Supply Chain Orchestrator , one of the world ’ s largest food retailer consortiums , with over 1500 stores , has achieved a unified and accurate end to end view of sales , inventory , orders , and deliveries at scale . Utilizing our technology , it has achieved streamlined and optimized end to end fulfilment processes from ERP through to POS . Additionally , they have significantly improved automated optimized replenishment via real-time sensing of demand shift using ML and have increased revenue as a result .
4 . What would you say are the challenges facing the F & B sector , and what strategies do organizations need to ensure are in place to tackle them ?
F & B businesses have limited visibility of inventory , their application and system tools assume an unconstrained environment for planning optimization , and their processes are simply too manual and not integrated . As a result , they cannot adapt to sudden changes in demand or redirect inventory from multiple locations proactively . What ’ s the effect of that ? It results in costly suboptimal production runs , and poor levels of quality freshness , operating costs , and fulfilment , especially in repackaging .
This is all happening in conjunction with a workforce crisis and what ’ s even worse is that some organizations are still reliant on spreadsheets . They simply do not have the supply chain visibility they need to remain agile , meaning that automating and optimizing production planning processes is key .
5 . Looking ahead , what do you think is next for the F & B industry ?
The future of the F & B industry is undoubtedly surrounded by the use of GenAI to provide prescriptive insights and to enable optimized decision making for LOB . This human assisted decisionmaking will allow LOB professionals to manage disruptions with confidence so they will be able to make well-informed , highly accurate decisions . Analytics and decision intelligence data platforms will be game-changing for all types of companies , especially F & B companies . I truly believe using InterSystems ’ Supply Chain Orchestrator is so beneficial in achieving prescriptive insights . The ability to harmonize and normalize disparate data sources anywhere in the supply chain , accurately and in real-time with intelligent processes through interoperability and embedded AI and ML capability is truly unmatched . ■
www . intersystems . com
foodchainmagazine . com 13