As technology evolves, so should the Supply Chain

Reuben Calow, Vice President, Global Kellogg Work System & Digital Supply Chain

The challenges across supply chains haven’t changed much in the past several decades – the challenge is having the right product in the right place at the right time and at the right cost. As digital technology and capabilities continue to evolve, we need to embrace and leverage these capabilities to remain agile and better meet our customers’ needs.

At Kellogg Company, we’re committed to providing world-class customer service. In fact, it’s foundational to our success and one of four growth pillars – the Deliver Perfect Service & Perfect Store pillar – in our Deploy for Growth Strategy, our framework for unlocking top- and bottom-line growth, now and into the future. To earn our spot in the marketplace, be a preferred partner and enable profitable growth for our business and for our customers, we must rise to the occasion as innovators and thought leaders.

We know that leading in the digital space is key to our ability to execute with agility and win in the market. In this rapidly evolving era of technology, it is important for us as an organization to be flexible in our ways of working and drive a test and learn culture. 

We’ve been automating our factories for decades and have now embarked on a multi-year digital transformation journey to build and deploy key digital capabilities around the globe. These provide us with next generation data & analytics to improve our ability to execute with a zero-loss mindset.

Within our Supply Chain, and across the company, we’ve taken a multifaceted approach with our data & analytics capabilities. This is reflected in our Smart Factory Technology, which is composed of multiple capabilities:

Digital Performance, Process & Packaging Line Analytics creates “real time” visibility of equipment losses and line performance, allowing technicians to take quick action to optimize machine up-time.

Autonomous Maintenance Mobility is a tablet technology that allows us to ensure our lines are running in ‘as new’ condition and focus autonomous maintenance events to continue to unlock capacity.

Quality Module is the digitalization of data records for Quality and Food Safety assurance control checks, which automates and trends data in real time, providing visibility into areas of opportunity.

Kellogg Learning Center & Technician Training is a platform used for capability building management that enables the technology for tracking people development, qualifications and learning management.

Insights is a compliance solution to manage regulatory compliance and actions, track metrics and reduce administrative work.

And, Natural Resource Conservation provides us visibility to gas, water and electric usage to reduce consumption and enable our Kellogg’s Better Days commitments, which includes nurturing our planet by conserving natural resources across our value chain; creating resilient and responsible supply chains; sharing our foods in packaging that is recyclable, reusable or compostable; and reducing global food waste by the end of 2030.

We are also implementing Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning throughout our Supply Chain. In the U.S., we have piloted technology that provides visibility into the most valuable data patterns in our operations. The technology continually learns and makes recommendations to our team that are the most critical to continuing business operations, allowing us to make changes days to weeks in advance to ensure we deliver with excellence. We piloted this technology in 2020 with key product lines and saw meaningful improvement in service.

Leveraging technology to optimize our supply chain is an ongoing journey. We will continue to evaluate digital capabilities that deliver results in support of our Deploy for Growth Strategy. At Kellogg, it’s the evolution of how we work, and how we will continue to make safe, delicious foods that people love.