Back in March, Vanshikrishna (Vanshi) Suvarna joined Britvic as its new Chief Information and Transformational Officer. He is responsible for the IT, cyber security in information technology and operational technology, and data and analytics functions of the business, as well as delivering cross-functional transformation programmes. The Manufacturer spoke to Vanshi about his first six months within the organisation and his future plans for change.
You have experience working for other beverage companies like ABInbev and SABMiller. How has this experience prepared you for your role at Britvic?
VS: My time at ABInbev and SABMiller has been instrumental in shaping my approach to my current role at Britvic. At ABInbev, alongside being a business partner to all functions and business units, I led projects that improved operational efficiency and contributed significantly to revenue growth.
Before that, at SABMiller, I focused on streamlining supply chain processes, using data and analytics to improve efficiency, and enabling the setup of a global IT service through the deployment of common processes and technologies.
These roles honed my skills in change management, cross-functional and business unit collaboration, and strategic planning. Now at Britvic, I am able leverage my experience to drive technological advancements and operational improvements to ensure that our IT, cyber security, data and analytics functions are aligned with Britvic’s strategic objectives and support the company’s growth and transformation.
What priorities have you identified for Britvic’s IT and transformation agenda? Were there any projects in place that you have continued?
Before I joined Britvic, my predecessor launched our technology investment roadmap, to transform Britvic’s business and supply chain operations. The roadmap remains fundamental for improving productivity and ensuring Britvic is fit to supply the growing demand for soft drinks.
It has been exciting to continue pushing these projects forward and scaling the tech investments across business units to focus on giving Britvic instant access to real time data and increasing the digital footprint in end-to-end supply chains.
The investments also allowed Britvic to accelerate its sustainable procurement processes and ensure insights are folded into supply chain management. We have used technology to help the company be a better customer partner and anticipate consumer needs.
On top of these priorities, over the last few months, we have started looking at how we can use technologies like gen AI in our MarTech, cyber security, R&D functions, and conversational AI in our direct-to-consumer offerings and process mining to improve operational efficiencies.
We have also identified opportunities in the integrated business planning initiative – once this is fully operational it will aid continuous forecasting, enable trusted data collaboration between commercial, supply chain and finance functions, and generate promo efficiencies in revenue growth management.
With your role leading both IT and transformation, how do you see these functions working together to support Britvic’s growth and operational efficiency?
Digital transformation projects can significantly enhance operations in several ways, including through enhanced product quality, better demand sensing, optimising cross-functional processes, improving supply chain management and enhancing experiences through personalisation for our consumers and customers.
Britvic’s automated warehouse management solution with Extended Warehouse Management (SAP EWM), integrated with warehouse operations OEM solutions, has enabled a best-in-class lights-out warehouse operations in Rugby. This increases Britvic’s capacity to deliver the drinks the nation loves and plans for this lighthouse template will be deployed across plants in Great Britain, Ireland and France in the coming years.
We also recently launched a digital manufacturing programme in partnership with LineView, a manufacturing efficiency software company. Our operations team has worked with LineView to implement monitoring services that alert the team of early signs of machine failures, provide instant insights on overall equipment effectiveness, and measures the energy usage of the machines. This data can then be used to understand our production line performance and make improvements or implement energy reduction projects where necessary. The same technology foundation when combined with edge devices gives us data that enables predictive maintenance, thus reducing working capital.
While the project is in its early stages, we have already seen an immediate capacity increase and a reduction in the impact of minor stoppages on our production lines. This data can also be shared throughout the business, allowing not only the site to better understand how the machines are operating and where challenges lie, but also enabling other parts of the company to gain insight into our operations.
Through the recent introduction of a process mining initiative, we have identified opportunities to transform and automate key business processes like Order to Cash, Source to Pay, Record to Report and Customer Service workflows. This initiative looks to set Britvic up for a deployment of an SAP S4/HANA business transformation programme across all business units.
What challenges do you see in transforming the way Britvic operates in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry, especially with increasing digital disruption?
Implementing new technologies and leveraging big data for insights and decision-making is vital. However, managing vast amounts of data and ensuring its accuracy, security and compliance with data regulations like GDPR can be complex.
To manage this situation, we are ensuring that employees are trained, motivated and aligned with the new digital strategies. This is critical for success and as these initiatives expand, so do the risks of cyber threats. Protecting sensitive data and maintaining robust cyber security measures is a continuous challenge. That’s why we run regular security patching, external independent testing and deliver internal phishing campaigns with training and guidance on cyber security for our employees.
As Britvic continues to focus on data and analytics, what steps are you taking to ensure data-driven decision-making becomes a core part of the company’s operations?
Everything at Britvic is underpinned by our Healthier People, Healthier Planet strategy, as we work to build a resilient Britvic. Data is fundamental to this strategy. Throughout the year, Britvic collects a vast amount of sustainability-related data from across the business, regularly reviewing and adjusting our objectives, before fully disclosing and reporting progress in our annual report.
We also use data and analytics to identify ways of getting us closer to these targets. For example, across our sites we have installed meters to view the energy usage of gas, electricity, water and steam. The data is collected and used to support usage reduction projects, helping to save manufacturing costs and support environmental efforts to reduce energy usage. Not only is this enhancing productivity and saving on costs, but it also supports our ambitions to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, as we look for ways to reduce our carbon emissions and improve our energy efficiency.
As we looked to improve how we operate, we have also explored how and where we can use AI. Processing customer orders manually is complex, so we partnered with software experts, Esker, to use AI to automate this process in Great Britain — approximately 3,000 orders a month last year. Following its successful implementation, last month we rolled the system out to Ireland and some of our other international markets.
Looking ahead, what emerging technologies or trends do you believe will have the most significant impact on Britvic’s transformation and the wider industry over the next few years?
There are a few key emerging technologies Britvic is looking at and will continue to work with. First, which I have already mentioned is artificial intelligence (AI). These technologies can improve business continuity in major incidents, enhance the customer experiences through personalised marketing, reduce time to market for innovations, and improve product development by analysing consumer preferences and market trends.
We have also used AI to help manage our emission output, by partnering with climate risk consultancy, Resilience, to take advantage of digital twin technology to forecast the effects of climate change on our business.
We are also partnering with Gen AI startups to create innovative product formulations to meet the growing demand for healthier, functional beverages and manage impacts of climate change on massively fluctuating availability of key raw materials that go into our favourite soft drinks.
The next is Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). We use IIoT systems to connect to our industrial machines, devices and sensors to a network will significantly increase visibility of real-time data collection and analysis, which can also be used to improve energy management, efficiencies, and safety in the manufacturing process.
Britvic are also looking at sustainability and green technologies for production and package. With increasing consumer demand for sustainable practices, innovations in eco-friendly packaging, waste reduction, and energy-efficient production processes will be crucial.
Finally, advances in augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) will allow the enhancement of marketing campaigns, provide immersive customer and consumer experiences, and facilitate virtual training for employees.
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