British American Tobacco (BAT) is placing data governance at the centre of its manufacturing and operational strategy. As manufacturing becomes increasingly data-driven, Alex Lee spoke to us at Smart Manufacturing Week, to emphasise that effective governance is essential to ensuring data quality, consistency and trust across the organisation’s global operations.
BAT measures data governance success through traditional KPIs, including data quality reports that are accessible across the business. These metrics help teams monitor performance and drive continuous improvement. The company is also adopting AI-powered tools to enhance data quality management, including self-healing data models and systems capable of assessing whether data is not only complete but also accurate and fit for purpose.
One of the biggest challenges BAT faces is maintaining consistent data standards across a global network of factories, markets and regulatory environments. To address this, the company has invested heavily in workforce upskilling, ensuring employees across all manufacturing sites operate with the same level of data maturity and work from a single source of truth.
Clear accountability is another key pillar of BAT’s governance framework. The company has identified critical data elements (CDEs) and has assigned dedicated owners and maintainers, enabling issues to be resolved quickly and ensuring governance standards are applied consistently. Any new data introduced into the business is reviewed by the data governance team and supported by formal frameworks, standards and documentation.
AI is playing an increasingly important role, but Lees stressed that BAT takes a measured approach. All AI deployments must pass a robust governance process, demonstrate clear business value and receive approval from multiple stakeholders before implementation.
Looking ahead, BAT sees data as the backbone of its business and a critical enabler of future growth. The company is continuing to invest in training, modern planning systems and cross-functional collaboration, while using industry events such as Smart Manufacturing Week to share knowledge, learn from peers and identify best practices that can be adopted across its global operations.
We’re not deploying AI for everything – it needs to be fit for purpose within the organisation, and have a clear business case backing it up.
Alex Lee, Global Strategic Asset Manager, British American Tobacco
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