Industries & Businesses worldwide has long understood the economic value of data that is being generated as a result of their operations. Food & Drink businesses can no longer avoid analysing and deriving insights from data that originates within the business and externally, as this not only enhances decision making capabilities but also acts as a source of competitive advantage in many avenues of the business itself.
As part of the Summit, TCS would like to showcase industry specific thought leadership in terms of ideas, use cases and TCS expertise in Information Technology areas concerning Food & Drink businesses along the following lines.
In Food & Drink Manufacturing, Data Analytics can play a major role in deriving competitive gain by incorporating decision support systems to improve accuracy and efficiency of decision making. For example, Data Analytics can create the next wave in personalization where consumer preferences collected from various sources being fed to Research, Design & Production ecosystem to create customized products and experiences for various consumer groups.
When it comes to Supply Chain & Logistics, Demand Sensing and Shaping by leveraging unstructured data sources such as weather patterns, social chatter etc. along with conventional data sources will prompt better forecasting. Integrating Point of Sale information to supply chain activities such as forecasting & distribution planning will effectively reduce days of supply and optimize inventory, thus leading to reduced costs and higher efficiency.
Analysing POS Information from retailers will help Food & Drink Manufacturers understand purchase patterns of the end-consumers and identify trends that can help in planning & developing new products and tweaking assortments for each retailer. Sensor analytics can be another source of understanding consumption patterns and in another form can help end-to-end traceability of products i.e. from production to consumption.
