Anna: Hi, Abhi. Thanks for taking the time to join me for today’s conversation. To start, it would be interesting to hear what led you to switch tables from the food and beverage industry to the tech solutions domain by joining Dassault Systèmes.
Abhi: Thanks for giving me the opportunity to discuss my experiences on both sides of the table—operations and technology.
My primary reason for transitioning to the tech solutions domain after a 25-year career in supply chain management in the food industry was my commitment to staying relevant. The supply chain and manufacturing arena in the food and beverage sector is evolving rapidly. We’ve moved on from data hunting to big data. Customer service is a thing of the past; today, it’s all about customer experiences.
How to stay relevant in the food and beverage industry
The world has become increasingly volatile, shifting from VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous) to BANI (Brittle, Anxious, Nonlinear, and Incomprehensible). Under these conditions, experiencing just one business dimension and a single form of digitization no longer suffices for leaders and managers. To stay relevant, one must actively engage with emerging technologies and understand their real-world applications.
For me, this opportunity with Dassault Systèmes is a step toward expanding my expertise in tech and ensuring I “stay relevant” in the industry.
Anna: What is eating away in the food and beverage industry today, and what do you foresee in the future?
Abhi: What has always eaten away at the food and beverage sector is wafer-thin margins. Maintaining the bottom line amid shifting customer demands, continuous innovation, the rise of quick commerce, and a growing focus on sustainability is the key challenge that keeps the CPGR industry on its toes today.
Addressing the top 5 challenges
Looking ahead, there are five key challenges that will continue to shape the food industry for the rest of the decade:
- Sustainable Operations: Sustainability is no longer just a boardroom discussion —it must be embedded in every action on the shop floor.
- Evolving Customer Preferences: Customers will make more conscious choices on health, nutrition and ethically produced products.
- Logistics Disruptions: Volatility—whether economic, legal, or political—will become the norm. Rising tariffs, inflation, geopolitical conflicts, and logistics disruptions will continue to pose challenges. Companies must build agile logistics systems to cater to consumers effectively.
- Digital Continuity: What does it mean? In the post-pandemic era, companies have made substantial investments in their digitization and automation efforts, using a wide range of technologies to address various operational issues. However, this has now led to a new challenge—fragmented digital systems that do not communicate with each other, creating multiple digital silos within the operations.
- Margins: Margin pressures will continue to be a persistent challenge in the food and beverage (F&B) sector. Even though global consumption is expected to rise in tandem with population growth, consumers may not be inclined to shell out more. Using technology to reduce waste and increase efficiencies may very well be the key to profitability in the coming years.
Using technology for transformation
Anna: Thanks for sharing these great insights on future roadblocks. I would assume there are many operational areas to address, but more often than not, companies may not be equipped to tackle all of them simultaneously. If you had to choose two areas to target for technological transformation, what would they be?
Abhi: That’s a great question, Anna! You’re absolutely right! Companies would have to focus on their top priorities instead of trying to tackle all fronts at once. In my opinion, most food companies should prioritize two key areas—Packaging and Logistics. Both areas directly impact three major challenges as a whole– sustainability, margins, and customer expectations.
With stricter packaging regulations coming into play, redesigning packaging has become a major focus. The new European Union (EU) Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) for short, is pushing for fully recyclable packaging, minimum recycled plastic content, and the phase-out of non-recyclable materials. Simply reducing plastic microns won’t cut it. Packaging must still maintain its quality, strength, and appeal. Beyond sustainability, the rise of e-commerce has made durable secondary packaging a necessary evil to withstand the rigors of shipping.
With more consumers shopping online, brands are looking for durable and protective packaging materials, such as bubble wrap and padded envelopes, that can withstand shipping and handling. In this landscape of convenience-driven consumption, recycling, and sustainable packaging innovation will only continue to grow in importance.
The evolution of fast-moving consumer goods
Packaging within the FMCG (Fast-moving consumer goods) market is evolving in response to a variety of factors —sustainability concerns, growth in e-commerce, and the need for shelf appeal. In this changing landscape, DELMIA’s package agility solutions provide an efficient means of achieving sustainable packaging innovation. It optimizes packaging design, qualification, mold tooling, and experience visualization in record time.
Now, moving on to the topic of Logistics, which serves as a bridge to reach customers with agility in the fast-growing quick commerce space. At the same time, optimizing logistics significantly impacts both the carbon footprint and the bottom line.
The logistics world is shifting from “move less” to “move right” which spans all the three elements we discussed before—sustainability, customer experience and profitability.
With the customer’s front door becoming the new shop window, the whole model of warehousing, picking, shipping, and movement is transforming rapidly. Retailers must be able to accept an order with the promised delivery time while efficiently handling address location and special instructions—something that isn’t possible without the right tech support. A special fleet and high-quality delivery partners are imperative. The growing need for technology in inbound and outbound planning, workforce management, virtual warehouse design, as well as picking and storage equipment design is more evident than ever.
Can you measure a warehouse’s throughput before investing in it?
Abhi: DELMIA’s Logistics solution is a game-changer for the future of logistics in the food and beverage sector. While most companies are satisfied with route and network optimization, DELMIA’s solutions go beyond convention.
DELMIA covers virtual warehouse design with virtual twin technology, hub operations optimization, predictive maintenance of assets, sorting center flow simulations, last-mile routing simulations, workforce management, order analytics, and manufacturing control tower software mechanics.
Large logistics and retail firms are already reaping huge benefits from DELMIA’s comprehensive logistics solutions. Using the right technology in the future will become the key to success for food companies, both in terms of top-line and bottom-line wins.
Anna: Thanks, Abhi, for the detailed insights on the future of packaging and logistics. You mentioned how DELMIA can energize these areas in manufacturing. Could you please explain the other fronts in food operations that DELMIA can enhance?
Abhi: DELMIA, as a solutions platform, is unique in that it provides four-pronged support to food and beverage operations:
- Operations Optimization
- Operations Management
- Operations Engineering
- Collaborative Operations
Drive efficiency in end-to-end shop floor operations
In my experience, very few software solutions can evenly support all four fronts, and this is unique to DELMIA’s solutions. While Operations Optimization can yield benefits in demand, supply, and short-term production planning and scheduling software, Operations Management can help food production plants with a proper execution system that provides end-to-end visibility and control of the shop floor. In my experience, very few software solutions have the functionality to manage the factory from raw materials to finished products—spanning material receipts, workforce optimization, quality protocols, maintenance schedules, work order management, warehouse operations, and shipping optimization. DELMIA offers complete orchestration of end-to-end shop floor operations, driving efficiency in F&B manufacturing.
DELMIA operations engineering or digital manufacturing can also assist in virtually designing and simulating new or existing production lines or even greenfield/brownfield factories, reducing ramp-up losses, to a great extent.
Collaborative Operations, in my view, is one of the most valuable components of the DELMIA suite of solutions. It helps engage the whole team on the shop floor and beyond, elevating “lean thinking” and enabling quick action orientation.
Change is inevitable, while transformation is a choice
Anna: Abhi, thanks for your time. What wonderful insights on the future of supply chains in the food sector. As a former director in the F&B industry specializing in supply chains, do you have any advice for other industry leaders on how to select the right software for their operational needs and to enhance efficiencies throughout?
Abhi: Thanks, Anna! That’s a very pertinent question in closing our dialogue. All industry leaders must remember one thing – change is inevitable, while transformation is a choice. If any operational leader chooses to transform their respective operations by implementing the right solution in the manufacturing or supply chain space, then my advice to them would be to assess the software based on the “4F Lens” – is it Friendly, Future Fit, Fast and Financially viable?
- Friendly, in this context, means user-friendly. How easy is it for the new user to use the software? What is the quality of the user interface or UI? Remember, the final use of the solution is on the shop floor and not in the boardroom.
- Fast refers to the speed at which it can deliver optimization results. Can we run virtual scenarios and get results in minutes?
- Future Fit indicates how scalable and customizable the solution is. Both business processes and technology are dynamic. Can we upgrade the solution easily? How easily can we change the algorithms?
- Financial viability obviously refers to the measurable value derived from the solution. No operation will be ready to invest in a solution without a solid business case and appreciable ROI.
My advice is to choose a solution that is rated high enough to meet all the F-benchmarks. This adds value to business operations with DELMIA ranking high on these three parameters.
Thank you once again for giving me the opportunity to discuss supply chains and technology. These are topics close to my heart. I’d be happy to engage in future conversations so we can explore them in depth.
Anna: Thank you for sharing your experience and insights.
In summary
With Abhi, I explored the challenges that the food and beverage industry is facing. This includes trends and technological innovations for transforming the future. If you are in the food business or beverage sector, please contact us for questions or collaboration.
DELMIA Quintiq Offer Marketing Specialist