Multiyear cloud and AI agreement will focus on
joint innovations across Kraft Heinz operations and product
portfolio, representing one of the company's largest technology
investments to date
PITTSBURGH and CHICAGO and REDMOND, Wash. ,
April 21,
2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On Thursday, The Kraft Heinz
Company ("Kraft Heinz" or the "company") and Microsoft Corp.
announced they are joining forces to develop solutions designed to
accelerate the consumer goods giant's transformation and enable a
more resilient supply chain. The initiative is one of Kraft Heinz's
largest technology investments to date and a key driver of the
company's ambitious AGILE@SCALE approach.
With Microsoft Azure as its preferred cloud platform, Kraft
Heinz will migrate the majority of its global datacenter assets to
Azure and its enterprise resource planning (ERP) software to SAP on
Azure. Through this transformation, Kraft Heinz expects to
reimagine its day-to-day operations, create a more collaborative
supply chain, and enhance consumer experiences by using real-time
predictive analytics to improve inventory transparency and
anticipate consumer and channel demand. At the same time, the
efficiencies created through the adoption of digital tools from
Microsoft are expected to allow the food and beverage leader to
continually reinvest into its business.
Extreme pressures on end-to-end supply chains during the past
two years have exposed the need for more connected and
collaborative networks between suppliers, buyers, retailers and
other parties along the value chain. As part of its desire to
better address supply chain disruptions, Kraft Heinz is leaning
heavily into a digitized approach to shift the company to a more
predictive strategy and rapid response model.
"As part of our AGILE@SCALE transformation, we are building a
leading tech ecosystem to benefit the entire value chain," said
Carlos Abrams-Rivera, executive vice
president and president, North
America, Kraft Heinz. "Our collaboration with Microsoft is a
critical piece of our transformation strategy, providing us with
the machine learning and advanced analytics to drive innovation and
efficiencies across the supply chain so we can get products into
the market faster, better serve our customers and, ultimately,
deliver on the sustained and growing consumer demand our iconic
brands continue to experience."
"The past two years have highlighted the urgent need for
digital-first supply chain solutions across every industry," said
Judson Althoff, executive vice
president and chief commercial officer, Microsoft. "Through this
collaboration, we're working shoulder to shoulder with Kraft Heinz,
applying the power of Azure, data analytics and the industrial
metaverse to co-innovate and create hybrid experiences that will
ultimately put goods in the hands of retailers and consumers when
they need and want them."
A primary example of how the companies will collaborate is the
creation of a "Supply Chain Control Tower" for Kraft Heinz.
By serving as air traffic control across the company's full product
portfolio, the Control Tower will provide real-time visibility into
plant operations and automation of its supply chain distribution
across Kraft Heinz's 85 product categories. This innovation —
powered by Azure's AI, IoT and data analytics capabilities —
enables the company to get its products in the hands of its more
than 2,500 U.S. retailer and food service customers and millions of
consumers as fast and cost-effective as possible.
Furthermore, Kraft Heinz will create "digital twins" for
its 34 owned manufacturing facilities in North America to help test and perfect
solutions and processes before applying them on the plant floor.
For example, the technology, fueled by Azure Digital Twins, will
help predict outcomes that identify optimal product capacity and
reduce mechanical interruptions by proactively addressing issues
before they occur, with the goal of ensuring the products that
reach retail shelves and consumer hands are the highest possible
quality.
Finally, as part of the collaboration, Kraft Heinz and Microsoft
will create a joint Digital Innovation Office to co-engineer
new solutions that will help the company reimagine digital
manufacturing and drive efficiencies with the help of hybrid
experiences powered by Microsoft AI, machine learning and IoT.
About The Kraft Heinz
Company
We are driving transformation at The Kraft Heinz Company
(Nasdaq: KHC), inspired by our Purpose, Let's Make Life
Delicious. Consumers are at the center of everything we do.
With 2021 net sales of approximately $26
billion, we are committed to growing our iconic and emerging
food and beverage brands on a global scale. We leverage our scale
and agility to unleash the full power of Kraft Heinz across a
portfolio of six consumer-driven product platforms. As global
citizens, we're dedicated to making a sustainable, ethical impact
while helping feed the world in healthy, responsible ways. Learn
more about our journey by
visiting www.kraftheinzcompany.com or following us on
LinkedIn and Twitter.
About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT" @microsoft) enables digital
transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an
intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every
organization on the planet to achieve more.
Forward-looking
statements
This press release contains a number of forward-looking
statements. Words such as "accelerate," "build," "create,"
"deliver," "develop," "drive," "make," "enable," "expect," "help,"
"plan," "predict," "result," "serve," "shift," "solve,"
"transform," "will" and variations of such words and similar future
or conditional expressions are intended to identify forward-looking
statements. These statements are not historical facts and are based
on Kraft Heinz's current beliefs, expectations, estimates, and
projections. These forward-looking statements are subject to a
number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to
predict and beyond Kraft Heinz's control, which could cause actual
results to differ materially from those indicated in the
forward-looking statements. Those factors include, but are not
limited to, Kraft Heinz's ability to achieve intended benefits of
the collaboration and the risk factors set forth in Kraft Heinz's
filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including
Kraft Heinz's most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K and
subsequent reports on Forms 10-Q and 8-K. Kraft Heinz disclaims and
does not undertake any obligation to update, revise, or withdraw
any forward-looking statement in this press release, except as
required by applicable law or regulation.
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SOURCE Microsoft Corp.