CASE STUDY
employees to a WFH model. He said
Microsoft Teams became one of the most
important tools, connecting people and
leveraging the virtual work experience, as
well as Citrix brought the mobility scalability
the organisation required.
Integrated business planning
With the growth the company has seen in
the Middle East and in particular the GCC
markets, deploying IT infrastructure to
WE MANAGED TO PILOT AN AI
PROJECT TO FORECAST THE WEIGHT
OF A BATCH OF CHICKENS AND THE
RESULTS ARE 65% ASSERTIVE WITH
LIMITED NUMBER OF VARIABLES.
ensure the efficiency and resilience of its
supply chain and logistics is critical.
And with many enterprise organisations
in the Middle East rolling out Digital
Transformation projects in order to keep up
with the rapid growth and business needs,
BRF Sadia has had to implement digitisation
projects to boost proficiencies and agility in
its complex value chain.
Possato said many supply chain
digitisation projects implemented
recently by the company have proved
crucial to ensure resilience against this
unprecedented situation created as a direct
result of the pandemic.
“We have a long supply chain that spans
from farm to table, hence we focus on
projects like integrated business planning
(IBP) in order to integrate and prioritise
technology, people and process enabling
the transformation. Such projects connect
strategy with operations, local with global
and volume with value. Over the course of
implementation, we have been witnessing
the benefits provided by these projects
such as reduction on planning cycle,
integrated global process, better forecast
accuracy, mobility and increased team
productivity,” he said.
AI and automation
enhance operations
As the enterprise sector in the region
is moving from process automation to
decision automation in IT using Artificial
Intelligence (AI), the technology brings in
a proactive quality to an IT environment
and that can guarantee better business and
consumer experiences.
Possato explained that as BRF Sadia is
one of the biggest food producers in the
world, the company has partnerships with
thousands of farmers who work meticulously
to grow chicken, forecast the weight of the
batch among other statistical studies.
“Since it is animal husbandry, it’s a complex
activity as there are many metrics involved
and the research needed can be very difficult
to conduct. We managed to pilot an AI
project to forecast the weight of a batch of
chickens and the results are 65% assertive
with limited number of variables. BRF Sadia
also implemented a virtual assistance
module called ‘EVA’, which operates with
Machine Learning capabilities. Powered by
IBM Watson, it is fully integrated with Service
Now and WhatsApp, as a customer service
support to our internal customers. Currently,
EVA manages 2,700 requests per month
and has streamlined process efficiencies by
94%,” he added.
According to Possato, another very
promising initiative the company is
working on is a programme to match large
customer payments against their respective
invoices, which will dramatically decrease
the reconciliation efforts and reduce the
clearance cycle.
“AI is a new language for us and one that we
are keen to learn. As such, we are committed
to daily learning and discovery of the various
applications where AI can benefit our
company and the entire operations. For BRF
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