5 Digital Connected Worker Technologies at Nestle Purina PetCare

While much of the world seemed keen to use Covid lockdowns to purchase pandemic cats and dogs, pet food manufacturer Nestle Purina was honing its digital transformation strategy to better supply these nouveau animal owners.

The company was already well on its way when Covid hit. It had embarked on its digital transformation journey in 2018 with the mission to enable “every associate to be the best at getting better,” according to VP of Digital Manufacturing, Terry LeDoux. That meant, he says, providing “information and technology at the fingertips of every associate so they can deliver results anytime, anywhere.”

At the core of this strategy are technologies that help to better connect workers to each other and information about machine operations and maintenance. Here are 5 key applications that Nestle is currently using in its operations:

1. Redzone  - A communications platform developed predominantly for the food and beverage industry. Redzone helps connect associates to each other and to key information about plant operations. It has a “virtual high five” function that allows operators to recognize a job well done and blast it out to everyone across the shop floor. LeDoux says that this has helped make work more fun and make team members feel valued for their contributions.
2. Poka – A platform that helps workers access work instructions, policies and procedures. LeDoux calls it a “YouTube for manufacturers” as it helps workers access videos on how to repair a particular piece of equipment, for instance. Additional benefits of Poka, according to LeDoux, is that it offers a high level of subject findability and it has a skills matrix that gives leadership better insight into the knowledge and capability of workers in the factory.
3. Augury – A predictive maintenance solution with the tagline “machines talk, we listen.” The application aims to reduce downtime by offering prescriptive actions that operators can take before unexpected outages. LeDoux says that his company has gained a lot of benefit from the predictive component of the solution.
4. Inmation - A middleware provider that helps organizations better manage and interpret their data for enterprise data connectivity. LeDoux says that InMation is “how we move data.”
5. Everactive – Supplies wireless IOT sensors that help industrial operations monitor their machines in real time. LeDoux says that Nestle is using Everactive’s solution for Steam Trap monitoring and predictive maintenance as Steam Traps are an area in his factory where there are huge gains to be made from better energy efficiency and maintenance.

The company has onboarded about 1500 people in the last 18 months and found that many of the changes have made work more appealing for younger generations, observes LeDoux, presenting his company’s transformation approach at IX Network’s Connected Worker for Food and Beverage this summer. “They expect you to be more digital,” he says.

Additionally, LeDoux says, these solutions have increased throughput, improved equipment process reliability improved and made their manufacturing facilities more agile in response to market changes.