Thursday, 06 February, 2025
1 pm EST

Smart Manufacturing & AI – Building the Digital Food Factory of the Future

In partnership with

Why attend

The North American food and beverage industry is facing unprecedented challenges: shifting consumer demand, rising operational costs, supply chain disruptions, and increasing pressure to meet sustainability and compliance goals. Many manufacturers still rely on legacy systems and disconnected data, making it difficult to anticipate disruptions or optimize production efficiency.

This session will explore how leading F&B companies are rethinking operations by embedding intelligence and connectivity into their facilities. By leveraging real-time data, predictive insights, and integrated workflows, manufacturers can reduce downtime, improve throughput, and proactively address quality and safety concerns while staying agile in a volatile market.

Participants will hear best practices and case-based insights on building a future-ready, digitally enabled manufacturing environment. The focus will be on practical strategies that drive measurable improvements in performance, resilience, and sustainability, without adding complexity to operations.

The key take-aways

Reduce unplanned downtime through predictive maintenance and real-time monitoring.

Improve efficiency and sustainability by connecting siloed data across operations.

Strengthen quality and safety compliance with proactive, data-driven processes.

Build resilience to market and supply chain disruptions with agile decision-making.

The webinar panel

Click to view full speaker details

Deepa Abi, Global Head of GBS, Business Operations, The Kraft Heinz Company

As an experienced leader in strategy, operations, and digital transformation, I have demonstrated the expertise to define bold strategies, creatively solve complex business problems, and optimize the use of data, analytics, and technology to enable business growth, product innovation, employee experience, and risk management. Over my 23-year career in financial services, biopharmaceuticals, and media/entertainment, I have achieved the following results for global companies:

• Generated revenue and competitive differentiation through new product innovation and partnerships that monetized data, analytics, and intellectual property.

• Modernized and optimized business and technology by developing compelling strategies that gained buy-in from stakeholders, including boards and regulators.

• Increased productivity, mitigated operational risks, and empowered end-users with low-code/no-code development by simplifying and automating processes and controls.

• Implemented systems thinking based solutions to drive adoption of business process and technology changes.

I have a proven track record of delivering digital and cultural transformations and realizing tangible results by catalyzing innovation, future-proofing data and technology ecosystems and workforces, and envisioning new uses of data and analytics. I have led large-scale initiatives within organizations with over 78,000 colleagues across the Americas, LatAm, EMEA, and APAC, and am passionate about developing talent, championing diversity, equity & inclusion, and leading high-performing teams to deliver impactful results in highly regulated industries.

Nachiket Karajagi, Global Sr. Director - Data & AI | Head, AI platforms & solutions, PepsiCo

Experienced IT leader with progressive experiences in various domains such as big data analytics, data science, software product development, ERP implementation, mergers & acquisitions, Cyber security & IT compliance . Experienced people leader with a demonstrated history of working across different industries, but majorly in the oil & energy industry. Skilled in product development, Agile Methodologies, Six Sigma, Software Project Management, and IT Strategy. Strong business development professional with a Master of Business Administration (MBA) focused in Systems & marketing from IIT Bombay - Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management.

Hakon Bjerke, Chief Startegy Officer, Cognite

Håkon Bjerke leads Cognite's strategy and corporate development efforts and also serves as Chief of Staff. In these roles, he is responsible for Cognite's global operations, with focus on strategic partnerships, corporate finance, M&A, and supporting company wide growth initiatives. He has played a key role in securing Cognite funding, raising more than $330m, driving global partnerships including SLB, Rockwell and Saudi Aramco, and scaling Cognite’s business operations globally. Prior to joining Cognite, Håkon held leadership roles in investment banking, advising on high-profile M&A transactions and strategic initiatives for technology companies across the U.S., Europe, and Israel. His career spans positions at Qatalyst Partners and Canaccord Genuity in both London and San Francisco, where he cultivated a deep understanding of the technology and software ecosystems and its strategic drivers. Håkon holds a Master’s degree in International Economics and Finance from Brandeis University International Business School and a Bachelor’s in Business and Economics from BI Norwegian Business School.

This webinar is in partnership with

COGNITE

Cognite is a global industrial Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) leader, with an eye on the future and a drive to digitalize the industrial world.

We’ve created a new class of industrial software which allows asset-intensive industries to operate more sustainably, securely, and efficiently.

Our core software product is Cognite Data Fusion (CDF), designed to quickly contextualize OT/IT data to develop and scale company solutions. We use technology like hybrid AI, big data, machine learning, and 3D modelling to get there.

We serve oil and gas, power and utilities, renewable energy, manufacturing, and other heavy-asset industries. Our technology helps them operate through transitions, sustainably and to scale, and without sacrificing bottom lines. We believe data must be made accessible, insightful, and open.

In other words, we help our customers make data do more. And with that pave way for a full-scale digital transformation of heavy industry.

Founded in 2016, we now number 700 strong, including some of the best software developers, data scientists, designers, and 3D specialists in the field. Hailing from 50 nationalities, we’re talented, curious, and fun to be around.

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