Heineken Adds Gen AI Diagnostics, Query Tool to 'Connected' Ecosystem
The Heineken Co. has advanced its digital transformation strategy with a generative AI-enabled core that enables factory employees to access information on company processes, standards and practices.
CoBrain gathers knowledge from across the brewery's global network and its Supply Chain Knowledge Center — which hosts thousands of standards and documents — so employees can quickly query the platform and receive information in seconds.
It's part of Heineken's ongoing Connected Worker initiative, which has so far been deployed to more than 150 breweries and 80% of the factory workforce to keep operations running smoothly and accelerate problem-solving.
[More details about the initial launch of the 'Connected' ecosystem.]
A second, diagnostic use case is being piloted in a limited number of breweries, with plans to scale globally soon. In this case, employees will use the technology to tap into historical data to identify similar issues across breweries and quickly find a solution.
"By connecting people, data and machines, CoBrain is changing how we work in our breweries — helping teams learn faster, act sooner and develop a more responsive, connected brewery," Doru Grigore, digital specialist for one of Heineken's breweries, said in a statement.
Heineken's Digital Overhaul
These efforts build on Heineken's five-year digital transformation strategy, which will integrate more than 40 digital platforms across more than 70 markets to accelerate consumer-focused innovation through data-enabled capabilities.
The company had already invested in generative AI capabilities in 2014 for its Knowledge & Insights Management platform, which marries internal and select external data with AI to capture and analyze consumer data.
Additionally, Heineken integrated “mix and match” demand planning models to improve supply chain resiliency and forecast accuracy using a cloud-based cognitive demand planning solution.
While worker efficiency has been a core focus, the company has also prioritized energy reduction. Heineken has been using an energy digital twin to simulate and analyze a virtual replica of a typical Heineken brewery to identify potential significant energy savings.
And more recently, it used AI to optimize energy and water usage in its production processes, minimizing consumption in bottle washers, pasteurizers, cooling plants, wort kettles and wort coolers.
"Using AI to support energy and water efficiency involves scaling up successful modules and continuously refining the approach based on actual use," Caroline Flohil, global product owner at Connected Brewery Team, said in a statement. "That’s the unique selling point of the connected brewery system — we develop something once and then, with the tooling that we have, we can bring it to a mass impact.
The company stated it is using an in-house-built IoT kit that connects all of its machines to the cloud so it can process all data and insights across brewing and packaging.
