How Hershey's 'Digital Lean' Transformation Is Overhauling Manufacturing Operations
The Hershey Co. has been undergoing a digital transformation journey, anchored by a stronger digital foundation that enables advanced AI and machine learning capabilities.
Will Bonifant, VP of manufacturing, engineering and supply chain strategy, shared details in a recent blog post about this journey, which began in 2024, and the progress thus far.
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Much of improving business processes falls to the manufacturing division, said Bonifant.
"We’ve spent years putting the right systems in place, hiring and/or training the right talent, building robust data architecture and developing an integrated software system that allows all these areas to work together," he added.
This standardization of processes within manufacturing is what the company calls its "Digital Lean." It has enabled the company to invest in a digital backbone to establish a data and software foundation, and from there bolster system resilience through a new asset intelligence platform, added cybersecurity protocols and a "Unified Name Space" data architecture.
"To start, we established a roadmap, or what I like to call a maturity ladder, and then we had to reestablish and standardize all of our processes to make sure they were, indeed, lean before digitizing anything," he said. "That entailed meeting with leadership teams to revisit and redesign the processes as needed to make sure they’re running correctly. After that, we trained employees. And, importantly, we made sure the entire approach was sustainable."
Hershey has so far implemented "Digital Lean" across its U.S. candy, mint and gum and international sites.
Tackling Workforce Silos
The next step, he said, is enhancing how teams access information, collaborate and execute work through a "Connected Worker" phase of the digital transformation.
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"Say, for example, an operator finds that something on the Twizzlers line isn’t working properly. In the past, they have had to go through a series of time-consuming processes to identify and address the problem," said Bonifant. "Now, the operator can enter the issue into the digital system using their own mobile device, maintenance can respond to it immediately and the operator can see when the problem gets fixed."
This will be reflected at the leadership level as well. Bonifant said supervisors and plant managers will be able to use integrated automated workflows to access all of the information they need from a single screen.
"They can see where their losses are that day and then go directly to the source and take action to get the work back on track," he added.
