March 12, 2024

Deploying IoT in Grocery Stores | SmartSense's Guy Yehiav & Festival Foods' Hsing-Yi Hsieh | Internet of Things Podcast

41 minutes

In this two-part episode of the IoT For All Podcast, Guy Yehiav, President of SmartSense by Digi, and Hsing-Yi Hsieh, Director of Food Protection and Regulatory Affairs at Festival Foods, join Ryan Chacon to explore deploying IoT solutions in the grocery industry from both the provider and customer perspective. The conversation covers IoT sensors, opportunities for IoT in the grocery industry, deployment challenges, and advice for those considering IoT solutions.

Guy Yehiav is the President of SmartSense by Digi, an IoT solution for the nation's largest pharmacy retailers, food retailers, and food service companies. Guy leads strategy, direction, development, and implementation of enterprise solutions. Over his 25-year career, Guy has built a reputation as a highly respected executive known for creating a culture of innovation and inclusion while embracing new customers and pursuing vertical markets. Previously, he was General Manager and Vice President of Zebra Technologies, where he led organic and non-organic growth, M&A activities, leadership strategy, and customer success for the company’s Zebra Analytics business unit. He has also held senior positions at Oracle and was a founder and executive board member of Demantra, which was acquired by Oracle in 2006. Guy holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science and industrial management from Shenkar College of Israel and an MBA in entrepreneurship from Babson College.

SmartSense by Digi, a business unit of Digi International, is a leading global provider of Internet of Things (IoT) Sensing as a Service solutions that deliver dynamic and personalized asset monitoring, process digitization, and digital decisioning across key verticals. The company enables organizations to leverage the power of IoT automation, prescriptive workflows, and insightful analytics to ensure compliance, workforce productivity, brand loyalty, loss prevention, and reduction of waste and energy consumption. Combining new and innovative data-driven approaches with world-class IoT tools, SmartSense partners with enterprises to elevate their business outcomes and asset protection to new heights.

Hsing-Yi Hsieh is the Director of Food Protection and Regulatory Affairs at Festival Foods, a privately owned chain of grocery stores in Wisconsin. In this role, she is responsible for leading the execution of the company’s food safety, workplace safety, and quality programs as well as all regulatory compliance efforts across 41 retail locations. Under her leadership, Festival Foods is the recipient of the 2019 Food Industry Association’s Food Safety Innovation Award. She holds a M.S. degree in Food Microbiology from Iowa State University and has over 20 years of food safety experience in both public and private sectors.

Festival Foods is one of Wisconsin’s largest privately held grocers. Founded as a single store by Paul and Jane Skogen in 1946, Festival Foods now operates 32 full-service supermarkets and has more than 7,500 employees across Wisconsin.

Discover more about IoT at https://www.iotforall.com

More about SmartSense by Digi: https://lora-alliance.org/

Connect with Guy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/guyyehiav/

(00:00) Sponsor

(00:40) Intro

(01:07) Guy Yehiav and SmartSense by Digi

(05:53) What sensors does SmartSense use?

(07:43) Opportunities for IoT in the grocery industry

(11:25) Challenges with deploying IoT in grocery stores

(16:03) Advice for grocers considering IoT solutions

(24:31) Hsing-Yi Hsieh and Festival Foods

(27:12) Biggest pain points in the grocery industry