The bluEPrint by Executive Platforms

At the 2024 edition of the North American Food Manufacturing Summit series we sat down with Sathish Thirmoorthy, the Chief Strategy Officer of UCBOS, to put into context how the new generation of technologies available to manufacturers are shaping how organizations function and evolve, especially in the current age of disruption. Far too often we focus on the incredible new capabilities unlocked by emerging tools, but it is important to remember that technology in the manufacturing space at its heart is about helping people do more with less, do things faster, and do things right the first time every time. How should Manufacturers combine their successes across different processes into one platform that coordinates, communicates, and consolidates these disparate systems into a larger whole to help the business move forward? What does that look like in real terms, and how can manufacturers take the fear factor out of embracing further change? For all this and more, give this episode a listen!

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Sathish Thirumoorthy
Chief Strategy Officer
UCBOS Inc.

Sathish Kumar Thirumoorthy has an extensive background in enterprise services, supply chain consulting, and IT consulting. With experience in companies such as ITOrizon Inc., Oracle, CGI, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Sathish has held roles ranging from Senior Support Consultant to Director, Consulting and Practice Leader. Sathish’s expertise focuses on consulting, solutioning, presales pursuits, and client relationship management across various industry verticals. Sathish's career has been marked by strategic leadership, solution-based project delivery, and proactive proposal development to drive business growth and enable transformation for global clients.

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UCBOS Inc.

Pioneering Zero Code Transformation

UCBOS, Inc. (“You See Boss”) is a visionary Zero Code software company based in the USA, committed to revolutionizing digital transformation for enterprises. UCBOS unique approach starts and ends with zero – zero data models, zero code, and most importantly, zero tech debt.

UCBOS offers an AI-enabled, zero-code business execution platform that integrates, optimizes, and orchestrates digital processes. Built on 100% No-Code, 100% Metadata, and 100% NoSQL technologies, UCBOS ensures seamless digital integration and a future-ready foundation for enterprise success.

At Executive Platforms’ North American Food Manufacturing Summit, two of our keynote speakers and one of our leading solution-providers sat down to record a special episode of the BluEPrint Podcast series reviewing the top-of-mind issues and ideas of food manufacturing executives today as chosen by the NAFMS24 attendees, weighted by popularity.

With topics ranging from process optimization, to digital transformation and artificial intelligence, to controlling costs, building and maintaining culture, supporting growth, workforce development, sustainability, and much more, this is a conversation that should be of interest to every food and beverage manufacturer working today. Give it a listen!

This roundtable includes…

Moderator:
 
Sudhir Arni
SVP, Business Outcomes
Sight Machine

Panelists:

Josh Chou
Chief Supply Chain Officer
McCormick & Company

Sarvi Bajwa
SVP Manufacturing
Danone

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Sight Machine

Sight Machine drives rapid increases in manufacturing productivity. Our technology platform delivers real outcomes in efficiency, sustainability and quality—in weeks. Manufacturers that deploy Sight Machine empower teams to better collaborate, innovate and accelerate their journey of continuous productivity improvement. Founded by a team with deep manufacturing expertise, Sight Machine has offices in San Francisco and Ann Arbor, Mich.

At the 2024 edition of the North American Food Manufacturing Summit series we sat down with Jeremy Tancredi and Randal Kenworthy of West Monroe to explore how data and AI are reshaping the food and beverage industry, especially in regards to supply chain and manufacturing operations. What should food manufacturers know about harnessing data for greater efficiency and performance improvements? What are the real-world examples and use cases already available that illustrate successful data-driven transformations? For companies that are still preparing themselves to embrace AI, what are the big questions they need to ask about themselves and their operations? What will getting started look like, and what are the risks of being behind the curve? For all this and more, give this episode a listen!

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Jeremy Tancredi
Partner
West Monroe

Jeremy Tancredi is a partner at West Monroe specializing in supply chain issues, trends, challenges, and opportunities.

Randal Kenworthy
Senior Partner, Consumer and Industrial Products
West Monroe

Rapid changes in technology, competition, and the workforce require a keen focus on becoming ever more agile, innovative, and efficient. That’s where Randal comes in. For one Fortune 50 company, he defined a new product segment and streamlined the R&D process by 30% – enabling the company to bring a new offering to market four months faster than it typically could. For another Fortune 20 company, he developed the market strategy for the smart buildings market supporting the transition to XaaS commercial model.

His expertise in internet of things (IoT) strategies – particularly product engineering, smart building, Industry 4.0, sustainability, and smart products – has led to many trusted advisor relationships. He has also optimized clients’ corporate IT, finance, and supply chain functions.

Randal joined West Monroe in 2022 from Cognizant. As vice president and global strategy lead for the IoT and Engineering practice, he helped the practice become the highest performing group and grow the firm’s reputation as an industry leader. Previously, Randal founded and built strategy and digital transformation practices at multiple companies.  These advisory practices have focused on helping manufacturing clients transform their product strategy, operations, supply chain, and sales via digital transformation.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in information systems and human resources management from the Honors Program at Boston College and an MBA in strategy and finance from Yale University.

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West Monroe

West Monroe’s Manufacturing practice partners with consumer and industrial product manufacturers throughout their initiatives, from strategy to execution. Specializing in Industry 4.0, supply chain resilience, and workforce transformation, we drive success in today’s dynamic manufacturing landscape, partnering with over 400 clients including Tropicana, Jacuzzi Brands, Nutrien, Skechers, Berlin Packaging, Babcock & Wilcox and many more to create last impact with their businesses.

At the 2024 edition of the North American Food Manufacturing Summit series we sat down with Steven Pamensky, the founder and CEO of Industrial Matrix, to talk about the next generation of proactive and predictive maintenance and asset management tools and technologies now available to food manufacturers. There is a tidal wave of features and options on offer, and of course all of them need to interact with existing systems within facilities. Improvement cannot come at the price of disruption. When it comes to Food Manufacturing especially, the ongoing monitoring of what happens in a plant or factory is something that can always be improved upon but must never be interrupted. So how should food manufacturing leaders make informed choices about what is the best fit for their operations, their products, and their existing mix of maintenance and asset management tools? Give this episode a listen to learn more!

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Steven Pamensky
Founder & CEO
Industrial Matrix

Steven’s professional goal is to help manufacturing facilities manage their most critical assets - Motors, Gearboxes and Pumps in the most feature rich, robust, comprehensive management system. 

Steven found that most manufacturing facilities he visited had very little, if any knowledge of some of their most important assets and they struggled in a number of ways because of this. 

That is why Steven created Industrial Matrix, an all-encompassing asset management & predictive maintenance platform for industrial manufacturing facilities seeking to strengthen the reliability of their operation, increase asset lifetime and reduce unplanned downtime. 

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Industrial Matrix

Industrial Matrix is a tech company that provides disruptive digital solutions, offering a robust asset management and predictive maintenance platform for industrial manufacturing facilities seeking to prevent catastrophic failures in real time, maximize asset utilization and reduce operational costs.

We bridge the gap between Maintenance / Reliability teams and the latest, most advanced technologies for predictive maintenance and condition-based monitoring.

With a wide range of technologies and capabilities, the Industrial Matrix platform combines Vibration Analysis, Condition-based Lubrication, Ultrasound monitoring, (and many more) with the autonomous, predictive and prescriptive power of the cloud.

Come and see how we put any machine online.

At the 2024 edition of the North American Food Manufacturing Summit series we sat down with Adam Chartier, an experienced EHS leader with DSM-Firmenich, to talk about some of the ways Safety professionals keep people engaged and thinking about how they do things and why it matters, as well as how Safety is evolving in the manufacturing space. Whether you are a life-long EHS practitioner in your organization, or a leader who is being promoted into this important role, this interview offers a deep dive into where Safety is coming from, where it is today, and where it is going as a core concept, value, and culture on the shop floor and throughout manufacturing organizations. Give it a listen!

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Adam Chartier
EHS Manager
DSM-Firmenich

Adam Chartier recently joined DSM-Firmenich after serving as the head of the EHS department for Kerry Ingredients & Flavours in Blue Earth, Minnesota.  His leadership is focused on proactive and preventative programs to increase employee and leadership engagement and to reduce/eliminate workplace incidents.
 
He is a transformational leader who is passionate about mentoring EHS professionals and acting as a culture change agent.  Adam has over 16 years of experience in EHS, holding the roles of Director of Safety, Regional Safety & Health Manager, and EHS Manager.  His business experience has crossed several major manufacturing companies such as Georgia Pacific, Conagra Brands, Mohawk Industries, and others.

Adam holds a Bachelor of Science in Occupational Environmental Health and Safety from the University of Wisconsin – Whitewater.

At the 2024 edition of the North American Food Manufacturing Summit series we sat down with Joe Castaneda of Winland Foods to talk about where Safety professionals are today, and what is changing in their working lives. The manufacturing sector is under constant evolution and reinvention in a changing business landscape, but Safety can never take a back seat on the shop floor or in the priorities of senior management. How does an EHS leader keep people thinking and acting in a safe manner? What do they have to know, have to do, and have to keep on top of in order to build and maintain a thriving safety culture? What are some of the obstacles all Safety professionals need to overcome in their working lives, and what are some of the best practices and new ideas helping them to meet those challenges? In this wide-ranging interview with a seasoned veteran, we get into all this and more. Give this episode a listen!

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Joe Castaneda
EHS Manager
Winland Foods Inc.
 
With over 25 years of Safety and Emergency Management experience, Joe Castaneda has led cross-functional teams on Health and Safety Projects across the Middle East and the United States. Known for thriving in fast-paced environments and driving operational efficiencies, Joe’s leadership has reduced recordable injuries by 85% over five years. He holds a Bachelor’s in Health Care Administration, an Executive MBA from Colorado Technical University, is a Licensed Paramedic, Commissioned Fire Fighter, Arson Investigator through the state of Texas, and has several certifications in OSHA and Emergency Management.

Currently, as the EHS & Security Manager at Winland Foods San Antonio, Joe oversees all Health, Safety, and Security programs, ensuring compliance with federal, state, and local regulations. Previously, he was the Health & Safety Lead at Viatris, managing health and safety programs across multiple manufacturing sites.

Throughout his career, Joe has held key positions such as Captain of the Fire Training Division at District 4 ESD in Leon Springs, TX, Safety & Health Program Manager at CPS Energy in San Antonio, and Business Development & Claims Disability Manager for KBR in the Middle East & Central Asia. These roles have equipped him with a deep understanding of emergency management, occupational health operations, program management, and quality process improvement, consistently demonstrating his ability to lead and mentor teams and manage comprehensive safety and health programs.

At the 2024 edition of the North American Food Manufacturing Summit series we sat down with Paul Bradley of TraceGains to talk about the power of Data in the food manufacturing sector, especially as it relates to communicating, coordinating, and collaborating with partners up and down the value chain to reduce risk, improve compliance, keep people safe, improve the customer experience, control cost, and optimize performance. There is a great groundswell of enthusiasm for emerging tools and technologies, of course, but we are also now seeing real-world applications where gathering, sharing, and acting on the right data at the right time is making an enormous impact, and more and better is on the way. For all this and more, give this episode a listen!

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Paul Bradley
Senior Director, Product Marketing
TraceGains, Inc.

Paul is a veteran product development and product marketing professional with over twenty years in the technology and consulting industries, with a longstanding focus on the food and beverage, restaurant, and retail verticals. He has worked with, and learned from, some of the largest and most dynamic brands in the industry and is a passionate but pragmatic advocate for the power of technology to help businesses achieve the resiliency and scale necessary to thrive in a complex global marketplace.

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TraceGains is revolutionizing the food and beverage industry with advanced and integrated digital solutions for compliance, nutritional calculation and labeling, and new product development (NPD). Trusted by over 1,200 global clients, including half of the top 100 food and beverage manufacturers, the TraceGains network connects brands via a vast ecosystem of 83,500 supplier locations, along with a comprehensive database of 550,000 ingredients and products. Enriched with global horizon scanning and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) information, TraceGains automates processes and insights to navigate the inherent complexities of the global food and beverage industry.

At the 2024 edition of the North American Food Manufacturing Summit series we sat down with Evan Bressler of Pactiv Evergreen to talk about Safety Culture. Of course everyone wants to be safe in their work, but the very fact that safety issues are ever-present means there is a temptation to treat them too casually, to forget about them when things are going well or people are in a hurry, to assume people know the right way to do things, and a host of other issues that can creep into shopfloor behavior unless Safety professionals and senior leadership sets a tone and constantly reinforces Safety Culture. What does that look like in the day to day and over the long term? How do you inspire ongoing commitment, understanding, and engagement? How do you make it matter to everyone in a very real way? How do you keep it fresh and interesting? For all this and more, give this episode a listen!

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Evan Bressler
EHS Manager
Pactiv Evergreen

Evan Bressler grew up as the third of eight children, in Lancaster County Pennsylvania. He studied occupational safety at Millersville University and went on to work in the food industry upon graduation. His passion is for igniting collaborative safety cultures and he is honored to have served as a safety professional at Ingredion Inc. and Pactiv Evergreen Inc.

At the 2024 edition of the North American Food Manufacturing Summit series we sat down with Cynthia Lapoint, a plant manager with Kerry, to talk about how manufacturing professionals address the issue of work-life balance in the ‘New Normal of Work.’ While many industries came through the pandemic embracing remote work and hybrid work models, manufacturers still need people on the shop floor doing important, hands-on tasks. There are opportunities for some people to have hybrid roles, but how does that impact culture? How do future leaders navigate the options of working from home versus coming into the factory? How should companies think about what their Top Talent wants and needs, and how does thinking about the individual help build long-term positive outcomes for the organization? For all that and more, give this episode a listen!

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Cynthia Lapointe
Plant Manager
Kerry

Born and raised on a dairy farm in a small village south of Quebec City, Canada, eldest of a 4 children family, I was always pushed to be curious and exposed myself to new opportunities by my mother.

Wife, mom of 2 young adults, and grand-mother to a 5 year-old boy, I am the Kerry Ste-Claire plant manager. This plant works 24 hours, 7 days a week, unionized, and hires over 300 employees.

I have been with Kerry for over 16 years, relocating a few times throughout my career, never saying no to any career opportunities and learning challenges!

From an accounts receivable clerk, to now a plant manager, I have held many different positions in the manufacturing industry, mainly trough 2 major employers in the Quebec area.

My mantra? Be curious! The only real limitation is yourself.

At the 2024 edition of the long-running and successful North American Supply Chain Executive Summit series we sat down with some of our speakers and delegates to record a special episode of Executive Platforms' BluEPrint Podcast series reviewing the top-of-mind issues and ideas of supply chain executives today as chosen by the NASCES24 attendees, weighted by popularity.  

With topics ranging from controlling costs, procurement and sourcing, digital transformation and AI, forecasting and S&OP, to managing growth and capacity in a changing business landscape while working to be an employer of choice in the battle for Top Talent, and much more, this is a conversation that should be of interest to every supply chain professional working today. Give it a listen! 

This roundtable includes…
 
Panelists:

Phyllis Dyson
Vice President, Global Product Supply
Duracell

Phyllis is an experienced Supply Chain executive with expertise in Manufacturing, Total Productive Maintenance, Program Management, Planning, International Logistics and Supply Network Design. Results oriented leader with a passion for developing the capabilities of future leaders. Phyllis began her career with Procter & Gamble, which eventually spun off Duracell into an independent company. Phyllis has held roles of increasing authority in both organizations throughout her career. She holds a Bachelor of Science – Engineering from Cornell University.

Sidra Tufail
Director Supply Chain Operations Customer Service
Philip Morris International

Sidra is a mechanical engineer and a supply chain enthusiast with 18 years of experience in manufacturing and planning across multiple geographies including Asia, Europe, and the Americas.

In her current role as Director Operations Customer Services Americas (Supply Chain), Sidra’s main focus area is ensuring service superiority in markets with high innovation portfolios. Her key focus areas are: planning and response, loss elimination across the value chain (B2B & B2C) and in-market customer collaboration programs at the same time driving efficiencies through cost to serve.

Joanna Kostecka
VP Cloud Global Supply Chain Planning
Microsoft 

Joanna Kostecka is privileged to be the VP of Cloud Global Supply Chain Planning at Microsoft. She has 20+ years’ of experience providing executive leadership to high-profile Fortune 500 companies with expertise leading major corporate supply chain initiatives and has earned a reputation for complex global planning and materials process transformation in dynamic environments. 

Becky Crane
Vice President, Manufacturing & Engineering
General Mills 

Becky Crane has 20 years’ experience at General Mills working across the company’s end-to-end supply chain, in multiple U.S. and international locations. Highlights include plant manager at one of our largest facilities (Hannibal, Mo.), as well as standing up a global procurement organization in Switzerland as an expat. She’s known for leveraging her breadth of experience to build bold strategies and highly effective cross-functional teams to solve problems and create long-term advantage for our businesses.

Crane leads manufacturing, engineering and global safety teams with accountability for over 9,000 employees (approximately 30% of the company’s employee base). This includes responsibility over $1B in capital across the enterprise, standardizing processes and establishing strong business partnerships to enable advantaged agility and accelerate innovation.

Moderator:

Geoff Micks
Head of Content & Research
Executive Platforms