Accenture Collaborates with Mars to Develop “Factory of the Future” Using AI, Cloud, Edge and Digital Twins
NEW YORK; Oct. 4, 2022 – Accenture (NYSE: ACN) is working with Mars, the international chief in confectionary, meals, and pet care merchandise and providers, to remodel and modernize its international manufacturing operations with synthetic intelligence (AI), cloud, edge know-how and digital twins.
Accenture and Mars have been trialing digital twins for Mars’ manufacturing operations since late 2020. Digital twins are digital representations of machines, merchandise, or processes. Fed with real-time information, they’ll predict and optimize manufacturing processes and tools efficiency, from reliability to high quality to vitality effectivity. Applied to its manufacturing vegetation, digital twins will allow Mars to simulate and validate the outcomes of product and manufacturing facility changes earlier than allocating time and sources in the bodily area.
The firms examined a digital twin to cut back cases of over-filling packages, a typical drawback in the meals trade. The digital twin gave Mars a chook’s-eye view of the manufacturing strains at one of its factories in Illinois. The twin fed sensor information from manufacturing equipment right into a predictive analytics mannequin, which allowed manufacturing facility line operators to monitor occasions in real-time and modify the filling course of. After the profitable take a look at, Accenture and Mars launched the answer throughout the U.S. and developed related options for its pet care business in Europe and China.
Under the new settlement, Accenture and Mars will work collectively to apply digital twin know-how and fashions to the firm’s manufacturing amenities globally. This will give Mars manufacturing facility line operators real-time insights into present and predictive efficiency. Mars plans to apply them to dozens of use instances over the subsequent three years.
Over the subsequent two years, Accenture and Mars will create a brand new cloud platform for manufacturing purposes, information and synthetic intelligence (AI) to lay the basis for its imaginative and prescient of the “Factory of the Future.” The new platform will present next-generation robotics, AI and automation capabilities at the edge to make Mars manufacturing operations considerably extra environment friendly and deal with important sustainability objectives equivalent to water stewardship and lowering waste and complete greenhouse gasoline emissions.
William Beery, vice chairman, and international CIO at Mars Wrigley stated, “Our collaboration with Accenture, combined with our partnership with Microsoft, enables us to scale digital twin technology to reach this goal, delivering not just significant cost savings and sustainability, but preparing our manufacturing operations for the future of work.”
Larry Thomas, a senior managing director at Accenture and consumer account lead for Mars provides, “Our work with Mars is about using the power of data, cloud and edge computing to modernize factories, boost business agility in response to change, and put power in the hands of Mars Associates so they can make informed decisions faster.”
Accenture brings cloud, engineering, manufacturing, and provide chain capabilities to the mission. It additionally works carefully with Microsoft to leverage the Azure platform and Accenture’s proprietary edge accelerators. Earlier this 12 months, Accenture was named Microsoft’s 2022 Manufacturing & Supply Chain Partner of the Year.
Thiago Veiga, senior director of Digital Supply, R&D & Procurement at Mars Inc., stated, “We at Mars are constantly looking for innovative and sustainable ways to create value in our end-to-end supply chain, and digital manufacturing is a key priority.”
Simon Osborne, a managing director at Accenture main its digital twin work with Mars, stated, “The problems we’re solving aren’t new; what’s new is how we use advanced technologies to get real-time data into operators’ hands and apply AI to help them make decisions before problems occur. While many companies are beginning to experiment with digital twins, what sets this project apart is the speed and scaling of the technology across Mars’ operations globally.”
About Accenture
Accenture is a world skilled providers firm with main capabilities in digital, cloud and safety. Combining unmatched expertise and specialised expertise throughout greater than 40 industries, we provide Strategy and Consulting, Technology and Operations providers and Accenture Song — all powered by the world’s largest community of Advanced Technology and Intelligent Operations facilities. Our 721,000 folks ship on the promise of know-how and human ingenuity on daily basis, serving shoppers in additional than 120 international locations. We embrace the energy of change to create worth and shared success for our shoppers, folks, shareholders, companions and communities. Visit us at www.accenture.com.
About Mars, Incorporated
For greater than a century, Mars, Incorporated has been pushed by the perception that the world we wish tomorrow begins with how we do business at the moment. This frequent objective unites our 140,000+ Associates. It is at the heart of who we’re as a world, family-owned business, and it fuels how we’re remodeling, innovating, and evolving to make a optimistic impression on the world.
Every 12 months, our various and increasing portfolio of high quality confectionery, meals, and pet care merchandise and providers delight thousands and thousands of folks and helps thousands and thousands of pets. With nearly $45 billion in annual gross sales, we produce some of the world’s best-loved manufacturers together with Ben’s Original™, CESAR®, Cocoavia®, DOVE®, EXTRA®, KIND®, M&M’s®, SNICKERS®, PEDIGREE®, ROYAL CANIN®, and WHISKAS®. We are creating a greater world for pets by means of diet, breakthrough applications in diagnostics, wearable well being monitoring, DNA testing, pet welfare and complete veterinary care with AniCura, BANFIELD™, BLUEPEARL™, Linnaeus and VCA™.
We know we will solely be actually profitable if our companions and the communities through which we function prosper. The Mars Five Principles – Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency and Freedom – encourage our Associates to act on daily basis to assist create a greater world tomorrow through which the planet, its folks and pets can thrive.
For extra details about Mars, please go to www.mars.com. Join us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.
# # #
Contacts:
Tara Burns
Accenture
+44 78 5043 5158
[email protected]
Michelle Jahnke
Mars
+1 503-360-6796
[email protected]
Copyright © 2022 Accenture. All rights reserved. Accenture and its brand are emblems of Accenture.
