Fight food waste: 5 steps to build your strategy

“Start by mapping the losses and what you want to achieve,” Simon says. “Often, the knowledge and the data are already there. Experienced operators know where the losses happen, and some manufacturers already have useful reports and a clear view of the pain points. When the data is not available, we help customers measure waste across the entire production chain. That’s really the foundation for any digitalization project.”  

Take a yogurt maker who's sure overfilling is the problem. Once they measure, it turns out most of the product is lost when they flush the lines between flavors. Without that measurement, they would have invested in the wrong solution. Only when you know the issues can you define your business goals.

You have now identified the waste you want to tackle. Before you build a roadmap to do so, make sure the people who need to deliver it agree on what comes first. Back to the yogurt maker. The plant manager wants to cut changeover losses and needs data from the line. IT is in the middle of the ERP migration. The OT team, which manages the machines, reports to engineering and has its own planning. Nobody says no, but nothing moves. 

“Projects often start from an operational need, but depend on IT to move forward,” Simon explains. “If IT hasn’t been involved in setting priorities, there may be no time or capacity available. That is where frustration starts. Through focused conversations and workshops, we help teams agree on what matters most and translate that into practical digital projects.” 

With everyone on board, you can turn the ambition into a roadmap. Break down the overall target into opportunities in filling, packaging, production or automation. Then decide which projects can deliver improvements now, and which will make later improvements possible. 

Suppose the yogurt maker wants to predict which batches will fail the quality check. For that, they need temperature and mixing data from the machines, and today that data is not collected. Making it available takes time and investment, and the immediate return may be limited. Yet several future applications could depend on it. 

“If you don’t have that vision, it is difficult to justify investing in the foundation,” Simon explains. “Still, you can also run targeted experiments that create value in the short term.” 

A first project could show waste per shift on a simple screen to the production team. In parallel, the machines get connected, so predicting failed batches becomes possible later. The roadmap shows how those efforts fit together, and why each investment matters. 

“You can lay the foundation while already reaping some of the benefits,” Simon says. “You need to know what your first project requires, what it can teach you, and what should follow. As each project delivers results, use what you learn to decide what to extend to other lines or sites, and what to tackle next.” 

Extending a first project to other lines is, however, often where things go wrong. As there is a technology solution for almost every problem, from visual quality inspection to digital work instructions, it is tempting to pick one, test it on a line, and see what happens. 

Simon: “A solution can deliver an immediate benefit in a very specific situation. But at some point, you may find that it doesn’t scale well to another production line. Or it is a black box, and you cannot access the data. Or expanding it suddenly becomes expensive.” 

Those limitations can undermine the business case beyond the first line. They can also damage confidence. After two disappointing projects, getting support for a third becomes harder, even if its potential is sound. 

“Pilot projects are useful: they help you learn and can already create value,” Simon goes on to say. “But they need to fit into a broader plan. You should not expect a single pilot to deliver the savings you are aiming for across the factory.” 

How extensive should your roadmap be? A chocolate factory with one site might need two workshops and start by weighing waste per shift. A large bakery group with five plants first needs one way to measure losses across all sites before it can compare and choose. 

“You always need a vision,” Simon says. “But for a smaller company, we keep it as light as possible and move quickly toward execution.” 

The pace, for its part, should match your ambitions, investment capacity and current capabilities. You may choose gradual improvement over several years, a faster move toward advanced automation, or a combination. The technologies should fit those choices too. 

“We often get the question: do we need an MES?” Simon says. “For some customers, that would be too complex. You can achieve improvements without one.” 

A useful plan gives you enough direction to choose your next investment and enough flexibility to learn along the way. Start with a loss worth tackling, get the right people involved, and choose a first project you can build on.