Cold drink for football games

From production to delivery, digital transformation partnered with Accenture revolutionizes AB InBev’s supply chain and guarantees cold drinks at the right time to watch football games.

The match is about to start. Your team is now ready to enter the field. The occasion calls for an ice-cold drink – and it needs to be on time to keep up with the game. It is in this mission that Accenture has helped AB InBev with the structuring and implementation of the Aurora Program, that leverages digital transformation to the world’s leading brewer’s supply chain and helps ensure that cold beer is provided at goal time, or on any other occasion that deserves to be celebrated. “Our partnership’s mission is to create a global ERP solution, a management system for AB InBev’s supply chain, based on SAP S/4HANA and cloud decoupling”, says Marcelo Soares, Director of Innovation and Technology at Accenture Latin America. Starting in Brazil, the program is expected to expand globally..

Accenture provides change management, technology expertise and strategic vision, guiding the paths to follow throughout the project. “The Aurora Program brings the opportunity for scalability and speed to meet the demands of the digital market and the supply chain challenges in an agile and structured way”, says Luciano Fanti, Managing Director at Accenture Latin America. The digitalization of FMCG market has allowed new types of connection with customers, without the need for a third party to intermediate. Applications enable direct real-time interactions. This connection generates insights to customer demand. It is necessary to adapt and change to respond quickly. In addition to speed, quality is fundamental – that is, delivering the cold drink. “AB InBev engages with costumers regularly, and this project has been an opportunity to increase types of delivery modes to serve quickly and with the desired quality”, says Victor Muniz, Director of Technology and Innovation at Accenture Latin America. All this happens in harmony with AB InBev’s internal controls, taking care of suppliers and carriers. There is also the sustainability layer. “Growing with the community is at AB InBev’s core. Sustainability has also been core to this project. Using technology is critical to promote a more sustainable and inclusive supply chain management.”

Learn more at: accenture.com/sap

With over 40 years’ experience in revolutionizing businesses, Accenture and SAP know what it takes to win in your markets and industries

See how our award-winning partnership can unlock value for your business through the power of intelligence.

With over 40 years’ experience in revolutionizing businesses, Accenture and SAP know what it takes to win in your markets and industries

See how our award-winning partnership can unlock value for your business through the power of intelligence.

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To change subject slightly, while companies were juggling supply chain challenges brought about by ecommerce, there was a simultaneous, growing demand from consumers for providers to become more sustainable. Did this expectation add another layer of complexity for you?

Really, it’s all been part of the same process. When looking to introduce new technologies for faster shipments, or better warehouse management, or improved transport management, sustainability is one of the considerations that gets filtered into the final solution.

Going remote has accelerated the use of mobile gadgets and the need for more workforce optimisation tools. Ultimately, sustainability is embedded across our business. From considering how we can be more fuel-efficient to reducing emissions, we are taking important operational steps to meet our 2025 sustainability goals.

Your international footprint must be helpful in signposting future improvements?

While we’re a global business, we always talk about how beer is inherently local. In this context, it’s my job to try concepts based on feedback and data from around the world, and then scale that for wider adoption in a way that allows us to have a global common template. I visit warehouses and operations around the world to map what individual areas need, and therefore what might work on a global scale.

One great example of how this global approach leads to improvement is in how we now manage transportation costs together with transportation operations. Following an evaluation, we proposed the implementation of SAP TM (transportation management), enabling us to monitor the operational performance matrix in alignment with financial metrics so we can understand the cost of our business decisions, and so we can also adjust any volumes or operations in less than five days.

All in all, it has been quite an intense period of change for such a large organisation, especially when it comes to supply chain management. What would you say are the key learnings you’ve taken away from the process so far, and that you’ll take forward with you into the future?

The key learning is that this is a global transformation. We’re not trying to make every country fit specifically into a single design, because we understand the local realities. What we can do is define an approach and establish a foundation that will support our business strategy.

Technology should not build the co mpany culture. Rather, it must be adapted to fit the business culture and need. Across AB InBev, we use technology to help optimize our ways of working across our teams and functions, while delivering on our purpose and strategy.

While we’re a global business, we always talk about how beer is inherently local. In this context, it’s my job to try concepts based on feedback and data from around the world, and then scale that for wider adoption in a way that allows us to have a global common template