5
Plants globally
Development of a Group-Wide Digitalization Strategy
Industry: Food & Beverage
Service: Digital & Ai
Service: Manufacturing
Our Client
A global premium chocolate manufacturer with production sites in Europe and the USA, delivering high-quality products enjoyed worldwide.
4
Months project duration
The Challenge
The client needed a clear group-wide digitalization strategy to align its global plants and ensure consistent IT and IoT architectures. Individual sites had been driving their own digital initiatives, resulting in inefficiencies and lack of standardization.
- No unified digital strategy: Digital initiatives existed locally but not globally aligned.
- Absence of a group-wide IT/IoT architecture: Multiple systems were introduced independently across plants.
- Manual and inefficient processes: Production planning and scheduling required high manual effort.
- Limited data utilization: Connected machinery did not yet deliver measurable performance improvements.
- Inconsistent quality controls: Different plants used varying quality processes and systems.
- Bottlenecks in warehouse capacity: Frequent re-stocking was required due to limited storage.
- Need to increase capacity and efficiency: Growing global demand required optimization without expansion.
- Lack of transparency: Long lead times and poor visibility in new product pipeline
Real Results Achieved Together
The project delivered a clear, actionable digital strategy aligned with the company’s business objectives, enabling faster, more efficient, and more connected operations across all plants.
<2
Years average ROI for identified digital initiatives
5
Plants assessed for digital maturity
1
Unified group-wide digitalization roadmap
Transformation Impact
- Developed and communicated a group-wide digitalization strategy.
- Defined and prioritized digital initiatives linked to financial and strategic impact.
- Established business cases with strong ROI and measurable outcomes.
- Clarified organizational roles and future capability requirements for Industry 4.0.
Our Approach
EFESO worked closely with the client’s senior management and plant teams to define a cohesive digital roadmap and ensure alignment across all levels of the organization.
- Strategic Alignment and Planning
- Conducted strategic and financial planning with the senior management team.
- Defined key financial and strategic fields of action for the digitalization initiative.
- Assessment and Prioritization
- Assessed the digital maturity of five plants worldwide.
- Identified and prioritized high-impact digital use cases with plant management teams.
- Conducted a gap analysis of current and future capabilities in a fully digitalized environment.
- Technical and Organizational Development
- Developed concepts for required technical solutions and IT architecture.
- Created individual digital roadmaps per plant and consolidated them into a global roadmap.
- Designed the future organizational setup and defined the global digitalization team structure.
Related Services
Digital & AI
Digital investments fail to deliver operational impact. We translate technology into performance gains through practical AI deployment, data-driven decision systems, and frontline digital tools.
Manufacturing
Aging equipment meets rising costs and technology disruption. We transform operations through smart factory integration, predictive maintenance, and workforce capability building.
Facing Similar Digital Transformation Challenges?
- Lacking a unified digitalization strategy across sites and functions.
- Struggling to align IT, IoT, and operational initiatives globally.
- Seeking to define high-ROI digital initiatives with measurable business impact.
Discover More Clients Results
45K m²
Optimized factory layout (reduced from 52K m²)
Industrial Manufacturing
Restarting a Greenfield Factory Planning Process: Reassessing a Multi-Story Plant Design Under Extreme Time Pressure
Creating a solid, structured plan for the material flow of its production and validated the static forecast, enabling the factory to increase the output with the existing machinery.
$12M
Projected annual savings
Retail
Redesigning Warehouse Operations to Cut Cycle Time by 87% and Boost Throughput by 30%
Redesigned omni-channel warehouse operations, cutting order-to-ship cycle time by 87% and increasing throughput capacity by 30%.
$6.5M
Annual margin gain through increased crude throughput
Oil & Gas, Sustainable Energy
Improving Crude Throughput by 25% via Lean Process Optimization
Eliminated naphtha bottleneck through lean optimization, accelerating crude throughput 25% and capturing $6.5M margin gain.
60%
Reduction in start-up time
Food & Beverage
Vertical Start-Up Reduces CAPEX Project Time by 60%
Accelerated CAPEX execution through Vertical Start-Up methodology, reducing project timelines by 60% across European operations.
$750K
Validated savings achieved
Life Sciences
Packaging
Turning Cost Pressures Into Sustainable Profitability
Packaging manufacturer achieved $750K savings through optimized labor ratios, reduced scrap, and material efficiency improvements.
+$8M
Annual EBIT improvement
Transportation, Logistics and Services
Turnaround of Two Plants for Major Logistics Company: Building Operational Independence at Scale
Logistics provider needed warehouse optimization and service improvement. We redesigned warehouse layouts, implemented automation, and enhanced picking processes, increasing throughput by 35%.
+25
Percentage points Line OEE improvement at a key site within 6 months
Food & Beverage
Transitioning To Opex 4.0: A Significant Evolution
An initiative that improved Line OEE by 25 percentage points and positioned the organization to recover a $15M investment within 18 months.
81%
Reduction in breakdowns
Food & Beverage
Transforming Wine Production Excellence Through Total Productive Maintenance: Building Operational Excellence from Vineyard to Bottle
Wine producer struggled with quality consistency and rising costs. We implemented Total Productive Maintenance, optimized production flow, and enhanced quality systems, achieving 81% OEE improvement.