Heineken hits Digital Backbone milestone, ALDI & Hy-Vee accelerate digital transformation – PEX Community News

PEX Network’s weekly news bulletin rounds up the latest from the process community including operational excellence, digital transformation, business process management (BPM), process mining, artificial intelligence (AI) and much more.

Week of 07/08, 2024, includes:

• Heineken’s Digital Backbone goes live to harmonize end-to-end processes
• Experts discuss importance of process culture
• ALDI accelerates digital transformation of operations in the US and Australia
• UK Department for Work and Pensions seeks lead agile delivery manager
• Hy-Vee focuses on digital transformation and sustainability
• Towergate Health & Protection appoints Beth Alahakoon as head of operational excellence
• Event to explore using process mining for long-term efficiency and sustainability

Heineken’s Digital Backbone goes live to harmonize end-to-end processes

Brewing giant Heineken announced the go-live of its Digital Backbone (DBB) program at its Rwanda Operating Company. DBB seeks to harmonize end-to-end processes, standardize data-definitions and models and create a modern, modular technology architecture, wrote Ronald den Elzen, chief digital and technology officer at The HEINEKEN Company.

The approach delivers several key benefits, according to Elzen. These include:

• Capability enablement: Transport planning and process orchestration, for example.
• Productivity drive: Simplification and automation to boost efficiency.
• Improved speed: Faster implementation of new capabilities across the globe.
• Enhanced insights: Better data-driven insights and horizontal learning.

“This is only a first step, our pilot market and part of an exciting journey,” added Elzen. “Now we learn, as much as we can – we fix, as quickly as we can – to deploy, afterwards, as seamless as we can.”

Experts discuss importance of process culture

In the latest episode of the New Process Podcast, BPM expert Mirko Kloppenburg spoke to data science and advanced analytics leader Amelie Langenstein about the importance of good process culture for modern organizations. Their discussion outlined what a process culture model looks like, how process culture affects the success of BPM, creating a good process culture and the most difficult challenges. It also explored four key process culture values of openness, ownership, engagement and excellence.

• Openness: Like having a good failure culture, transparency, trust, being curious and open-minded. “Trust and involve the people working in and on the process.”
• Ownership: Let people initiate change and take on responsibility to improve their own processes. “Empower every employee to take responsibility for their processes, not just BPM roles like process owners and process architects.”
• Engagement: People need to understand the purpose of processes and they have to be involved to be motivated. “Develop a process purpose to give meaning to the work.”
• Excellence: Having an ongoing process of improvement established. “Use the new process lifecycle as a blueprint for continuous improvement.”

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ALDI accelerates digital transformation of operations in the US and Australia

Leading supermarket ALDI SÜD has partnered with global professional services and solutions firm Genpact to accelerate the digital transformation of its retail operations in the US and Australia. ALDI will leverage Genpact’s data, technology and AI solutions to streamline operations and help it achieve significant efficiency improvements, according to a press release. ALDI will also harness Genpact’s AI-first approach to help maximize the effectiveness and return on investment from existing deployed technology platforms like S/4HANA, Ariba, Blackline and ServiceNow, it added.

“Our AI-first approach for ALDI’s business services aims to achieve a front-to-middle-to-back transformation to create exceptional customer experiences and drive competitive growth,” commented Anil Nanduru, global business leader at Genpact.

READ: 10 digital transformation pitfalls and how to avoid them

UK Department for Work and Pensions seeks lead agile delivery manager

The UK government’s Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is looking to hire a new lead agile delivery manager to drive a new data strategy around its ingested data feeds. “As a lead agile delivery manager, you will deliver strong agile leadership of complex scaled programs with multiple stakeholders,” read the job listing. “You are accountable for designing and orchestrating delivery, optimizing workflows and implementing new processes and techniques needed to deliver successful outcomes at scale.”

The role has a salary range of £69,869 – £89,995. The specifications listed include:

• Track record of delivering large scale digital services at pace in complex agile environments involving multiple delivery teams and stakeholders.
• Exemplary leadership skills with the ability to build and motivate high performing teams and influence diverse stakeholder groups, including experience of coaching and mentoring.
• Strong communication influencing skills, with evidence of changing an organization’s status quo.

The UK’s secretary of state Peter Kyle also announced a revamped department to drive digital transformation of UK government services. Under his leadership, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) is set to undergo a major overhaul, expanding its scope and capabilities to harness the power of science and technology.

READ: 6 tips for leading agile transformation

Hy-Vee focuses on digital transformation and sustainability

Another big-name supermarket chain, Hy-Vee, is also increasing its focus on digital transformation, as well as sustainability. Hy-Vee is using the VusionGroup platform to digitalize more than 230 of its stores, which are now able to update product prices and data automatically, rather than the labor-intensive process of printing and hanging paper price tags, according to a press release. The technology allows Hy-Vee to update prices and product information in real-time, while digital shelf tags allow employees to focus on other tasks such as replenishment, merchandising and customer service, it added. Hy-Vee will also leverage other solutions to enable a better, more sustainable retailing model.

“Partnering with VusionGroup helps us streamline multiple operations in our stores, and makes the labeling process significantly better for both our customers and our employees,” said Brian Young, SVP and CIO of Hy-Vee. “The ease of use of the technology, coupled with the sustainability benefits we’ve realized, make VusionGroup’s tools a winning solution for us.”

Towergate Health & Protection appoints Beth Alahakoon as head of operational excellence

Towergate Health & Protection appointed Beth Alahakoon as its new head of operational excellence. Alahakoon will lead the delivery of operational excellence across health and protection, maintaining a balance between efficiency, optimum business outcomes and regulatory standards, the health and wellbeing solutions firm said. Alahakoon joins from Mercer Marsh Benefits where she served as operations manager, leading the team to design processes to deliver on colleague and customer service.

“As part of our mission to deliver an effortless client experience, we’re passionate about embracing opportunities that drive our business forward whilst enhancing our colleague and client experience,” commented Claire Parrott, director of client services and operations at Towergate Health & Protection. “To this end, we welcome Beth and the experience and enthusiasm she will undoubtedly bring to the role.”

READ: 5 operational excellence trends for 2024

Event to explore using process mining for long-term efficiency and sustainability

The FIM Research Center for Information Management, a cross-university research center, is hosting an event alongside Fraunhofer FIT and the Technical University of Applied Sciences Augsburg on innovative methods of process mining. Taking place later this month, the event will explore how business processes can be sustainably improved through process modeling, process data governance and process redesign, contributing to a significant improvement in internal processes.

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