Danone is a leader in global food and beverage, including dairy, plant-based products, water, and specialized nutrition products. Its product portfolio includes several leading international brands and is sold in over 120 markets.
Operating across multiple product verticals, on a global scale, with almost 90,000 employees, makes company-wide harmonization efforts of key processes and data extremely challenging.
Yves Bongiovanni, Solution Lead of Quality and Food Safety at Danone, has been with the company since 2013 and oversees the global Core LIMS program. This program ensures full traceability of their products and manages data harmonization across diverse product lines and locations, which is a top priority for optimizing operations.
“Even within the same country, two factories can have different business processes,” explains Yves. “Our goal is to harmonize all business processes and then automate all product testing..”
The LabVantage LIMS has been instrumental in facilitating these harmonization efforts as Yves and his team continue to work towards this objective. To learn more about the LIMS selection process, its integration with other software tools, and the future of LabVantage at Danone, we met with Yves at the 2024 CTEC conference.
Managing Global Digitalization in the Food and Beverage Industry
Danone has 40 factories worldwide where LabVantage solutions have been deployed, across EMEA, APAC, LATAM, and NA regions.
Yves is currently leading a company-wide initiative to harmonize processes and data across all product categories within Danone’s food and beverage operations.
“Our master data is not harmonized today,” laments Yves “Unfortunately, it’s a mess. We are currently undertaking a project to harmonize all our parameters, units, test methods, etc., and we are working with the LabVantage PSO (Professional Service Organization) to provide some SQL scripts to harmonize all our master data.”
This level of tailored service was a major reason for selecting LabVantage LIMS for Yves.
“We are able to have a very proactive discussion with the LabVantage PSO,” he explains. “Everything works well with them.”
Ease of use and scalability were other key factors in selecting LabVantage.
“The main criteria is the tool’s scalability because we are addressing both small and very large laboratories,” comments Yves. “So, we need to scale our LIMS with the growth of the different laboratories.”
Integrating with SAP for Sample and Batch Management
Yves’s job as a member of the manufacturing team involves managing batches and samples. To automate these processes efficiently, his team has integrated LabVantage with its SAP system.
“A user creates the production order in SAP…” Yves explains, “…and it automatically flows into the LabVantage based on the product. We have a sampling plan that automatically generates all the samples. The user has to do nothing.”
The samples are tested using analyzers or instruments that are also interfaced with LabVantage. Once the data is available, it is uploaded to the platform.
“It’s easy for the lab or release manager to see in LabVantage if the result is’ in-spec’ or ‘out-of-spec’ with a color coding we use,” describes Yves “If all the data are ‘in-spec,’ batches can be automatically released, and the lab manager doesn’t have to do anything. If a batch is ‘out-of-spec,’ the lab manager receives a notification, and they can check if they need to create an incident…This all used to be done manually and is now automatized within LabVantage”
The Future of LabVantage at Danone
The integration between LabVantage and SAP also gives Yves’s team granular control over release at the batch and pallet levels and simplifies outsourcing sample analysis to external labs.
From efficient batch management to seamless SAP integration, LabVantage LIMS has transformed how Danone approaches global manufacturing in the food and beverage industry. Danone’s digital journey with LabVantage positions the company to maintain its leadership in food and beverage.
To learn more about how your company can standardize its processes and data management, contact us here.
