May 18, 2021 by Neudesic + Ardent Mills Maximizing Flour Supply Chain Data Assets Mixes Up Better Value to America’s Most Iconic Bakery and Food Service Companies DOWNLOAD THE FULL CASE STUDY > As North America’s leading flour supplier, Ardent Mills is continually looking for ways to enrich its recipe for success and streamline its operations. From milling breakthroughs and nutritional advantages to community engagement and sustainable business practices, this grain innovator has more than 40 community flour mills and blending facilities throughout the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico. Established as an independent joint venture of three parent companies well known in the food industry—ConAgra, Cargill and CHS—Ardent Mills supports many of the most trusted and iconic bakery and food service brands across North America. Challenges Integration Turn a joint venture between ConAgra, Cargill and CHS into one streamlined operation Data Siloes Integrate a range of siloed databases in a variety of formats across 40 locations. Modernize Garner big picture insights with a far more efficient approach over legacy methods utilizing a cloud-first approach Agile Decision Making Facilitate comprehensive up-to-the-minute analysis of historical data for agile decision making “Before our deployment of a modern data and analytics platform on Azure, we’d spend months compiling reports and it took a data scientist to make sense of it all – in a timeline that could be well past the greatest usefulness of the data. Today, just about anyone can run a wide variety of reports in minutes and then quickly evaluate the insights collected. The platform is simple and intuitive, and it has really opened our eyes to the possibilities data brings to the table.” - Scott Roush, Director of Technical Milling, Ardent Mills “While the implementation has simplified and streamlined processes, it has also generated previously undreamt of analysis. It’s this analysis I’m most excited about because it gives us a clear picture of where we’ve been, how we’re performing today and the insight to improve operations for greater success in the future.” - Melissa Wegner, Continuous Improvement Manager, Ardent Mills Business Technology Benefits Having one robust platform, with data accessible across the organization, has provided the means for Ardent Mills to meet its goal for quick data delivery to facilitate better decision making. Compilation of standard reports is far easier and less time consuming, but perhaps more importantly, these capabilities have sparked greater curiosity amongst the team around what more the data can reveal. It is this inquisitiveness that has advanced an even more strategic approach to data and its application in smarter business operations. Today Ardent Mills managers throughout the company are actively leveraging previously untapped or underutilized metrics to spin new reports for analysis and operational refinement. “Previous to our new data platform design, we’d spend months compiling reports and it took a data scientist to make sense of it all, in a timeline that could be well past the greatest usefulness of the data. Today, just about anyone can run a wide variety of reports in minutes and then quickly evaluate the insights collected. The platform is simple and intuitive, and it has really opened our eyes to the possibilities data brings to the table.” - Scott Roush, Director of Technical Milling, Ardent Mills DOWNLOAD THE FULL CASE STUDY
