Streamline, Innovate, and Improve Production

Today's consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies face many challenges: They must dive into social media and mobile technologies as they try to win mindshare in both physical and digital environments. At the same time, CPG companies want to harness the value of big data while increasing the speed and performance of all facets of their value chain.

Cisco solutions for the CPG and food and beverage industries support powerful applications for both plant and enterprise. They give firms the flexibility, security, and cost-effectiveness needed to achieve margin and remain competitive. Taking advantage of Cisco's leadership in the Internet of Things, leading CPG firms are meeting new standards of performance, flexibility, and regulatory compliance.

Cisco offers solutions for:

• Faster, more innovative product development
• New levels of consumer-led sales and marketing
• Connectivity across the supply chain
• Improved employee productivity through better collaboration and compliance
• Highly secure, reliable platforms to underlie the entire operation

Cisco solutions cover the following areas in CPG:

Smart Manufacturing: To improve efficiency on the production line and traceability through the supply chain, Cisco Connected Factory supports continuous production uptime through video and sensor-based monitoring and analytics. Mobility and collaboration capabilities accelerate decision making right on the plant floor. Cisco also supports plant virtualization, RFID tracking, and digital information solutions as well as partner solutions for the warehouse.

Connected, Smart Consumer Insight: CPG and food and beverage firms can generate more sales through closer relationships with consumers to guide product development. Cisco supports consumer research in the data center. Its powerful video collaboration solutions help companies build an understanding of customer requirements and more accurately target products to the market.

Remote Co-Creation: After gathering consumer information, CPG manufacturers need to be able to rapidly create prototypes without company restructuring. Cisco collaboration technologies help them establish a more open innovation culture that connects experts and developers in a dynamic, virtual R&D; infrastructure.

The Future of Work: As they expand into global markets, manufacturers have an opportunity to change how employees work to improve productivity, increase revenues, and lower costs. Cisco hosted collaboration and mobility technologies will help meet the needs of rapidly changing environments with flexibility and agility.