How AI is helping Fonterra work differently across the cooperative – Source Asia

For Fonterra, going global means managing constant complexity. As New Zealand’s largest company, the cooperative serves customers in more than 100 countries and processes around 22 billion liters of milk solids each season. In this context, even small improvements in quality, consistency, sustainability and productivity can add up. AI is increasingly becoming a practical way to reduce complexity rather than increase it, supporting better decisions and more consistent ways of working.

Since partnering with Microsoft to move core operations to Azure six years ago, Fonterra has taken a deliberate, measured approach to embedding AI to support its diverse strategic priorities.

AI on the factory floor

Some of the clearest examples can be found in the manufacturing sector. At Fonterra’s Clandeboye site in South Canterbury, AI is used to monitor butter packaging across multiple production stages and stop the line if errors are detected. Instead of planning…