What if packaging lines could optimize themselves, adjusting in real-time without relying on manual intervention or OEM systems? That’s the vision PepsiCo brings to life through its collaboration with Fractal, a leading AI and analytics firm.
Together, they drive large-scale digital transformation in smart manufacturing across PepsiCo’s global packaging facilities. Fractal is a globally recognized enterprise AI company with deep technical, domain, and functional capabilities delivering end-to-end AI solutions, empowering large global enterprises with data-driven insights for smarter decision-making.
The collaboration, which began in 2023, focuses on AI-powered smart packaging technology that enables manufacturing lines to self-optimize and automatically adjust output. By combining AI, realtime manufacturing data, IoT sensors, and end-to-end digital engineering, the system continuously monitors and controls production variables that were once managed manually by plant operators, unlocking new levels of efficiency and performance.
The Challenge: Operational complexity at scale
With operations spanning over 200 countries and hundreds of manufacturing sites, PepsiCo faces immense complexity in maintaining efficiency across its packaging lines. Each facility produces a diverse portfolio of its beloved products, from Lays and Cheetos to Doritos, across multiple production lines.
“To optimize the packaging line, we need to manually adjust more than 300 parameters, which is nearly impossible for an operator to adjust,” says Venky Santhirahasan, SVP of Engineering at PepsiCo.
Traditionally, plant operators have relied on experience, OEM solutions, and institutional knowledge to manage these complex systems. However, as production scales globally, this manual approach has become increasingly difficult, vulnerable to inconsistencies in output and efficiency.
“At Fractal, our mission is to help power every decision in the enterprise using AI, engineering, and design,” explains Pranay Agrawal, CEO at Fractal USA. “We believe that if we help our clients make better decisions, we help them deliver better outcomes to their customers, employees, shareholders, and the communities they operate in.”
The Solution: AI-powered transformation
To overcome these challenges, PepsiCo set out to modernize its manufacturing operations, shifting from a reactive to a predictive, data-driven approach. Collaborating with Fractal, the company deployed AI-powered smart packaging technology that continuously tracks production metrics and automatically adjusts key parameters in real time. This allows PepsiCo to maximize throughput, reduce waste, and improve efficiency, all without manual intervention.
The system not only boosts performance but also enhances sustainability and ROI. “What we’re helping PepsiCo do right now is to drive better asset utilization by increasing throughput, reducing wastage, and lowering electricity consumption,” adds Pranay Agrawal.
Through this collaboration, PepsiCo is transforming packaging from a manual process into an intelligent, self-learning system, setting a new benchmark for smart manufacturing
Road Ahead: Scaling innovation globally
Following a successful pilot, PepsiCo has scaled the smart packaging solution across multiple sites in Latin America and is now expanding globally. Once proven effective on individual lines, the system can be replicated across PepsiCo’s vast manufacturing network, unlocking efficiency and consistency at scale. “The beauty of this is that if it works on a few lines, we can scale it globally,” says Pranay Agrawal. The collaboration also extends beyond packaging to PepsiCo’s broader AI-driven digital transformation. “From farming to snacking at your table, we leverage AI across the entire value chain,” explains Venky Santhirahasan, “from potato seed planning to demand forecasting, supply planning, manufacturing, transportation, network optimization, and how we effectively deliver our product.”
Future developments could extend into areas including material consumption monitoring, energy usage optimization, machinery maintenance prediction, and transportation logistics, continuing PepsiCo’s journey toward a smarter, more sustainable manufacturing ecosystem.
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