Potatoes are notoriously a difficult crop to transport, given their tendency to bruise easily, resulting in millions of lost revenues a year. However, consumer packaged goods (CPG) giant PepsiCo and ag machinery company Grimme are tackling the supply chain issue by addressing an often-neglected aspect of the industry — training and upskilling.
Last week, PepsiCo and Grimme revealed its collaboration to create a digital replica (i.e., a digital twin) of a potato harvester, allowing farmers and users to inspect machines, remove panels, and more in a virtual setting, according to a press release.
The digital twin technology is designed for use with virtual reality (VR) headsets or can be accessed by tablets, smartphones, and desktop computers. Once the training is loaded, users do not need Wi-Fi or an active mobile service.
In the pilot program, PepsiCo and Grimme were able to increase bruise-free potatoes by 87%, including a 1.7x reduction in severe bruising, PepsiCo shared.
PepsiCo and Grimme launched the digital twin training platform last year with pilot tests in Brazil and Mexico, before bringing the technology to Poland and Romania and showcased it at PepsiCo’s Global Agro University in Germany.
The companies have been careful rolling out the digital twin, ensuring that technology is relevant for a specific region, Rob Meyers, VP of global agriculture at PepsiCo, told AgNavigator.
“Adapting to local realities is often more important to driving adoption at scale. As we expand into new markets, we’re continuing to refine the experience, including language support and training content. The goal isn’t to introduce complexity. It’s to make proven expertise available to more operators, in more places, before they enter the field,” Meyers added.
Can VR be the key to upskilling the ag workforce?
The idea of giving farmers headsets to learn about their machines came after PepsiCo experimented with the technology in other areas of operations, Meyers noted. Earlier this year, the CPG giant revealed a partnership with Nvidia and Siemens to use AI in industrial manufacturing, including for simulation purposes.
“We had seen some of the work that our wider PepsiCo business was doing around using digital twins to improve operator training in the manufacturing space and felt there was a lot of applicability that could help us on the farming side,” Meyers elaborated.
The technology is designed to address the persistent challenge of the sector not having enough skilled employees by creating more ways to train and upskill them, Meyers said.
“One of agriculture’s biggest challenges is delivering consistent, high-quality training to operators who may be seasonal, geographically dispersed or working in different languages and markets. The opportunity with digital tools is their ability to make expert training more accessible and scalable. Of course, cost is always an important consideration for the adoption of any technology. The loss of revenue for a farmer due to bruising can be very high, and the VR technology costs are only a fraction of this risk,” he added.
