C&T DESIGN SENDS ITS EMPLOYEES TO A TRAINING EVENT TO LEARN FROM A PROFESSIONAL CHEF AS PART OF THEIR CAREER DEVELOPMENT.
D
isruptions often necessitate the rise of new solutions. Whether
it’s the global supply chain shortages of recent years, or the emergence of e-commerce as the dominant means of conducting B2B transactions, companies have had to change strategies and quickly fi nd new ways of doing business to stay relative. The innovations that emerge from that process of constant renewal often become disruptive themselves, further accelerating the tempo of change. “We are moving at a pace
that’s faster than I’ve ever seen it in my entire career. We can’t be spending our time doing things the way we’ve always done them in the past,” says Brad Pierce, president of Restaurant Equipment World in Florida. In many ways, technology is the ultimate disruptor. Its introduction can rapidly evolve how an industry operates and open new ways of reaching customers. Pierce has long understood the power of technological innovation, which is why for the past 30 years REW
has been at the forefront of implementing digital systems. In 1996, REW was the fi rst foodservice equipment and supplies dealer to launch a website and four years later it became the fi rst to develop a mobile app. But today’s landscape has changed. Foodservice equipment dealers and manufacturers are dealing with extraordinary operational challenges such as supply chain scarcity and delays, labor shortages, and rapidly rising costs of raw materials and products, to name the obvious. To further complicate matters, foodservice operator expectations have shifted. “Customers expect current pricing,” Pierce observes. “They expect current specifi cations. They expect all this information to be delivered to them instantaneously.” Technology can help businesses adapt to those sudden shifts and implement solutions, but companies need to know where to start and what’s possible. At the FEDA Annual Conference in October, Pierce will moderate a panel on
“We are moving at a pace that’s faster than I’ve ever seen it in my entire career. We can’t be spending our time doing things the way we’ve always done them in the past.”
— Brad Pierce President Restaurant Equipment World
Industry Technology and Innovation which features executives from leading foodservice equipment and supplies manufacturers: Christina Wegner, vice president of marketing for the Vollrath Company, and James Pool, chief technology and operations offi cer for Middleby Corp. Attendees will hear about industry trends and technology innovations in automation, electronic communication, connectivity between technology tools, and machine learning and artifi cial intelligence (AI). The Industry Technology and Innovation panelists believe that, if adopted at the right time, the right way and with the right pace, all of those advancements
would ensure that FE&S businesses stay resilient and competitive in a world that has evolved. However, Wegner and Pierce emphasize, technology is only as good as the data that it relies on. For technologies to work well, they need a source with quality, standardized aggregated data. With the establishment of the FEDA product data standards and the FEDA Data Portal and Support Center, an industry-wide effort is ongoing to provide the foundation that enables businesses and the industry as whole to implement new and innovative ways companies can share information, communicate with each other and conduct business.
Summer 2023 21
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64
