Accelerating the Move to Digital in Manufacturing

During this session, you will hear from a panel of manufacturing experts and have the opportunity to ask your questions live. Between tariffs, global supply chain disruptions, oil prices, supply and demand volatility, and now global pandemics, manufacturers have had to navigate through endless disruption. Our experts will discuss these challenges and demonstrate the results of implementing a successful digital approach to increasing revenue and profitability through improving the customer experience and end-to-end sales processes.

About the Speakers

Paul Benson is an experienced dairy professional with a 30-year career covering the spectrum of Product Technical, Sales & Marketing, Portfolio Management, Optimization Planning, and Project Management. Currently, Benson serves as General Manager of Optimization within the Central Portfolio Management Function of Fonterra Limited. Benson is responsible for the creation of the Optimized Sales and Supply Plan for Fonterra's New Zealand business covering Consumer, Foodservice, and Ingredient businesses. This covers over 2.5 million metric tons of products manufactured annually at over 75 plants through New Zealand. Benson also led the implementation of the SignalDemand Product Mix Optimization solution (subsequently PROS) for Fonterra from idea to everyday operation. The SignalDemand Optimization solution is now an integral part of Fonterra's Sales Allocation Planning process to create monthly supply plans as well as undertaking what-if scenario analysis for the business.

David Breaugh serves as the regional business lead for manufacturing industries across the Americas. Breaugh and his team develop and deliver business transformation strategies to empower customers to create value and sustainable competitive advantage. Breaugh brings over 30 years of experience in automotive, aerospace, chemical, consumer goods, high tech, industrial, and medical device industries. His specialty is leading enterprise transformation, operational turnaround, and performance improvement programs enabled by technology.

Philip W. Daus is the Managing Partner of Simon-Kucher's Houston office. He specializes in results-oriented pricing and sales excellence programs and has more than 16 years of consulting experience with a diverse background in both B2B and B2C industries, from commodities to quick-service restaurants. Daus’ recent focus has been on B2B sectors such as drilling services, capital equipment, machinery, building materials, and B2B service companies. Daus’ areas of expertise include market segmentation and go-to-market strategies, pay-for-performance systems, discounting and peer pricing systems, as well as price negotiation support. He is the author of more than 30 articles and studies about pricing and sales strategy. Daus is an associate professor at I.E. Business School, where he teaches Strategic Pricing in the MBA program. Philip has an MBA from I.E. Business School. He also holds an MSc. (Dipl.-Kfm.) from WHU Vallendar, Germany, with studies in Spain (ICADE), Brazil (FGV), and India (IIMB).

Richard Blatcher is a global marketing expert with extensive experience in cloud computing, enterprise software, and industry segments including Manufacturing, Distribution, Automotive, Airline, and Oil & Gas. Blatcher currently leads a global team that owns and drives the strategy and relationships with key industry bodies, associations, and influencers to support go-to-market activities. Blatcher is responsible for highly successful launches into the Product Lifecycle Management market with PLM 360 cloud-based alternative and SaaS collaboration platform for designers & engineers, A360. Other launches include Reality Solutions, Fusion 360 the first complete cloud-based 3D CAD solution and CAM products. Blatcher later joined Autodesk, responsible for manufacturing marketing in Northern Europe expanding this role to EMEA. Blatcher worked for a leading marketing communications company in the UK where he also set-up heir direct marketing operation managing sales and marketing services to many blue-chip companies. Blatcher also worked on world-class engineering publications 'Eureka', 'Machinery & Production Engineering', 'Works Management' & 'Engineering Computers'.