Industry experts at EATS 2025 offer practical guidance on workforce challenges, digital adoption, and the shift from cost-cutting to value creation.
Food manufacturing leaders are thinking about operations, workforce, and technology in new and innovative ways. At this year’s EATS show, we spoke with executives and innovators who are helping manufacturers navigate rising pressures around margins, compliance, talent retention, and sustainability. Their collective insights point to an industry moving beyond traditional efficiency metrics toward more integrated, data-driven approaches that balance human capability with technological advancement.
Digital transformation is about people and processes
Industry leaders consistently emphasized that successful digital adoption hinges on human factors and organizational readiness, not just technology selection. Here’s their practical guidance:
- Start with process, not technology: “We take a process-first approach. We’re not focused on the technology first; we’re focused on what the customer requires.” — Nick Avila, Vice President of Sales, Attivo ERP
- Ensure alignment from top to bottom: “If these digital transformation initiatives are not aligned from the C-level all the way to the shop floor, there’s going to be a disconnection and that disconnection will make the project fail completely.” — Ernesto Hermosillo, Chief Growth Officer, Allie
- Focus on culture before tools: “Culture comes first. Even coming from a software company, I’d put culture at the top because it shapes everything that follows. When teams are aligned, open to change, and bought into the mission, the technology finds its place.” — Mike Clark, Global Strategic Account Manager of SafetyChain Software
- Build trust through empowerment, not replacement: “Don’t forget about the people. At the end of the day, they are the ones making the product. They’re the ones solving problems every day. As long as you keep your eyes steadfastly focused on them, you’re going to win.” — Betsy Scott, National Accounts Director, QAD Redzone
The real-time visibility revolution
For many manufacturers, the first step in digital transformation starts with seeing what’s actually happening on the plant floor, right now.
“If you don’t connect and measure, you cannot improve. If you don’t have that data, you’re producing blindsided.”
— Catherine Tardif, Director of Account Management, Worximity
Manufacturers can no longer afford to operate blind. Not to mention, there are cost-cutting advantages to better data. For example, as Tardif noted, hidden downtime losses, which are often underestimated by manufacturers, can be cut in half simply through real-time monitoring and targeted improvements.
But visibility alone isn’t enough. The challenge lies in disconnected data trapped across different systems:
“The data lives in different formats. It’s labeled differently by the different OEMs, PLCs, communication protocols, and software vendors. You need an aggregator that speaks the same language as all of these data systems and can translate all of them to the same language. Then you can tag all this data, structure it, and apply intelligence on the top.”
— Ernesto Hermosillo, Chief Growth Officer of Allie
Fast access to compliance data is a competitive advantage
As manufacturers gain real-time visibility into operations, that same data is increasingly reshaping how they approach food safety and compliance.
“Compliance used to be a box-checking exercise. Now, for the brands we work with, compliance is a matter of risk and resilience.”
— Mike Clark, Global Strategic Account Manager of SafetyChain Software
Food safety and compliance are rapidly moving from back-office functions to boardroom priorities. Customers, auditors, and regulators increasingly expect immediate access to reliable data — and manufacturers that can deliver it are pulling ahead. Clark noted a growing sense of urgency across the industry, as a widening competitive gap emerges between plants that have digitized their compliance processes and those still relying on manual systems.
More importantly, compliance data is no longer viewed in isolation. Food Safety and Quality Assurance (FSQA) signals are increasingly treated as business performance levers, influencing yield, waste reduction, throughput, and labor efficiency. When implemented correctly, Clark emphasized, digitization often delivers one of the fastest returns a plant can generate by eliminating paper-based friction and giving QA, operations, and leadership a shared, real-time view of what’s happening on the floor.
That visibility only becomes a true advantage when food safety is embedded into everyday decision-making. Casey Gallimore, Senior Director of Regulatory Policy of the Meat Institute stressed that competitive leaders integrate food safety into project planning, maintenance standards, and executive oversight, with metrics reported at the board level.
The workforce crisis demands new approaches
While digital tools are reshaping operations, the human side of manufacturing is under even greater strain.
“Nearly half of the manufacturing workforce is now 45 or older, so they’re in that retirement bucket.”
— Mike Burica. Chief Commercial Offers, WorkForge
Not only are manufacturers charged with preserving institutional knowledge, but combatting turnover by building trust with younger workers. Burica outlined three components of workforce trust that manufacturers must address:
- Safety (“trust that you’re going to keep them safe”)
- Competency (“help them do the job they were hired to do”)
- Growth (“give them the opportunity to learn and advance their career path”)
In practice, manufacturers are finding that automation can strengthen — not strain — the relationship between workers and the work itself by giving frontline teams greater visibility and ownership.
“The industry is starting to realize that we need to invest in our people and our frontline just as much, if not more than, our machines and equipment.”
— Betsy Scott, National Accounts Director, QAD Redzone
That investment goes beyond higher wages. Scott emphasized that when operators are equipped with real-time data and empowered to solve problems on the floor, manufacturers often see double-digit productivity gains.
Waste finds its worth
Beyond labor and data, manufacturers are also rethinking what they once accepted as unavoidable loss.
“It’s not waste unless we waste it.”
— Gary Schuler, Founder & President, GTF Technologies
Food manufacturers have historically accepted waste levels that would trigger emergency responses in other sectors. But Gary Schuler of GTF Technologies challenges manufacturers to rethink their approach to byproducts entirely. The technology to convert side streams into powders, packaging materials, and energy feedstocks is available and often pays for itself in less than two years.
That same mindset shift is also changing how manufacturers think about the most basic elements of production, including hygiene.
“For a long time, hygiene was considered something that slowed down production. Now people are realizing there’s value in it: less waste, less cleanup time, and less manpower if you have a hygienic process at the beginning.”
— Davide Gagliardo, Business Development Manager, Industrial Vacuums, Nilfisk
Success in modern food manufacturing is about more than adopting the latest technology, but the integrations and culture behind it. It’s also about seeing opportunities where others see problems.
Whether applied to byproducts, workforce development, or digital transformation, the leaders who succeed will be those who connect previously siloed elements of their operations into connected systems that create value at every level.
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