Interview with Angel Vivar, Grupo Bimbo Global Operations Manager

Rever Webinar December 2020

In December 2020, Rever’s CEO Errette Dunn sat down with Angel Vivar, Grupo Bimbo Global Operations Manager, to review the activities and lessons learned of 2020. There were three main points that came out of the conversations:

1. It’s about People. Provide people the additional guidance and help needed to adapt to different work dynamics like remote working.
2. Be care not to overestimate how much technology can help. It can get complicated very quickly.
3. Strong, consistent leadership can make an enormous impact on driving a global digitization program.

Here are some excerpts from their conversation.

Angel
I’m responsible for the continuous improvement area and the global implementation of Internet of Things for operation with continuous improvement. The strategy is to have a unique management model to enhance the productivity of the people working with digital systems such as GB Connected, the name of our Internet of Things system.  We connect people in 33 countries, and allow continued digital improvement in more than 100.

Errette
When were you named the digital transformation leader in your site? What did that mean back then and how has this changed after this year?

Angel
Producing food carries a heavy responsibility. The possibility of endangering someone is very real. We have one only chance to be sure that all the processes are safe. As we improve continuously and advance our digitization, we need to stay focused on our key objectives. Our goal is to be 100% digitized by the end of 2021.

Errette
How do you balance that strategic long term value with the immediate needs of the business and the markets, because otherwise you don’t get the attention of the people who are going to implement it? 

Angel
It’s clear for us always that the center of our business, our core, is the people. Everything is about the people. 

We shared their success stories from one bakery to another bakery and ensured that digital systems became a high priority in their budget. Not everything is free. 

We need to be clear that we need a budget. That it will be very hard to fulfill their goals without the digital systems. 

Errette
How does digital transformation look for your business in 2021?

Angel
We want to complete an integrated value supply chain across all parts of the company and implement a new cloud ERP. That’s two things want to implement. 

We want to share this across all parts of the company because not only want to improve productivity, we also want to be a sustainable company in the future.

That is our path. This is like a train. We are all together and nobody can stop that at this moment.

Errette
What mistakes happened in 2020 that you will definitely want to avoid in 2021?

Angel
One is using very complex technologies to solve small challenges. You need to be sure what you want to do. Because when you make a mistake it can be very expensive to replace. 

Errette
How did a company of your caliber group of people manage the essential and non-essential as a home office workers schedules and any tips there because of an organization of that magnitude?

Angel
We had to adapt our schedule for both the individuals working from home and then individuals working at our bakeries. The individuals working from home needed guidance on when to schedule meetings, how many hours to work, and how to manage time off. We noticed that without this guidance, the people working from home were getting overworked and not taking the appropriate time off.

At our bakeries, we had to be especially sensitive to the safety of our people and adjust the schedule to provide them the required safety and flexibility. Since we believe that people are at the center of everything at  our company, we invested in creating the best schedules and conditions we could. That included policies about time off and a limit on how much anyone could work in one day.

We have learned our lesson, and we have created new standard schedules for all our workers. I believe we can even achieve more than we did before At this moment it is very efficient.

For a full recording of the conversation, access the webinar here.