Tesco Receives Top Supply Chain Award Using Librestream Technology
Librestream, a provider of augmented reality (AR) and remote collaboration solutions, announced that multinational grocery retailer Tesco received the Food Logistics 2021 Rockstars of the Supply Chain Award for its integration of Librestream’s Onsight technology to increase supply chain auditing capabilities. The award specifically recognizes Clare Rapa-Marley, Tesco’s head of standards and audit, for her leading role in identifying and instituting the solution into the grocery leader’s global supply base.
Rapa-Marley’s focus on continuous evaluation and improvement of Tesco’s supply chain drove her to search for the leading technology-based solution of remote supply chain compliance monitoring. The objective was to ensure audit consistency across all geographic locations and workers, effectively utilize time and resources and implement continuous evaluation of auditing processes.
During Tesco’s evaluation process, the Covid-19 pandemic hit, which turned the continuous improvement project into one that was essential to maintaining business continuity amidst lockdowns, closures, travel bans and other restrictions. Tesco selected Librestream’s Onsight offering for its robust capabilities and reputation as the trusted partner to hundreds of the world’s largest companies. Within seven weeks of selecting Librestream, Tesco fully-deployed the technology and saw immediate results.
The Onsight platform enables Tesco auditors to conduct immersive, time-saving virtual audits across the global supply chain. “Librestream’s solution proved invaluable to Tesco’s ability to ensure food safety for our customers during Covid-19 and maintain a fully-deployed audit team,” said Rapa-Marley. “While Covid-19 accelerated this virtual audit initiative, the advantages are felt immediately and growing over the long term. Remote auditing technology provides strong benefits in worker productivity and safety, as well as timely, consistent supplier audits, therefore maintaining high standards for our customers. Furthermore, with our diverse global footprint, Librestream’s natural language processing (NLP) has proved valuable to bridge geographic and language barriers.”
Efficiency dramatically improved with the virtual audit approach. As one example, a Tesco auditor successfully completed virtual site visits across three countries in a single day. The audits—a product launch in Asia, a packaging approval in Ireland and a hygiene inspection in Spain—normally required two weeks of time and travel.
Food safety and quality are top concerns in the food industry, yet it’s one of the slowest to digitize its processes. “Ms. Rapa-Marley and her team at Tesco exemplify the transformative power and immediate results enabled by remote expert technology. We look forward to the continued partnership and unlocking new value for Tesco and their supply chain partners with enhanced efficiency and productivity, cost savings and safety,” said John Bishop, President and CEO of Librestream.