Conservas La Costeña: Differentiating a Commodity Business With Supply Chain Automation

La Costeña has a long history of innovation. Since it began making its own cans in 1948, the company has embraced automation to help accelerate production, reduce costs, control quality and add consistency to its supply chain. Today, it operates one of the largest fully automated robotic warehouse systems in Latin America and uses an integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) system with data analytics tools to manage rapid growth and keep up with evolving customer expectations.

Most of La Costeña’s customers are large retailers and food distributors with sophisticated ordering systems and strict vendor policies. Sergio Elizalde, La Costeña’s internal audit manager, says the company has applied digital technology externally to meet those customer expectations and internally to forecast supply and demand more accurately.