What if packaging lines could optimize themselves, adjusting in real-time without relying on manual intervention or OEM systems? That’ s the vision PepsiCo brings to life through its collaboration with Fractal, a leading AI services and analytics company.

Together, they drive large-scale digital transformation in smart manufacturing across PepsiCo’ s global packaging facilities.

Fractal is a globally recognized enterprise AI company with deep technical, domain, and functional capabilities delivering end-to-end AI solutions, empowering large global enterprises with data-driven insights for smarter decision-making.

The collaboration, which began in 2023, focuses on AI-powered smart packaging technology that enables manufacturing lines to self-optimize and automatically adjust output.

By combining AI, real-time manufacturing data, IoT sensors, and end-to-end digital engineering, the system continuously monitors and controls production variables that were once managed manually by plant operators, unlocking new levels of efficiency and performance.

The Challenge: Operational complexity at scale

With operations spanning over 200 countries and hundreds of manufacturing sites, PepsiCo faces immense complexity in maintaining efficiency across its packaging lines. Each facility produces a diverse portfolio of its beloved products, from Lays and Cheetos to Doritos, across multiple production lines.

“ To optimize the packaging line, we need to manually adjust more than 300 parameters, which is nearly impossible for an operator to adjust,” says Venky Santhirahasan, SVP of Engineering at PepsiCo. Traditionally, plant operators have relied on experience, OEM solutions, and institutional knowledge to manage these complex systems. However, as production scales globally, this manual approach has become increasingly difficult, vulnerable to inconsistencies in output and efficiency.

“ At Fractal, we help power decisions in the enterprise using AI, engineering, and design,” explains Pranay Agrawal, CEO at Fractal USA.“ We believe that if we help our clients make better decisions, we help them deliver better outcomes to their customers, employees, shareholders, and the communities they operate in.”

The Solution: AI-powered transformation

To overcome these challenges, PepsiCo set out to modernize its manufacturing