January 13, 2026
In my role at Hershey, I’m frequently asked about what we’re doing with AI. This is a question that I’m excited to answer since our teams have been working hard for years to build a digital foundation from which to launch AI and machine learning use cases. That said, what I’ve learned is that before we can even talk about the “fun” AI-type stuff, it’s essential to have a strong digital foundation. And that foundation generally doesn’t begin with technology. It starts with people, processes and purpose.
There’s a good reason that we’re always looking for ways to improve our processes: so that we can continue to meet—or, better, exceed—consumers’ expectations, and deliver high-quality products at an affordable price. A lot of that falls to our manufacturing division, where we’ve spent years putting the right systems in place, hiring and/or training the right talent, building robust data architecture and developing an integrated software system that allows all these areas to work together.
As we move further into this digital phase, we’re excited to talk about our journey so far, and where we’re headed.
The path to manufacturing excellence
Hershey’s commitment to manufacturing excellence is nothing new. One important step along the way has been Hershey Lean, our manufacturing operating system that standardized work processes, changed behavior among our front-line workers and digitized workflows. From there, we focused on modernizing and expanding the capacity of our plants. Hershey’s investment in a digital backbone established a data and software foundation from which we can now leap forward. Much has been invested in basic infrastructure, like servers and networking equipment. Data from our equipment is collected and historized through an asset intelligence platform, while firewalls and other cybersecurity systems safeguard operations. This digital foundation strengthens system resilience and enables seamless integration of applications and information flow through the deployment of a Unified Name Space data architecture, unlocking advanced data-driven capabilities across the plants. Together, these investments position our plants for greater efficiency, improved agility and future-ready digital innovation. All of this helped lay the foundation for digitizing our Manufacturing Production System, now called Hershey Digital Lean.
Leaning into Digital Lean
A recent phase of our manufacturing excellence journey involved digitizing our Hershey Lean daily management systems. To start, we established a roadmap, or what I like to call a maturity ladder, and then we had to reestablish and standardize all of our processes to make sure they were, indeed, lean before digitizing anything. That entailed meeting with leadership teams to revisit and redesign the processes as needed to make sure they’re running correctly. After that, we trained employees. And, importantly, we made sure the entire approach was sustainable. We don’t want to just give our teams a digital tool, we want to be sure we are actually continuously improving the digital process.
This journey began in 2024, and since then we’ve implemented Digital Lean across all our U.S. candy, mint and gum (CMG) and international sites. This step is critical, it builds the foundation and prepares us for Phase 2 of our strategy: Connected Worker, where we will further enhance how our teams access information, collaborate, and execute work.
Employee empowerment
Through our digitization, our goal is to have zero loss and 100% employee ownership. That means breaking down silos and giving everyone visibility into how the work connects.
Say, for example, an operator finds that something on the Twizzlers line isn’t working properly. In the past, they have had to go through a series of time-consuming processes to identify and address the problem. Now, the operator can enter the issue into the digital system using their own mobile device, maintenance can respond to it immediately and the operator can see when the problem gets fixed. This means that everyone is empowered to take action and solve problems if they arise.
The same goes for leadership. With our integrated automated workflows, supervisors and plant managers have access to all the information they need at a glance. On one screen, they can see where their losses are that day and then go directly to the source and take action to get the work back on track.
Across the board, these are tools that enable us to get the right information to the right people at the right time.
Delivering value across the organization
Digitally integrated manufacturing is enabling Hershey to deliver value inside and outside of the organization. Internally, these innovations are driving productivity by helping our operators deliver more with less. Externally, improved efficiency can boost product availability and reliability so that customers have what they need when they need it. On the consumer side, these advancements support the safe, affordable, quality products that shoppers have come to expect and love from Hershey. All of these things, together, enable us to fulfill our purpose, which is to be a part of more moments of goodness. With this strong foundation in place, we believe that anything is possible at Hershey.
Want to learn more about Hershey Digital Lean? Check back for our next blog that details Phase 2 of our strategy: the Connected Worker.