This consortium of Italian cheese makers has stepped up the preservation of its brand by implementing an advanced Analytics solution that flags any anomalies that may indicate fraudulent production practices, while gaining the ability to forecast and plan future cheese output based on market trend analysis.

1. Let’s build a smarter planet Consumer Products
Founded in 1934, Consorzio Parmigiano-Reggiano is a nonprofit
organization that uses certification marks to protect the safety and
uniqueness of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheeses. It is a protected designation
of origin (PDO) organization, an association of approximately 600 cheese
dairies based in Reggio Emilia, Italy. Overall, the consortium helps
ensure the quality and control of cheeses produced in Italy while ensuring
strict rules on the production and sale of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheeses.
The Opportunity
The main task of this consortium is to protect the Parmigiano-Reggiano
brand by preventing fraudulent production and labeling of cheese that
does not meet its strict production standards. The association needed
to be able to more closely monitor and detect off-label production—for
example, cheeses produced by dairies or from milk from outside the
consortium.The association needed to replace manual inspection reports
with daily monitoring of production levels from individual dairies to ensure
compliance with approved protocols of production. It also wanted to
create an integrated network where production data could be shared and
analyzed, and future production planned according to market demand.
What Makes It Smarter
This consortium of Italian cheese makers is now using advanced analytics
to analyze production and market data not only to ensure that cheese that
bears its mark is made to its exacting standards, but also to plan future
production and pricing of its world-renowned products. For example,
the association now monitors the daily production levels of its individual
dairies; any deviation from the amount of cheese that should be produced
based on consortium protocols and standards is flagged, and inspectors
are sent to the dairy farm. The solution not only monitors and analyzes
Consorzio Parmigiano-
Reggiano
This consortium of Italian cheese makers has stepped
up the preservation of its brand by implementing an
advanced analytics solution that flags any anomalies
that may indicate fraudulent production practices,
while gaining the ability to forecast and plan future
cheese output based on market trend analysis.
What if an industry association could help
protect its brand and reputation by detecting
and preventing fraudulent production?
“The entire process of
analyzing the quality of
milk used, the detection of
the daily production, and
the quality inspection of
the cheese forms, creates
new opportunities for the
consortium, and enables us
to share data in real time to
create a more coherent and
cohesive brand.”
—Giuseppe Alai, President,
Consorzio Parmigiano-Reggiano
Reggio Emilia, Italy
www.parmigianoreggiano.com/
consortium/default.aspx

2. the amount of cheese already produced, but it also creates production
forecasts by correlating production factors such as milk production and
availability, geographic and financial data.
Real Business Results
• Improves reporting time from the dairies by 97 percent, replacing
monthly reports with daily monitoring, and enables near-real-time
analysis of the information
• Enabled the consortium to quantify business losses from the May 2012
earthquake at almost 10 percent of annual production, or about
EUR80 million
• Helps prevent fraudulent use of the Parmigiano-Reggiano mark,
helping to uphold the reputation of the region’s cheeses
For more information
Please contact your IBM sales representative or IBM Business Partner.
Visit us at: ibm.com/consumerproducts
To learn more about Consorzio Parmigiano-Reggiano visit:
www.parmigianoreggiano.com/consortium/default.aspx
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August 2012
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