Although Coca Cola drink offerings grew from sparkling to sports drinks

Although Coca Cola drink offerings grew from sparkling to sports drinks, waters, juices and more, the choices in its fountains were limited. With the need to offer a greater number of beverage choices from a fountain dispenser, Coca Cola was challenged to reinvent the fountain business.
Engineers and scientists at Coca Cola realized that micro dosing technology might be able to dispense recipes of different beverages to increase the amount of choices in a single machine. Thus, Coca Cola Freestyle was born, Group director of Enterprise Business Solutions, Product Supply Systems, Coca Cola Refreshments. Coca Cola Freestyle also provides valuable data collection to customers. On a daily basis, each dispenser can gather data related to machine performance, micro dose cartridge usage and beverage consumption.”
While the technology for the dispensing machine is unique and ground-breaking, what is revealing is how the data is now being leveraged, particularly for rapid replenishment. Coca-Cola Freestyle fountains are connected to the Coca Cola network and are constantly reporting sales data by brand, location, and day part.
In the era of Big Data, the machine is also providing game-changing insights.
In order to ensure replenishment occurs reliably and efficiently, The Coca Cola Freestyle Replenishment System captures detailed data on every pour, plus data on the remaining quantities in each of the cartridges. Consumption data for each machine is received into SAP’s enhanced module where it is consolidated by outlet and combined with past historical consumption history, future forecasted demand, and any promotional uplift forecasts for the specific time period to calculate a replenishment order.
The system also determines and plans shipments to outlets for full micro dose cartridge case quantities, so in the event a full case cannot be built, the SNC module will forecast future demand and fill the case.
The enhanced SNC technology completes the Supply Chain ecosystem for Coca Cola Freestyle. By dispenser, consumption data by micro dosed component is automatically received and then utilized to drive automated order replenishment as well as production planning and scheduling of materials and logistics.
Coca Cola Refreshments is working to complete a connected supply chain ecosystem for Coca Cola Freestyle through automated rapid replenishment of the dispensers. By processing the data received each night, the company can calculate and create replenishment orders for any machine that requires it, then automatically process the orders and send them to the distribution center for shipping to the outlets.