PURCHASE, N.Y. – PepsiCo has been investing in digital technologies and robotics in a quest to improve its distribution to retailers, Digital Commerce reports. The snack and beverage company has new initiatives, including digital capabilities, to automate its supply chain.

For example, Frito-Lay has brought n more digital services and tools into its distribution network, which serves more than 300,000 retailers. As Vivek Sankaran, president/CEO of Frito-Lay North America said during a recent industry conference, “With the data we are collecting and the digital capabilities we are enabling for the front line, we believe we can further improve how we plan our business, segment customers and stores and integrate in-store and online so that our consumers can find the right Frito-Lay product at the right time in the right store.”

One example is how Frito-Lay wants to use data analytics to help retailers and distributors keep up with inventory. “We are vastly improving our ordering algorithms to automatically generate the perfect order for that store based on sales histories, counter trends and inventories,” Sankaran said. “We are investing in technologies that allow managers to assign specific tasks and close the loop on timeliness and quality of execution and deploy new label models that allow for more specialization of tasks and integration across those tasks.”

The focus on incorporating more digital and technology advances into its supply chain is happening at a time of digital commerce growth for the company. Sankaran said PepsiCo has a “$1 billion business in online annualized retail sales globally, and we are growing faster than the category.”