Brewing Success: Boston Beer Company Leverages Syniti’s AI to Revolutionize Data Quality Management
Boston Beer Company collaborates with Syniti and leverages advanced AI technologies to transform data management processes and technology. By automating the extraction of unstructured data and integrating it into their existing systems, Boston Beer enhanced the efficiency, accuracy, and governance of their ingredient data.
"Syniti not only addressed our immediate needs but also helped us think about the art of the possible in order to integrate responsible AI into our data management practices."
Project Background
Boston Beer Company, a leading brewer in the United States, has partnered with Syniti for many years, enhancing its data governance and management strategies and roadmap. Initially brought on as a strategic consultant, Syniti advised Boston Beer on improving governance processes and technology. This collaboration eventually expanded into a comprehensive implementation of master data management (MDM) focusing on key data objects such as material master, customer master, and vendor master.
Challenges
Boston Beer Company identified an opportunity to modernize and improve their approach to ingredients data management Boston Beer receives ingredient specifications from vendors in various formats, primarily as PDFs and DOCX. These documents contain valuable, business-critical information in the form of unstructured data points – like allergens and kosher certification, as well as relative density and storage conditions. Manually extracting and organizing this data could take months using conventional methods and carried several challenges including
- Inconsistent document formats
- Vast volume of data collected over many years
- Limitations of manual processing and traditional AI solutions
- Need for business-ready data to ensure integration with existing MDM and SAP
systems - Skepticism surrounding the quality of data captured
Solution
Syniti implemented an advanced Generative AI solution designed to handle unstructured data with high accuracy and configurability. Utilizing Generative AI, Syniti’s solution automatically reads the unstructured files, extracts the necessary data, and generates output files that could be loaded into a centralized database.
The solution seamlessly integrated with Boston Beer Company’s existing Master Data Management (MDM) toolset and SAP systems, enhancing data management processes.
KEY FEATURES OF SYNITI’S GENERATIVE AI SOLUTION INCLUDE:
- Exceptional accuracy and configurability for data quality and standardization
- Intelligent decision-making for data standardization
- Optimizes data quality for seamless interaction with Syniti’s existing MDM toolset and SAP systems
- Scalable, flexible, and handles large volumes of unstructured data with speed
- Extract specific data points from unstructured sources and readies them for structured data at extremely high accuracy
Implementation Highlights
Following a highly successful pilot test, the first wave consisted of processing the entire set of specification files—around 5,000 in total—covering approximately 400 ingredients. Syniti’s solution was able to process these files rapidly and accurately, significantly reducing the time and effort required compared to manual processing. Tasks that typically took months using conventional methods were completed in mere days with exceptional accuracy using Syniti’s Generative AI solution.
The extracted data was then stored on Boston Beer’s Syniti MDM server for further validation and analysis. This seamless integration expediates the process while ensuring only accurate, validated data enters the system.
"Syniti has truly transformed our approach to data management. Historically, our approach would have been to assign people to review the documentation and ask them to record the specifications in an offline file. The accuracy and consistency of the extracted data were remarkable, and the seamless integration with our existing systems significantly improved our efficiency. We now focus on leveraging the information we have instead of struggling to capture it."
Results
By delivering exceptional accuracy, efficiency, and seamless integration with existing systems, Syniti’s Generative AI solution transformed a lengthy and costly project into a streamlined process completed within days. Integrated within Boston Beer’s master data management and governance workflow, Syniti’s Generative AI solution transforms unstructured data into structured data that is now able to be reviewed, approved or refined before being input into the target system, adding another layer of accuracy and consistency.
- Rapid Data Processing: 5,000 of documents processed in days as opposed to months, dramatically reducing overall project timeline
- Automated processes minimized manual effort
- Swift configuration and execution in partnership with Syniti’s professional services
The seamless integration with Syniti’s existing platform and processes improved the scalability, efficiency and reliability of Boston Beer’s data management processes.
Benefits
Syniti’s user-friendly interface allowed Boston Beer to easily and dynamically configure the fields they wanted to extract from the PDFs on the fly. The solution’s flexibility also accommodated additional requirements such as storage conditions and shelf life as they arose during the project.
“Syniti’s innovations in Generative AI transformed what would have been a cumbersome, months-long project into a streamlined process completed in just days,” said Gunning. “.Syniti automated a lot of the heavy lifting. The team spent less time wrangling data and more time validating and improving data quality…from ‘doers’ to ‘reviewers.’ Building a trustworthy data foundation is critical to our Enterprise Data strategy and we are excited about our partnership with Syniti, driving future innovation through technology in our data management roadmap”
Compared to traditional data extraction methods, Syniti’s Generative AI solution delivered significant advantages for Boston Beer:
- High Accuracy and Consistency: Intelligent data standardization and quality self-checks ensure that accurate, consistent high-quality data is being extracted.
- Substantial Cost Savings: The solution proved to be a cost-effective alternative to traditional manual processing or AI/ML tools, which can be a significant strain on resources and time
- Reduced project timeline: What typically would be a six-month project, Syniti was able to complete the task in a week.