Skills for the Future: Data literacy in practice – Huw

Data is at the heart of decision-making across the food industry, and the ability to turn numbers into actionable insight is an essential skill for the future. In this Q&A, Huw Tong (Group 55) shares his first-hand experience using data during his MDS secondment at Weetabix, highlighting the challenges he faced, the skills he developed, and why data literacy is so important for a successful career in food and farming.

Q: What was your data project?
In my first secondment as a process analyst at Weetabix, I was involved in a project to investigate why there were consistency issues with the quality of the finished product. Occasionally, the product would be perfect, and other times there would be a high number of fines, inconsistent sizes, and generally flaky biscuits.

Q: How did you investigate the issue?
In order to understand why this issue was happening, we undertook a root cause analysis. We begin by working through each step of the process to understand which stages would have the biggest impact on the biscuit quality. This involved collecting a large amount of data from various stages of production. It was identified that the cookers, mills, and the table area were where it would be beneficial to focus our efforts. We collected over 100 samples from the cookers and conducted 30 plus Gemba walks of the mill and table area. This resulted in the creation of 100s of individual data points, which is a lot to interpret.

Q: Did you feel confident tackling this project?
I was initially quite overwhelmed with the volume of data I was being asked to handle. Before starting MDS, I had a basic understanding of data analysis and excel from university. However, I knew that this wasn’t going to be enough. To get myself up to speed, I spent a few days researching on LinkedIn learning and YouTube. I found the advanced excel functions course (LinkedIn Learning), which gave me a much better understanding of how I could handle all this data.

This new knowledge allowed me to confidently manipulate, interpret, and present this data in a much more digestible format. Some of the findings were presented to the shift managers and operator teams in the factory so they could adjust some of their practices to produce better flake. Alongside this, I wrote a brief report that outlined what I thought the causes were based on my analysis.

Q: Do you think data skills are important for a career in the food industry?
I believe that everyone should develop a solid understanding of how to work with data, whether through Excel or more advanced tools. In today’s data-driven world, this skill is becoming increasingly important. Businesses are collecting vast amounts of information about their operations and customers, and being able to interpret that data and transform it into actionable insights is a key skill. Strong data skills not only help you make informed decisions but also position you as a valuable contributor to your team and organisation. As industries continue to embrace automation and analytics, people who can bridge the gap between raw data and strategic outcomes will have a significant advantage.

Q: What did you learn from the experience?
I learnt that whilst something may seem out of your comfort zone and daunting at first, if you put in the effort and are willing to learn and improve your understanding, you can complete things that you previously thought weren’t possible. This is something that I have taken with me throughout my whole MDS journey – the ability to take a problem and break it down into bitesized actions that slowly bring me closer to my goal.

Huw’s experience highlights just how much of an impact data literacy can have, even in a single placement.

Next, we’ll hear from Alec, whose first MDS secondment took him from almost no data experience to using data to drive efficiency and improvements on the factory floor – showing another side of how this skill is shaping the future of food and farming careers.