Awards celebrate industry leaders driving strategic business outcomes through AI-powered automation and supply chain orchestration

FourKites®, the leader in AI-driven supply chain transformation and pioneer of advanced supply chain visibility, today announced the recipients of its annual customer awards, celebrating organizations and individuals who are achieving breakthrough business outcomes through supply chain innovation and automation. The awards program recognizes companies that have transformed their operations from reactive management to proactive orchestration, delivering measurable impact on customer experience, operational efficiency and bottom-line results.

The Golden Kite Awards honor companies achieving exceptional strategic outcomes across five categories: Supply Chain Excellence (Domestic), Supply Chain Excellence (International Freight Management), Connected Supply Chain, End-to-End Optimization and Supply Chain Visionary.

"These organizations exemplify how leveraging AI and automation can build resilient operations and deliver measurable business impact," said Priya Rajagopalan, President of Product, Technology and Operations at FourKites. "What's remarkable is seeing companies move beyond basic logistics optimization to reshape how their entire supply chains create value for the business. The shift to autonomous orchestration is already happening, and these winners prove it's delivering real results."

Ardent Mills received the Golden Kite Award for Supply Chain Excellence (Domestic) for orchestrating a cultural and operational transformation that turned initial platform resistance into enterprise-wide adoption. Through comprehensive change management and strategic alignment across Transportation and Logistics, Customer Service, Mill Schedulers and Sales functions, Ardent Mills achieved dramatic improvements in operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.

Barilla Group received the Golden Kite Award for Supply Chain Excellence (International Freight Management) for transforming a manual, fragmented tracking process into an integrated global visibility platform. Managing over 2,000 weekly shipments across 120+ countries, Barilla eliminated countless hours of manual carrier communications while building resilience against major disruptions including the Red Sea shipping crisis and Panama Canal drought through predictive analytics and proactive management.

Kimberly-Clark received the Golden Kite Award for Connected Supply Chain for reimagining facility operations through intelligent automation. By implementing autonomous gate technology and eliminating manual touchpoints, Kimberly-Clark transformed an 8-10 minute process into a sub-two-minute automated workflow, demonstrating how strategic technology deployment can drive immediate operational value while positioning the organization for future autonomous capabilities.

Trane Technologies received the Golden Kite Award for End-to-End Optimization for transforming a $2.69 million detention cost problem into a strategic operational excellence initiative.

"FourKites' yard analytics and performance dashboards helped us eliminate almost all of our annual detention at two sites, reducing costs by 98.6%," said Trey Hendricks, Director of International Logistics Operations, Trane Technologies. "We implemented proactive monitoring with weekly operational reviews, and we've applied these strategies across additional sites."

The Coca-Cola Company received the Golden Kite Award for Supply Chain Visionary for pioneering autonomous customer service capabilities that deliver transformational business value.

"FourKites' AI agent Tracy has transformed how we handle 'where's my truck' queries, cutting response times from 90 minutes to just a few seconds, returning hundreds of hours to our associates," said Patrick McManus, Senior Director Customer Operations at The Coca-Cola Company. "Beyond customer service, Tracy now handles specific tasks including identifying stale location data, flagging missing information and proactively nudging carriers to provide updates. This positions us ahead of the curve as we prepare for a future where customers expect increased and differentiated service capabilities."

The High Flyer Awards recognize individual champions who are driving supply chain transformation within their organizations. As engaged participants in FourKites' online Community, these leaders influence product development, share best practices and advocate for continuous innovation. This year's recipients are: Shwetha Balagali, Unilever; Dave Stawowczyk, Armada; Jeff Covington, Smithfield Foods; Carrie Conrad, Land O' Lakes Inc.; Lola Gutierrez, Direct Roots; Amber McMillian, Bridgestone Americas; Cristie Ighani, Trane Technologies; and Kim Scalzott, Armada.

The awards were announced during FourKites Summit 2025, the company's flagship event focused on the future of supply chains and how AI-powered autonomous systems are transforming global operations. The two-day conference, held Aug. 26-27 at the Swissôtel Chicago, brought together senior supply chain executives to explore practical AI solutions, autonomous supply chain orchestration and strategies for delivering strategic business outcomes.

About FourKites

FourKites®, the leader in AI-driven supply chain transformation for global enterprises and pioneer of advanced supply chain visibility, turns supply chain data into automated action. FourKites' Intelligent Control Tower™ breaks down enterprise silos by creating a real-time digital twin of orders, shipments, inventory and assets. This comprehensive view, combined with AI-powered digital workers, enables companies to prevent disruptions, automate routine tasks and optimize performance across their supply chain. FourKites processes over 3.2 million supply chain events daily — from purchase orders to final delivery — helping 1,600+ global brands prevent disruptions, make faster decisions and move from reactive tracking to proactive supply chain orchestration. For more information, visit https://www.fourkites.com/.

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These organizations exemplify how leveraging AI and automation can build resilient operations and deliver measurable business impact.