SINGAPORE / GUELPH, ON, 30 September 2026 — The International Centre for Industrial Transformation (INCIT) and the Canadian Food Innovation Network (CFIN) today announced a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that will bring INCIT’s suite of Industry 4.0 transformation tools, anchored by its globally recognised Smart Industry Readiness Index (SIRI), to Canada’s food and beverage manufacturing sector.
The agreement is a milestone under CFIN’s Food 4.0 vision, a national push to equip Canadian food and beverage manufacturers, particularly small- and mid-sized enterprises, with the tools and technology needed to modernise their operations and stay competitive.
As global supply chains grow more complex and margins tighten, food and beverage manufacturers are under increasing pressure to adopt smarter, more connected production systems. This partnership gives Canadian SMEs a credible, independent way to understand where they stand on that journey, and where to invest next.
The Smart Industry Readiness Index (SIRI) is the world’s first independent digital-maturity assessment toolkit for manufacturers, and sits at the core of INCIT’s wider suite of industrial transformation frameworks. It evaluates a facility across Process, Technology and Organisation, producing a benchmarked readiness score and a prioritised roadmap for technology investment. Because assessments are delivered by independent Certified SIRI Assessors trained and accredited by INCIT rather than by a vendor or consultancy, SIRI gives Canadian manufacturers an objective, third-party view of their digital readiness, grounding modernisation decisions in evidence rather than guesswork.
What the agreement covers
Under the agreement, INCIT and CFIN will:
- Establish a joint task force to foster a growing community of Canadian food and beverage professionals engaged in digital transformation
- Promote and catalyse adoption of INCIT’s assessments among Canadian food and beverage manufacturers
- Build a Canadian network of Certified INCIT Assessors to serve domestic manufacturers
- Collaborate on advisory projects that apply INCIT tools as part of the framework to support Canadian manufacturers’ modernisation efforts
“The Smart Industry Readiness Index (SIRI) supports Canada’s food and beverage industry in moving past expensive trial phases and into real manufacturing productivity. By grounding modernization decisions in evidence rather than guesswork, the SIRI approach uses anonymous micro-data to help small and medium manufacturers reduce investment risks, upgrading their technology alongside employee training. Applied on a larger scale, these aggregated insights allow policymakers to target funding precisely, maximizing economic returns and keeping Canada’s productivity competitive worldwide,” said Raimund Klein, Chairman of INCIT.
“Canadian food and beverage manufacturers know they need to modernize: what they often lack is an objective, credible direction on where to start,” said Dana McCauley, CEO of CFIN. “Bringing INCIT’s tools to Canadian businesses is part of CFIN’s larger goal of accelerating plant-level adoption of Canadian automation, robotics, and digital technologies. This partnership gives our manufacturers a globally trusted benchmark to guide investments with confidence.”
The partnership takes effect immediately, with joint activities, including the first cohort of Canadian assessor training, planned over the coming months.
About INCIT
The International Centre for Industrial Transformation (INCIT) is a global authority in industrial transformation, providing training, assessment, and certification to accelerate modernisation and Industry 4.0 adoption across enterprises worldwide.
About the Canadian Food Innovation Network
The Canadian Food Innovation Network (CFIN) is a national organization stimulating transformative and transferrable innovation within the Canadian food sector. Since 2021, CFIN has awarded more than $24.5M to 155 Canadian foodtech projects that derisk new technologies and make the food sector more competitive. With over 9,400 members and counting, CFIN has built the fastest-growing and most engaged food business community in the country. CFIN’s free membership includes access to exclusive funding programs, five Regional Innovation Directors, and YODL.
Media contact
Jamil A. Karim, Communications Director, Canadian Food Innovation Network — Jamil@cfin-rcia.ca
For more details and updates, follow our announcement on LinkedIn.
For collaboration and further enquiries, please contact contact@incit.org or ask IC4IT (in any language).
