The global food manufacturing industry is one of the biggest, fastest-growing, and most complex industries. It continues to get more chaotic with increasing user penetration, which has brought about challenges related to changing demand patterns of the fickle consumers, food quality, safety conditions, and cost reduction, among others.
On top of that, there are numerous segments and verticals within the food & beverage manufacturing industry, with each of them having unique challenges that differ from the other. Then there are the ever-changing industry-specific regulatory compliance requirements, along with the need to better manage the quickly perishable products.
The challenges, in a nutshell, are humongous. To remain competitive, the food manufacturers require visibility and control over manufacturing processes and operations, and need tools to meet quality standards, maintain traceability, reduce wastage, keep operating costs under check, as well the customers satisfied. All in real time.
Modern tech tools for the fast-paced industry
The food & beverage manufacturing industry has been predicted to grow with a healthy CAGR of 8.4 percent for next four years, crossing the mark of US$100,000m revenue by 2024.
Clearly, the food manufacturing businesses are in the fast lane. And to operate in this fast-paced industry, the food manufacturing businesses of all types and sizes require the right business tools that offer them the ability to respond quickly and adapt their business models to the latest industry trends.
As they grow and expand far and wide, the food manufacturers are feeling the need of a robust platform that can deliver scalability, agility, and flexibility with the advanced functionality to aid their growth with a real-time, consolidated view of the business. A web based food ERP software fits in perfectly for them in this challenging jigsaw puzzle.
Web ERP- a perfect foil for the food manufacturing businesses
Food manufacturing businesses are reaping huge rewards, and significant competitive advantage by deploying web based food ERP software. Such food manufacturing software on the web are offering unmatched transparency and visibility to the food manufacturing businesses- right from the plant floor to the top floor.
End-to-end traceability, batch recipe management, inventory optimization, and automated compliance management as well as quality control are some of the many critical business issues a web based food manufacturing software can effectively, efficiently, and decisively address.
Let’s discuss in detail how the food manufacturers are transforming their business using a web-based food ERP software:
By having accurate tracking: In a food manufacturing business, one thing that holds paramount importance is having flawless traceability. Whether it is the raw materials that are being imported from various suppliers from different locations, or products reaching to the customers, the manufacturers need a way to trace the product’s origin in real-time.
In absence of traceability,the manufacturers can’t trace and track- i.e. move backward to the point of origin, and make forward movement to the destination, to know exactly in which individual lot, bin, or package did the non-conformity happen in the supply chain, and access information about the supplier associated with the affected lots.
But a web based food ERP software provides real-time traceability of products, making it possible for the manufacturers to track the quality of a product at every stage as it moves in the supply chain. This allows them to swiftly react to quality issues and also prevent recalls, and eventually sustain consumer’s faith.
Through effective batch recipe management: The large data food manufacturers work with is virtually impossible to be organized, managed, and accessed either manually, or using a legacy software. It usually includes information on hundreds of multi-level batch recipes, raw materials, measures, manufacturing instructions, etc.
A web based food ERP system facilitates storing all the descriptive technical properties, quantities, costs, measurements, etc. to be stored in an easy, user-defined, and traceable manner for your batch recipes. It can easily and accurately identify and track information for every ingredient in every batch produced, and make it available at all times.
Through flawless inventory management: The excess inventory is a major cause of wastage. In food industry, where the raw materials are perishable in nature, surplus inventory can result in quality and safety issues as well. Having real-time data and visibility into inventory thus becomes necessary for food manufacturers, which is actually impossible to achieve using on-premises ERP solutions.
A web based food manufacturing software enables inventory optimization with real-time view into stock levels, and demand forecasting. The rich insights it provides assist in prioritizing the raw material requirements, minimizing the inventory holding cost, and identifying the products or ingredients to be consumed before expiringto reduce wastage.
By complying with regulatory requirements: Being operated in a highly-regulated industry, the food manufacturers have to comply with a number of regulations and meet safety & quality standards. They need software that can maintain compliance documentation, and help create compliant business processes. But the on-premise systems become a liability in this regard after a certain period.
A web based food manufacturing software, however, keeps your businesses on par with all the local as well as global industry regulations and standards mandated by FDA and FSMA, without letting you worry about the latest changes in regulatory compliance standards. It streamlines the compliance process and makes it as effective as possible, taking your business from a reactive to preventative safety culture.
BME Web- uniting your top floor and shop floor
BME Web, a web based food manufacturing software, is a powerful solution designed predominantly to serve the needs of modern businesses from the top floor to shop floor with an integrated real-time view into data. It allows management to continuously review the operations performance, check the quality and regulatory compliance adherence, and resolve the issues proactively when any malfunctioning or leak is detected.
There are also certain other aspects to it that help the food manufacturers transform their business operations. As the name suggests, it can be run using just a URL and a web browser, and hence requires no installation. Besides, it can deliver substantial cost savings, uninterrupted access, and a consistent user experience across any internet-enabled compatible device.
With minimum human intervention required for processes, and with huge savings of resources on all fronts, the food manufacturers can deploy their resources such as men, machine, and money for tasks of greater significance. All-in-all, a web based food ERP software such as BME Web is a great package of convenience, flexibility, cost-efficiency, and utility.
Takeaway
It’s just the tip of the iceberg. If you are still unsure, and want to know more, connect with our domain experts to explore how our web based food manufacturing software can work for your food manufacturing business. You can drop us an email at sales@batchmaster.com for free demo and consultation, or simply login to our website.