“All we need is Love Food!”
Food has continually played a strong connection in people’s lives. Going back to the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Greece, Rome, China and India, everyone was aware of how food affects their health.
Even in today’s fast-paced modern life, this awareness has not faded. Rather, it has gone stronger!
This calls manufacturers to PRODUCE FOOD BETTER! And here, technology (Read: ERP) comes to the rescue.
There are tons of ERP out in the market which makes ERP decision-making process- puzzling, lengthy and difficult.
From determining what functionality is most important to your business, to deciding on software that will provide fast and significant changes- the entire process seems daunting!
Here comes the actual purpose of our blog. We will help you decide the right ERP for your food & beverage industry.
Let us begin by identifying the set of unique complexities your industry faces.
Challenge 1: Cost & Margin Pressure
Food and beverage industries work with low-profit margins. To survive, it is a must for manufacturers to cope up with not just fluctuating availability, but varying prices of raw materials.
This demands efficient handling of sales, procurement, and production in synchronization to inconsistent market conditions.
Comes next is the handling of inventory which is seasonal & perishable. Therefore, tracking different lots based on their expiration & availability, and executing the use of lots accordingly becomes a more comprehensive system for manufacturers to handle.
Other inventory losses like: spill loss, damage during transportation, etc. makes the challenge more intense.
Challenge 2: Decreasing Risk: Food Safety and Quality
Food is directly related to our health. Unlike products from other industries, food and beverage products are meant to be consumed.
Therefore, issues over general food safety capture a high percentage of concern among the general population.
As a result, ensuring compliances like: FDA, FSMA, HACCP, etc. must be on the priority list of the food manufacturers.
Moreover, ensuring the quality of food right from raw material receipt, to when it is inventory, released for production all through to its conversion to final product and delivery is not an option but a mandate for food businesses.
Challenge 3: Consumer Choices for Dietary/Health Products
Our modern lifestyle has pushed many of us to turn to prepackaged and fast-food choices, but there’s a significant growth in the number of consumers looking to return to a more natural and healthy eating style.
This explains the growth in the need for nutritional labelling options. Food manufacturers are responsible for providing labels displaying the ingredients that constitute the product, allergens (if any), and the nutritional value it offers along with specifications like sugar-free, preservative-free, etc., among others.
Challenge 4: Recipe Management
Consumer taste, and nutritional trends change much frequently. For this reason, food manufacturers need to bring up new recipes always.
This lines up one more challenge – faster recipe development at a lesser time and lower prices.
This in turn requires safe, secure and controlled Recipe management that can handle hundreds, may be thousands of recipes systematically & securely.
Challenge 5: Handling Recalls
Food manufacturers need to stay ready-always to respond quickly and effectively to customer inquiries or mock recalls.
That is, they need visibility into the complete product life cycle from initial ingredients, through manufacture to finished goods, shipment and final store delivery i.e. from supplier to customer.
Doing this by manual methods takes a huge amount of effort and time along with refraining you from taking the timely action and limiting its effect.
So, helping you decide…
Opt a Food Manufacturing ERP Software– specifically an ERP that addresses the above challenges! One such apt food & beverage ERP solution is BatchMaster ERP.
Designed to simplify the complexities of the food and beverage manufacturers and helping them meet the challenges of quality and safety, compliance, perishability & seasonality, timely deliveries, bi-directional traceability, labelling and reporting, accurate material and inventory planning, waste reduction and many more.
The product provides a broad range of functionalities to meet specific needs in the food and beverage sector for manufacturers producing products like dairy products, bakery items, processed meat, fish & poultry, cattle feed products, processed fruits & vegetables, confectionary, alcoholic beverages & soft drinks, fats & oils, packaged foods, candies & confectionaries, canned & frozen foods, organically certified foods, etc. For more details, visit: www.batchmaster.co.in
