3 Must Have Components to Your Food ERP Solution

Produce & Vegetables
November 5, 2015 ERP Ira Dannenberg

If you’re a food and beverage manufacturer operating in today’s economy, your ERP system must support the functions that are critical to run your business. Your system should be flexible and easy to use, support innovation, and have the potential to further your company’s future growth.

In order to ensure that your organization will successfully navigate around the constant pressures of the food industry, we suggest taking a closer look at your ERP system. Does your ERP comply with these guidelines? If not, it may be time to start thinking about implementing a new one.

Does your Food ERP System allow you to….

Remain Compliant with Food Regulations

It is the responsibility of the food and beverage manufacturer to understand and adhere to frequently changing regulatory requirements. If need be, this includes changing both the company processes and the technology to comply with any food imperative demands. Leaders in the food market are twice as likely to select an ERP solution that can be quickly modified in order to support business change.  It is imperative for food and beverage producers to keep on high alert for any changing consumer behaviors and then be willing and able to adjust product creations as necessary. According to Food Manufacture, “Staying Ahead of the Regulatory Game” (November 2014), Staying ahead of consumer demands and trends can help food and beverage manufacturers not only boost revenues, but also help processors stay one step ahead of evolving regulatory requirements.

Control Your Inventory

A strong ERP system is critical for food and beverage manufacturers to track where materials came from and where they are going, in addition to understanding information about a product’s shelf life, and any special restrictions. Having this information can vastly improve inventory management and overall efficiency and productivity and therefore, the company’s bottom-line.  When you know how much you need, you have to make sure you actually have it on hand. Organizations that can plan and forecast for demand are 2.8 times as likely to have real-time visibility into all processes.

  • 9 times as likely to have automatic notifications
  • 87% more likely to be able to share and integrate data with the extended enterprise
  • 2 times as likely to have full visibility into customer data
  • 13 times as likely to have supplier self-service portals

Take Advantage of Today’s New and Advanced Technologies

Don’t hesitate to change – change brings growth! In order to enable standardized processes that are streamlined, food and beverage manufacturers need to modernize and simplify their business systems by embracing new technology, such as Mobile and Analytics tools. Many companies looking to utilize Cloud technology are moving their ERP systems to the cloud. Leveraging Cloud technology allows businesses to take advantage of the flexibility and quickness that result from Cloud ERP’s data storage, sharing of data-processing tasks, and internet-based access to services and resources. Additionally,   food and beverage manufacturers that are running outdated systems and operating their businesses on unreliable spreadsheets, or on paper, cannot provide real-time data that is essential to growing a business. Organizations that implement an ERP system can run their business from end-to-end and realize substantial improvements.

Food and beverage manufacturers should continually seek new ways to increase revenue and attract new customers. By modernizing and automating the business with a fully integrated ERP system and utilizing today’s most advanced technologies, food companies can focus on speed, quality, and innovation to remain competitive. Staying one step ahead of consumer demand, managing inventory processes and understanding and complying with industry regulations is easily achieved with a fully integrated ERP system.  If your current system does not allow you to stay on top of regulations, better track inventory and enable the additions of new technologies, it might be time to consider a new one.

Click here for information on S2K Enterprise for Food

Ira Dannenberg

Vice President of R&D — Food Division

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