The Food and Beverage industry is tightly regulated when it comes to packaging, labelling, tracking and measurement, while still maintaining quality, safety and taste which consumers still not only expect, but demand. The pressure on produce growers, distributors and suppliers has never been greater.
Added to that pressure comes the impact of Covid-19 which has impacted the world at an unprecedented rate. Competition among food retailers along with the weakened economy, due to nationwide lockdowns, means raising prices is no longer an option to fix falling profit margins. Manufacturers must either accept lower profit margins or increase efficiency and decrease costs.
Retailers are now demanding increased visibility and better results from their supply chains, and food product recalls carry enormous consequences, from both a cost and brand reputation perspective.
It is critical that all steps in the manufacturing life cycle are monitored, controlled and measured against predefined standards. Through the use of technology, organisations were and still are able to pivot quickly during the pandemic to develop new ways of delivering products. It is vital to implement modern solutions to manage inventory and provide full traceability so that food suppliers can protect the integrity of their supply chains.
ERP as provision for maintaining regulatory compliance
Implementing a controlled and clearly defined food safety strategy can be bolstered through an efficient ERP system that lays the foundation for business operations. It becomes your data management system and when aligned correctly, can play a critical role in ensuring compliance with external regulations.
ERP software allows an organisation to collect, store, manage, and interpret data from business activities. The system is typically a company’s main point of record and housing to all the business-critical data from which it reports on key performance metrics.
By understanding the business processes required for compliance, the challenge can become an opportunity for business growth. In the highly contested food market, competitive gain is often tied to how well the business is managed. Compliance can be used to improve the management of the business.
Understanding the significance in the Food and Beverages industry
Empowered customers and consumer bodies increase pressure and drive the move to a more tightly controlled food and beverage industry. Traceability requires the ability to interrogate the business system, analyse the results and promptly execute a plan to mitigate the risk to the consumer.
This is exactly what the ERP solution should offer – seamlessly integrated systems spanning your entire supply chain offering an unbroken backward-forwards data stream.
Food companies today must increase efficiencies, reduce costs and ensure compliance with food regulations across the entire supply chain. Companies using SYSPRO can react rapidly to changes in customer demand through access to real-time supply chain information. SYSPRO provides a completely integrated enterprise business solution that encompasses CRM, ERP, planning and scheduling and business analytics.
Along with the improved compliance, SYSPRO solutions offer much deeper insights into operational processes allowing businesses to uncover previously unidentified efficiencies along the way. This would give the business the opportunity to mitigate potential crisis and manage the incident properly eradicating all the guesswork from food production, processing and distribution, allowing you to be more agile as a company, whilst delighting your customers and satisfying regulators.
As we head towards the end of the year, ensuring business continuity for 2021 becomes critical. By acting now, companies will guarantee their approach to data is compliant and gain the confidence to continue delighting customers with better, more personalised services.
