The food and beverage industry is undergoing fundamental changes in how consumers buy and what they want to know about the products. At the same time, the industry faces an increased focus on healthy eating by consumers, companies, and governments. Adding to this is a rapidly changing competitive environment with a proliferation of new channels, producers, and products that compete with established brands and outlets.
If these challenges weren’t already enough, today’s companies are also facing unprecedented changes that stress innovation, business model evolution, and supply chain agility. Having the right products with the right content and characteristics, and the right information clearly displayed is necessary. But even all that isn’t enough to guarantee success. The products must also be positioned in the right places at the right time for customers to be able to buy—and that’s the job of the supply chain.
To keep up with all of this, an effective food and beverage supply chain must be fully in sync with the consumer through technology-enabled sensing to satisfy multiple channels with seamless visibility and fulfillment.
Re-engineering the supply chain
Once a slow-moving industry, dominated by shelf life and inventory challenges, food and beverage manufacturing and distribution companies are facing a perfect storm of changing demand and expectations.
These changes are primarily being driven by:
■ How consumers buy, and what they want to know about products—including ingredient labeling, removal of undesirable ingredients, and sustainability information.
■ Increased focus on health by consumers, interest groups, companies, and governments—including nutrition, healthy/unhealthy content (artificial ingredients, GMOs, sugar, salt, etc.), and environmental practices.
■ Changing supply chain realities—including new channels and the growth of multiple channels (omni-channel), an influx of new producers and new products to compete with established branded manufacturers.
To learn more about how you can conquer supply chain in food & beverage, checkout the complete best practices guide.
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