Food and beverage manufacturers rely on their R&D and marketing departments to develop new product ideas that capture market share before the competition can catch up. These departments leverage information available in their business systems to help them analyze trends ranging from buying patterns to cost fluctuations. The trouble is, when R&D and marketing rely on business systems that exist in silos— as is often the case with today’s food and beverage manufacturers opportunities are missed, product development is too slow, and costs creep higher. But when a manufacturer understands that every part of the organization has a stake in the product innovation process, and ensures that all the parts are connected, the organization is better positioned to deliver successful, innovative products quickly.

This white paper discusses a number of considerations that food and beverage manufacturers should make when examining ways to accelerate product innovation. This paper also details how digital technology can be the enabler of this acceleration.

The first place most organizations will go for answers to the remote work dilemma is into the arms of technology vendors. They will make the assumption that a new tool, or the enhancement of a current one will be the key to maintaining a productive workforce despite the continued existence of physical distance. After all, Zoom (arguably the most infamous beneficiary of the pandemic) went from 10 million daily users in December 2019 to more than 300 million in April 2020. In reality, there are sequential steps to take well before any new technology is introduced to the equation.

The culture question

The first step is more introspective, as organizations would benefit from a candid evaluation of their culture that may or may not be a strong foundation for a remote work environment. A dispersed workforce presents unique challenges that will quickly test the foundation of trust between employee and employer. Ryan Malone, founder of digital marketing agency SmartBugMedia finds this counterintuitive. "You've invested all of this time in vetting them," says Malone. "Why would you now say I don't trust you, because I'm not staring at you?” Would your organization be able to quickly adapt to this new degree of independence and autonomy, or would there be a temptation to revert to surveillance tactics to validate effort?

Fortunately, evaluations of the planning landscape reveal many organizations are adopting technologies that move towards a de-siloed, network-based approach to planning. For these companies, the primary goal centers around connecting planning capabilities to “a single version of the truth.” To optimize planning capabilities, it crucial to achieve this connection at the enterprise level as well as into the broader supply network.

But to do this involves using integrated business planning (IBP) or sales and operations planning (S&OP) to collaborate and analyze, perform demand planning to improve forecasting, optimize supply planning, and facilitate synchronization. Each of these areas are critical to a successful planning process and are more powerful when integrated and connected across a network.

I recently posted on LinkedIn to ask my colleagues for advice on how to manage my exploding workload. According to the latest Mental Health Index: U.S. Worker Edition from Total Brain, between November and December there was a 48% increase in the risk of depression—a risk level not seen since this past spring. Further, employees’ focus dropped 62%—a record low since the inception of the research in February 2020. While remote working has its benefits, most of us would argue that we need to make some significant changes for this style of working to be sustainable. Below are a few of the suggestions and ideas from professionals that commented on the post.

Introduction

No food and beverage (F&B) company can afford unscheduled downtime. F&B is an industry pressured by outside forces such as consumer tastes and commodity pricing. But what is within control are the operations that get product to consumers. One big way to optimize production is to slash downtime to deliver tens of thousands of dollars back to the bottom line. In this e-book we provide tips on harnessing IoT, data-driven enterprise asset management (EAM), and smart technologies to strike a careful balance between lean efficiency and maximized uptime.

The beverage industry is under constant pressure to change. Sugary drinks, like sodas, have come under increasing consumer scrutiny. Meanwhile, from beer to juices to energy drinks to carbonated beverages, you’re fighting for the consumers’ fleeting attention, which affects how you provide a more diversified product range.

With Infor® Food & Beverage for the beverage industry you get a foundation for greater agility in dealing with fluctuations in ingredients, production capacity, and shipping. Whether you chose to deploy in the cloud, on premise, or as a hybrid of both, Infor Food & Beverage for the beverage manufacturing industry gives you the tools you need to manage all of the challenges your beverage business faces.

May the festival of lights add a wonderful glow to your everyday life and bring happiness, prosperity and contentment to your heart. All of us at ICCG wish you a very Happy Diwali!

Do you have the data needed to determine cash investments, secure borrowing, and make better hedging decisions?

Today, financial services organizations are more focused on what’s necessary to safeguard business continuity and solvency. Much of this begins with greater visibility and reliability of key data to help drive your critical business decisions, especially during critical market changes.

Our current blog series is reviewing cash and treasury best practices you can follow to prepare for instant payments and build true cash visibility. The previous post discussed effective cash positioning and this week we focus on enhancing cash and liquidity forecasting.

Consideration #3: Enhance cash and liquidity forecasting

Treasurers don’t typically have access to a company’s full cash picture. Though efficient business operations require working with multiple financial services organizations across different markets, complex banking structures and sprawling geographical footprints make it difficult to achieve complete visibility into current balances and to measure the accuracy of cash forecasting.

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Cash and treasury: Prepare for instant payments and build true cash visibility