Even when your warehouse operations seem to be running smoothly, there is always room for improvement and a need to stay up to date with innovation. While steps are taken to keep warehouse operations at peak performance, when fulfilment times and levels are jeopardized, it’s still up to you and your team to race to recover, to ensure actions to get back on track are taken correctly so that product can make its way out the door, and time is always working against you.

If your organization previously reviewed and dismissed the value of moving your warehouse management system (WMS) to the cloud, it’s time to reevaluate. Decisions that seemed to make sense last year or even last quarter, likely look very different with new challenges emerging over the past several months. By empowering critical systems like a WMS with cloud capabilities, your organization can scale quickly, maximize productivity, and minimize outages and downtime to prevent bringing the company’s mission-critical operations to its knees.

Asset performance is key for food and beverage processors to reliably produce safe food at the lowest cost. This goes beyond only having the equipment available. Asset performance is one of three variables used to calculate the Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)—the other two variables are availability and quality. In food and beverage processing, quality is primarily about food safety, which is non-negotiable. Studies show that a food safety issue leading to a recall in average costs $10 million. The associated brand damage can be unmeasurable.

The state of equipment and the behaviour of workers have a big impact on food safety. Eliminating food safety risks and risks to workers are the primary responsibilities of any food processing company. Numerous food safety issues caused by contaminations with extraneous material like metal coming from broken filling equipment, or grease or detergent remnants are reported to the FDA and RASFF every year. Cross contamination, pathogens, and faulty labeling are other possible reasons why food and beverage manufacturers must recall products

Know you want to transform but don't know where to start? Want to gain $9-12 for every dollar you spend? Read on to find out why starting with your people is the best first step to prioritizing digital transformation projects.

Digital transformation is at the top of the to-do lists of most companies, but one topic that is often missing from a discussion on digital transformation is which areas to prioritize. Most businesses can’t afford to completely overhaul a core function of the enterprise top to bottom, along with the technology that supports it, at any one time. Instead, they’ll target specific areas for transformation. That approach minimizes disruption to the business, keeps costs manageable, and helps the business apply lessons learned to future transformation projects. The question, though, is which areas to target first?

1. Are we organizationally ready for significant change?

Organizations are only as good as their people, and manufacturers must look carefully at whether they have the right people and culture to support a different way of doing things. It is the people who will be responsible for implementing change, and they should be ready, committed, and on board with any type of transformation plan.

An organization’s culture can make or break a digital transformation project and “organizational change management” is one of the key components of such a project. Organizations should aim for an inclusive culture where people feel like they are key contributors to the company’s future success.

To achieve this, management teams should encourage a culture of openness to help employees step forward with their ideas. All change, and all transformation, starts with an idea – so it’s important for people to feel empowered to put their ideas out in the open.

The food and beverage industry is ripe with complexities, and the journey from idea to commercialization is long and arduous for food technologists. New product ideas or packaging developments have to endure rigorous data collection, testing, and certifications to make it to consumer shelves—processes carried out by food technologists working with manual tools, creating a wide margin for potential error.

Excel and pen-and-paper methods are common ways to record data and make calculations regarding research and development, quality standards, raw supplies orders, and dozens of other variables associated with the manufacturing process. Luckily, the industry has seen an uptick in the adoption of digital transformation methodologies. Accessible, commodity-based technologies are making it easier to accurately record data and make mission-critical calculations.

Many companies face two dilemmas with respect to technology strategy—succession planning for retiring Baby Boom-generation CIOs, and keeping up with the digital transformation of their industry. In the past, those two issues were unrelated. But now, outdated technology platforms and legacy software solutions artificially constrain companies in both respects, making it difficult to respond to technological disruption, and limiting the choice of future CIOs to those capable of managing obsolete technology.

Digital technology is changing the world, one industry at a time. With these changes comes a reimagining of the supply chain, from the systems businesses use to communicate and interact, to the strategies they deploy to move goods around the world. Along the way, our expectations for speed, service, and quality go up, forever altered.

Digitalization gives rise to new business models, in which real-time connectivity, greater visibility, reactivity, and anticipation become the underlying characteristics of our supply chains. But this kind of change isn’t easy, and transformation doesn’t happen overnight. While many businesses have adopted technology to augment or enhance existing processes, they’ve still got a long journey ahead.

By taking a staged approach to digital transformation, and building greater connectivity across the supply chain, businesses can pave the way toward a fully-connected future, while still being able to tackle the biggest challenges they face right now.

Addressing the five common worries SMBs have over digital technologies

Digital technology is a hot topic in the IT world today. The media is buzzing with tales of total transformation occurring in a wide range of industries, from ride sharing in the automotive industry to the influence of Amazon® in the retail industry. Whenever such an abundance of hype arises around a topic, misconceptions inevitably creep into the dialogue. A common misconception plaguing small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) is that their size may hinder them from joining the ranks of the digital-enabled.

This is far from true. SMBs can engage in digital strategies as well as any company. In fact, the SMB’s size often provides advantages, such as greater agility. In this paper, we address some of the common worries SMBs express and explain why digital technologies are essential for any growth-centered company, no matters its current size.

How do you identify the obstacles?

The year 2020 approaches with promise amidst a backdrop of innovation and transformation occurring at a speed never witnessed before. We’re experiencing a digital revolution that is changing the way we live, work and interact with one another. The power of information is just beginning to blossom as more of our decisions are based on data and use cases for artificial intelligence are delivering significant value. Meanwhile, global movements to protect the planet and operate responsibly continue to grow in importance. And an undercurrent of de-globalization continues to change the way countries and companies interact with each other.

Here’s a look at some of the emerging trends and themes you can expect to take shape in 2020. 

Digital transformation is on the agendas of virtually all corporations today. It has risen to the top of strategic plans and has become the focus of businesses around the globe. So great an industry evolution, IDC indicates spending on technologies and services that enable the digital transformation of businesses will hit $1.97 trillion in 2022.