In the food and beverage industry, operational efficiency is paramount. Food and beverage manufacturers face numerous challenges, from managing complex supply chains to ensuring food safety and compliance with stringent regulations. To stay ahead in this competitive market, manufacturers must leverage advanced solutions that streamline core processes, reduce waste, and bring products to market faster. This is where cloud ERP software, like Infor WMS (Warehouse Management System), comes into play.

1. Improve Food-Specific Product Lifecycle Management

The food and beverage industry has unique requirements when it comes to managing product lifecycles. From sourcing raw ingredients to the final distribution of the product, manufacturers need to have complete control over every stage of the process. Infor WMS helps streamline product lifecycle management by providing a unified, cloud-based solution that integrates every step of production, packaging, and distribution.

With Infor WMS, manufacturers can gain real-time visibility into their inventory, production schedules, and raw material needs, ensuring that product quality is maintained and timelines are met. The system enables better management of expiration dates, shelf life, and lot traceability, all of which are critical in the food and beverage industry.

2. Fast-Track Production Processes and Automate Scheduling

Speed and efficiency are essential for food and beverage manufacturers. To meet customer demand and reduce time-to-market, manufacturers must fast-track production processes while maintaining flexibility. Infor WMS automates production scheduling, optimizing workflows and reducing downtime. This ensures that production lines are running at full capacity, orders are fulfilled on time, and manufacturers can quickly respond to shifts in demand.

With integrated AI tools, Infor WMS can automatically generate production schedules based on real-time data, making it easier for manufacturers to adjust quickly to changing conditions. By automating scheduling and streamlining production workflows, food and beverage companies can significantly increase their operational efficiency and profitability.

3. Efficiently Manage Raw Materials to Reduce Waste and Increase Yield

Raw materials represent a significant cost for food and beverage manufacturers. Efficiently managing raw materials is key to reducing waste, improving yield, and ensuring profitability. Infor WMS provides manufacturers with real-time insights into inventory levels, ensuring that raw materials are available when needed without overstocking.

The system also tracks usage patterns, helping manufacturers identify opportunities to reduce waste and increase yield. By optimizing the flow of raw materials throughout the supply chain, Infor WMS allows businesses to maximize resource efficiency while minimizing costs.

Part 2: Navigating High Inflation and Interest Rates in the Food & Beverage Industry

Inflation and interest rates are casting a significant shadow over the food and beverage industry, profoundly impacting various aspects of operations. Prices for ingredients, packaging, energy, transportation, and labor have surged, translating into higher consumer prices. As a result, consumers are shifting towards lower-priced alternatives, posing challenges for manufacturers. Those equipped with robust insights and cost agility are weathering the storm better, while others grapple with shrinking margins.

Amidst this economic turbulence, regulators have responded by significantly increasing interest rates to curb inflation. However, this move has further strained smaller businesses and startups, grappling with the high cost of capital. Consequently, the industry landscape is witnessing a scenario where larger enterprises dominate, consuming smaller players struggling to stay afloat.

Part 1: The Adoption of Technology in Food & Beverage

In today's rapidly evolving food and beverage industry, adopting technology is not just a choice but a necessity for businesses aiming to stay competitive and efficient. From AI and machine learning to enterprise automation and IoT, technological advancements are reshaping how companies operate, engage with customers, and manage their supply chains.

The Role of Technology in Business Transformation

Leading food & beverage sector businesses embrace a digital-first approach to drive growth and streamline operations. This includes leveraging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), generative AI, enterprise automation, IoT (Internet of Things), and Industry 4.0 solutions to enhance productivity, optimize processes, and deliver superior customer experiences.

Partner Spotlight: Info's OS Technology Platform

Our partner, Infor, with its innovative OS technology platform, is at the forefront of this technological revolution. Info has been instrumental in helping food & beverage businesses harness the power of cutting-edge technologies to unlock new opportunities and overcome operational challenges.

How Info is Empowering Businesses

Infor's OS technology platform offers tailored solutions designed to meet the specific needs of food and beverage companies. By leveraging AI and machine learning, Info enables businesses to analyze vast amounts of data in real time, gaining actionable insights to optimize production, predict demand, and enhance supply chain efficiency.

In the ever-evolving business landscape, the quest for efficiency, productivity, and competitive advantage remains paramount. This journey often relies on effectively leveraging data, and Business Intelligence (BI) tools have become indispensable for many organizations in achieving these goals. Traditionally, BI solutions have been associated with hefty investments and complex implementations. However, cloud BI platforms have revolutionized this space, offering a more agile and cost-effective approach to data analysis and decision-making.

By Christine Dominski, ICCG Senior Business Consultant

Do you find yourself searching for Information through multiple Excel files? How about Teams or SharePoint sites? Do you struggle with managing approvals or reviews?

Maybe it is time for a Product Life Cycle Management System (PLM).

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is the process by which Research and Development innovate new products and manage quality throughout the product lifecycle to ensure the highest level of consumer satisfaction and shareholder value.

PLM systems wrap around Business Strategies and Product Portfolios to help coordinate information and collaboration across an organization. The process of generating product ideas, all the way to product retirement, can be managed in a PLM system. Manage Suppliers, Items (ingredients), Formulas (recipes), Label and Project information, all in one place. Record approvals at every step of the way to provide audit trails.

Product Lifecycle Management affords the peace of mind that all data is managed and reported as required by your organization. A PLM system allows you to control User access to the information as needed for your business success. Integration with ERP systems and a data lake are available. Use the data lake to feed E-Commerce initiates or other internal systems used for reporting.

By Christine Dominski, ICCG Senior Business Consultant

Have you ever wondered if a Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) system is right for your business? Is the Business Value unclear? No matter the size of your business, a Product Lifecycle Management system can provide insights and discipline to a Company's process. Let’s provide clarity on the business value.

Standardize Business Processes – By understanding what makes your business tick, you can standardize the processes in a system to maximize efficiency. Once you maximize efficiency, you can realize a quicker time to market with new approval processes tailored to your needs.

Just as companies must transform to meet today’s challenges, the software vendors they rely on must also mutate their products to become a better fit for the next generation of organizations. And that’s happening with ERP. From my perspective, here are the seven ways ERP is evolving, along with my tips for selecting an ERP vendor.

The role of the CFO has changed dramatically over recent times and will continue to do so. The modern CFO is now emerging as a key enabler in creating a more ‘dynamic’ finance function that can react to ever changing demands from both internal stakeholders and external customer, suppliers and partners. In addition to the traditional responsibility of ‘managing the finances’ of the organisation, the CFO is now increasingly engaged with activities such as strategy formulation and business transformation projects. 

Business transformation projects are increasingly being undertaken to facilitate growth, reduce costs and increase competitiveness in a harsh global marketplace where only the organisations who continually evolve and innovate prosper. The finance function is not immune to this transformation process and can play a key role in its development and adoption.