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.

In the world of fashion retail, seasonal sales can make or break a brand. With peaks during holidays, special promotions, and new collection launches, it’s crucial for retailers to be prepared to meet increased demand. Infor Warehouse Management System (WMS), part of the comprehensive Infor CloudSuite Fashion, offers a variety of features that help fashion brands streamline operations and maximize sales during these critical periods. Here are several ways Infor WMS can support retailers during peak seasons.

1. Automated Replenishment

During peak seasons, ensuring that shelves are stocked with the right products is essential. Infor WMS automates the replenishment process by predicting inventory needs based on historical sales data and current trends. Integrated with Infor CloudSuite Fashion, this system allows retailers to keep inventory flowing smoothly, reducing the risk of stockouts and capitalizing on high-demand items.

2. Efficient Returns Management

Returns can spike during seasonal sales, complicating inventory management. Infor WMS, with its seamless integration in Infor CloudSuite Fashion, streamlines the returns process by providing clear visibility into returned items and their status. The system quickly processes returns and updates inventory levels, enhancing customer satisfaction with a hassle-free return experience.

3. Cross-Docking Capabilities

Cross-docking minimizes storage time by transferring products directly from inbound to outbound shipping. Infor WMS supports this practice, enabling fashion retailers to manage inventory efficiently during peak periods. By ensuring quick turnaround times for high-demand items, brands can reduce storage costs and accelerate delivery, making them more responsive to customer needs.

In the fashion industry, supply chain efficiency is paramount. As consumer demands shift and trends emerge at lightning speed, retailers must adapt quickly to stay competitive. The Infor Warehouse Management System (WMS) is a powerful tool that is revolutionizing how fashion brands manage their supply chains. Here’s how Infor WMS is shaping the future of fashion.

1. Enhanced Inventory Visibility

One of the critical challenges in the fashion industry is managing diverse inventory across multiple channels. Infor WMS provides real-time visibility into inventory levels, allowing retailers to track products from the warehouse to the customer. This transparency ensures that brands can respond swiftly to demand changes, reducing the risk of stockouts or overstock situations. With accurate inventory data, retailers can make informed decisions, optimize stock levels, and improve overall operational efficiency.

2. Streamlined Order Fulfillment

In an industry driven by quick turnarounds, efficient order fulfillment is essential. Infor WMS automates various processes within the warehouse, from picking and packing to shipping. By leveraging advanced algorithms and automation technologies, the system enhances picking accuracy and speeds up fulfillment times. This means that fashion retailers can deliver products faster, meeting customer expectations for speedy service while reducing labor costs.

3. Improved Labor Management

Workforce management is crucial in the fashion supply chain, particularly during peak seasons. Infor WMS offers tools to optimize labor allocation based on real-time workload and productivity metrics. Retailers can better manage their workforce by forecasting busy periods and adjusting staffing accordingly. This not only boosts productivity but also enhances employee satisfaction, leading to a more engaged workforce.

Equipment companies used to compete mostly on product and price. But that was before customers could get whatever they needed with just a click of a button. With reduced differentiation and diminishing sales margins, equipment companies are shifting the focus beyond product and price to what problems they can solve for their customers. Today’s equipment companies compete on service.

Which means that one of the biggest challenges equipment OEMs, dealers, rental, and service organizations face today is how to increase customer service levels. It’s this push for finding new and better ways to serve customer needs that are at the core of many of the key issues that are impacting the equipment industry today.

Read on for a deep dive into the top issues facing the equipment industry and how addressing these issues can help companies better compete on customer service.

As an equipment rental organization that wants to differentiate itself in a highly competitive market, you need to offer your customers the right rental equipment, when and where they want it, at the right price. The challenges you face today are forcing you to rethink the way you do business.

Modernize your business with Infor CloudSuite™ Equipment Rental, a cloud-based, rental-focused ERP solution that allows you to deploy faster, respond faster, and evolve faster, while running your business on the most secure infrastructure available.

CloudSuite Equipment Rental is designed specifically for rental companies that are focused on growth, customer engagement, and extended services. Supporting almost 40 localizations and 18 languages, and built on industry best practices, the solution gives you the flexibility and scalability to easily take on new markets and quickly adapt to change. It features deep, proven capabilities to support all your business processes—not just rental.

Even better, the solution is delivered in the cloud—ensuring efficiency, cost savings, built-in support for global operations, and security that follows industry-leading best-practice protocols.

When it comes to addressing market and customer demands, aging enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications can hold modern day business back. Legacy systems can also prevent organizations from delivering value instantly to customers.

More than 80% of CFOs see identifying and targeting areas of new value across the business as one of their main responsibilities, according to research from Accenture. That's why CFOs, who are attracted to the cost-effectiveness and scalability of connected enterprise management solutions, are being swayed by the compelling functionality of unified ERP and enterprise performance management (EPM) solutions.

Infor M3 and Infor M3 Cloud offer multi-functional capabilities - combined with highly productive new technologies to support mobility and team collaboration - developed over years of working with some of the best companies in the world. Designed for medium to large national and global manufacturers, distributors, and aftersales service providers, M3 provides industry specific process support and functionality built on good practices, and an industry-leading user experience. Flexible deployment options and implementation accelerators yield low total cost of ownership and short time-to-value.

Effectively managing Segregation of Duties (SOD) is a key requirement for any enterprise resource planning (ERP) or financial system to pass an audit. Initiation and efficient maintenance of SOD requires a fully automated financial control testing platform to identify, prevent, and mitigate issues that can negatively impact the accuracy, and validity of financial reporting -- putting the organization at risk.

Segregation of Duties (SOD) requires organizations to ensure users of business applications do not have the capability to perform two processes that could permit fraud, waste, and abuse. These are called "toxic access combinations" and enable an individual to execute such fraudulent activities as creating and paying himself as a supplier. 

When CFOs adopt innovative technology, they help build organizations that are more agile, profitable, effective, and positioned for growth. Here are the five actions CFOs can take immediately to get started down the right path:

1. Develop one single source of the truth—Data is the currency of success. Effective data management translates to big opportunities for companies that are intent on growth. But the key to effective data management is creating one source of the truth—a central data repository. Everyone needs to work from the same set of information, if your organization is going to operate as efficiently and effectively as possible. Companies can uncover key insights about their customers and business processes by breaking down data silos and building one single source of the truth. Whether that data comes from a single source, or more likely, multiple disparate sources, it needs to be visible from one place, so it can be trusted as reliable and acted upon by everyone who needs to make decisions.

For three generations Smarties candies have been a favorite among Halloween trick-or-treaters who love the pastel-colored wafers that are even good for some allergen-sensitive children. On Wednesday the Smarties Candy Co. celebrates its 70th anniversary at its manufacturing headquarters in Union, New Jersey.

The company, founded by 96-year-old patriarch, Edward Dee has a lot to celebrate. It is one of the few family-owned mass-production confectionery companies left in the United States, and it turns out more than 2 billion rolls of the candies every year.