Production scheduling and quality control are the top challenges for food and beverage companies in 2020. Food and beverage companies face increasing calls for transparency in sourcing and processing, increased demand for e-commerce and sourcing in an uncertain global marketplace.
Here’s a closer look at 7 food and beverage supply chain challenges for 2020 and how the right enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution can help.
Challenge 1: Use of plastics
Sustainability is essential for food and beverage companies, but at the same time the industry has increased the number of single-use plastics containers being offered for ready-to-eat dining. Businesses face increased demands for sustainable, environmentally friendly packaging, from straws to cups to storage. With many plastics coming from the global marketplace, companies need to have different channels for supply, including alternative suppliers and packaging materials.
Challenge 2: Regulatory burdens
A more stringent regulatory landscape continues to challenge the industry. On the heels of adoption of the U.S. Food Safety and Modernization Act and Safe Food for Canadians regulations, companies now face increased food safety standards from multiple jurisdictions. Significant reporting and documentation rules cover food production, including waste disposal, food quality, and traceability.
Challenge 3: Demand forecasting
Accurate forecasting helps food and beverage companies optimize their production efficiency, reduce inventory costs, improve distribution and streamline purchasing. Demand forecasting requires accurate data to help employees make informed decisions for the future of their business.
Challenge 4: Global visibility
Businesses need access to global supply chain options with meaningful connections to global trading partners. This will be an increasingly challenging component of production in 2020, given economic instability, geopolitical disputes, and the ongoing coronavirus threat.
Food and beverage companies need clear visibility to their operation in order to diversify suppliers and customers to offset the challenges of a global marketplace.
Challenge 5: Predictive scheduling
Even without the current volatility in the supply chain, companies need to use automation and business intelligence to optimize production schedules. The right food ERP can eliminate scheduling bottlenecks, improve inventory visibility, and reduce waste.
Challenge 6: E-Commerce expectations
Food and beverage companies have historically been slow to embrace e-commerce, but recent events have caused accelerated adoption. Better supply chain and logistics management are helping companies turn the corner, allowing businesses to reduce delivery times, meet consumer expectations for availability and freshness, and reducing time-to-market for new products.
Challenge 7: Inventory management
Inventory accuracy and availability are long-held challenges in the industry. With the right technologies in place, companies can address perishability, space management, traceability, assembly, scheduling, and delivery complexities, resulting in less waste and rework, leading to improved profit margins.
How to address supply chain issues with food ERP solutions
FoodBusiness ERP from NexTec is built on Sage X3 to deliver an integrated cloud-based food ERP with functionality that addresses the greatest supply chain challenges for 2020. Built for food and beverage, FoodBusiness ERP includes the following core features:
- Full financial management
- Customer and supplier management
- Real time visibility to inventory levels and cost
- Recipe management
- Demand forecasting
- Yield calculations and tracking through production
- Byproduct management
- Quality and hold management at each stage of production
- Production sequencing and allergen tracking
- Shelf-life management with expiration and use-by dates controls
- Warehouse management with barcode printing
- Full forward and backward traceability
- Product recall management
FoodBusiness ERP helps food and beverage companies identify the right business software. Our skilled consultants and engineers work with companies like yours at every phase of the process, from specifications and selection to installation and optimization.
Learn more about FoodBusiness ERP.
