How an ERP for Spice Manufacturing Helps Your Business Succeed in 3 Critical Operational Areas

To put it mildly, the spices industry is hot. Demand surged at the outset of the pandemic as consumers shifted to preparing more meals in the home, and that pattern persists in the “new normal” era. Meanwhile, the health benefits of certain ingredients—including ginger and turmeric—have enhanced their appeal, and other exotic flavors from around the world are rising in popularity.

All told, these trends have the combined spices and seasonings market projected to climb to a valuation of $57.7 billion by 2030, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.6% during the forecast period. That represents great opportunity for a spice manufacturing business like yours, but remaining competitive in such a dynamic space will require overcoming some key challenges and optimizing your technology.

So that you can be better prepared to lead your organization to success in this promising future, let’s explore three operational areas of particular importance in the spices sector and enumerate the features of industry-specific enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions that help you tackle them. We’ll also demonstrate why Aptean should be at the top of your list when looking for your ERP for spice manufacturing.

1. Traceability

Traceability continues to be a topic of much discussion in the larger food and beverage world, with regulations ramping up and brand transparency an absolute must to satisfy the expectations of today’s savvy shoppers. It’s all the more vital in the spices industry, where the ability to track your raw materials and finished products bidirectionally is necessary to demonstrate compliance to enforcement agencies and responsibility to end customers.

Traceability Features of ERPs for Spice Manufacturing

The lot and sublot management tools of purpose-built food ERP software—like Aptean Food & Beverage ERP—help you maintain a complete picture of your goods’ movement into, through and out of your facilities. Profile definition functionalities let you generate lot numbers according to a variety of different elements and capture crucial details like country of origin and production date.

License plating and serial shipping container code (SSCC) features take this a step further, allowing you to seamlessly apply these standard formats of ingredient and product identification in your traceability efforts. Considering the fact that spices and seasonings are frequently most affordably purchased in bulk, it helps to be able to manage large quantities according to the method that makes the most sense for the situation.

Lastly, the compliance document management tools of ERP solutions built for herbs and spices companies allow you to track and store all necessary regulatory and financial documents, with the flexibility to specify them by vendor, per item or per item group. You’ll also be able to check in on the status of pending approvals and attach relevant documents to specific orders to help ensure that all your bases are covered.

2. Supply Chain Management

Spice manufacturers often work with a wide variety of suppliers from around the world, which can lead to supply chains devolving into a tangled web. That’s a potential complication you’d want to avoid at all costs, especially considering demand could spike again and you thus need to ensure your supply is aligned to deliver to the appetite of the market.

Supply Chain Management Features of ERPs for Spice Manufacturing

ERP solutions that offer a vendor item catalog as a built-in part of the system make managing the initial stages of your supply chain much easier by maintaining all important details related to your suppliers and facilitating the creation of reliably accurate orders. Aptean Food & Beverage ERP streamlines the process, offering a fast order entry functionality and the implementation of automatic reoccurring orders.

On the other end, an ERP’s customer item catalog can make it easier for your salespeople to manage incoming orders and helps to ensure that you have the inventory to fulfill your customers’ requests. Our own solution has the added advantage of automatic processing of email orders—attached Excel spreadsheets are quickly converted to sales orders in the system.

Then, there’s the production planning functionalities of spice manufacturing ERP software, which improve your ability to precisely set your supply according to demand. With these tools, you can capitalize on earning opportunities without ending up with surplus supplies that go to waste, and sales order lines can be easily compared with available inventory for confirmation that you’ve got the materials you need.

3. Food Safety and Quality

Consumers are more discerning when it comes to product quality and safety these days, and your brand’s reputation in large part hinges on these two key fronts. Excellent sanitation and strict adherence to acceptable standards will certainly improve your outcomes in these areas, but the large combined lots and powdered materials common in the spices segment make implementing additional measures a prudent move.

Food Safety and Quality Features of ERPs for Spice Manufacturing

By utilizing the product specifications functionalities of a food and beverage ERP, you can flag all ingredients with allergen or other safety concerns within the interface to minimize your risk of error and help ensure that all necessary declarations are made. That makes keeping your operations fully compliant that much easier while also promoting awareness among shoppers with health sensitivities.

The inspection status tools of spice industry ERP software can give you greater confidence that all critical quality checks are performed, as you’re able to control the flow of lots based on your predefined criteria. The automated alerts that Aptean’s food ERP deploys in the case of a deviation can be extremely useful for identifying and addressing issues before they become bigger problems.

Additionally, the dedicated quality control features of ERP systems provide even more assurance that nothing sub-par ever enters or leaves your facilities, with the ability to set quality triggers for both outbound and inbound orders. Our solution has full mobile tablet functionality, too, allowing your employees to update important quality data from the factory floor and even attach photos and documents for record-keeping purposes.

What Makes Aptean’s Solutions Stand Out

At this point, you likely have a better understanding of how an ERP for spice manufacturing can serve your business and drive better results, but you may still have some questions about which solution would be best for your business. We’ve pointed out some of the strengths of Aptean Food & Beverage ERP above, but there’s much more that comes with the total package and experience.

First, there’s the collective decades of expertise that our teams bring to the table and the best practice advice that our professionals are eager to provide to our customers. We strive to act as not just a vendor but a partner for every business that trusts us for their technology needs, and that extends to helping with the implementation process, where we work with your staff to create a deployment roadmap.

We also offer flexible cloud deployments on the Software as a Service (SaaS) model, which can afford your organization full scalability, better data protection, enhanced system reliability via consistent monitoring and remote access for employees on the go. Furthermore, Aptean Food & Beverage ERP is comprised of unique industry-specific technology on the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central platform, which makes it intuitive and easy-to-learn.

Finally, you don’t have to take just our word for it—independent consulting firm Frost and Sullivan recognized our software with the 2022 Product Leadership Award in North American ERP Software for the Food and Beverage Industry. This stands as further proof that our system delivers the quality, reliability and performance that modern spice manufacturers need.

Now, if you’re ready to learn more about Aptean Food & Beverage ERP and how it’s the ideal ERP for spice manufacturing, contact us today. You can also request a personalized demo at your convenience.