4 Ways a Food Manufacturing ERP Helps Secure Your Business’s Future

The food manufacturing industry is anything but stagnant. In just the past few years, we’ve seen the rise of tighter traceability regulations, a heightened focus on food safety, more frequent supply chain disruptions, significant shifts in consumer tastes and increased adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies like smart devices and IoT-enabled equipment.

Clearly, keeping up with this rapid pace of change is a necessity for businesses operating in this space. For your food and beverage manufacturing company to succeed now and in the future, it’s imperative that you put the right systems in place to keep the organization agile and as prepared as possible to face what tomorrow may bring.

This process of modernization and implementation of purpose-built platforms is commonly referred to as “digital transformation.” There are several different kinds of software that can be part of such an initiative, but the one that is considered indispensable and can act as your technological foundation going forward is enterprise resource planning (ERP).

That being said, if you’re not familiar with all of the advantages and functions offered by these offerings, you may not be convinced that they’re worth the investment of time, funds and energy. So, to demonstrate just how impactful the right solution can be, let’s cover four ways that a food manufacturing ERP can ensure success in the future.

1. Traceability Features for Complete Visibility

Both governments and consumers have raised their expectations when it comes to the traceability standards of food and beverage businesses that they support with their purchases. This isn’t without good reason—after all, bidirectional tracking is critical for food safety and identifying the sources of contaminations as well as the affected finished products.

The traceability tools that an industry-specific ERP system can provide facilitate both meeting the standards of regulatory agencies and ensuring that everything rolling off your lines is safe and fit for consumption. And with real-time updates via integrations with barcode scanners and a highly accessible interface, you can act with confidence and speed based on the information at hand.

2. Cloud Deployments for Maximum Flexibility

The COVID-19 pandemic brought many supply chains to a grinding halt, and workforce shortages have emerged as a major hurdle for food and beverage manufacturers. Other significant disruptions—including material scarcities, rising supply costs and transportation delays—are also complicating matters for businesses like yours.

In times like these, flexibility is crucial, and one of the best ways to achieve the level you need is with a cloud deployment of an advanced food manufacturing ERP platform. With your employees able to access the system no matter where they are with just a web browser and WiFi connection, you’ll be able to pivot as the need arises and react to new developments that would otherwise interrupt your daily food production processes.

3. Formula and Inventory Management

Suiting modern tastes—like those for plant-based products, functional foods and organic ingredients—will be vital to your profitability, relevance and appeal to modern shoppers, especially the millennials and Generation Z buyers that represent a growing portion of the market. As such, you need the tools to design and create new items in line with preferences and trends.

The recipe and formula management functions of a food manufacturing ERP can empower your research and development teams with the ability to tweak, iterate and perfect novel offerings that meet emergent demands. Knowing you’ll also be working with new suppliers and securing stock of the materials necessary for these new creations, you’ll also benefit from the comprehensive inventory control features that an advanced food and beverage solution like Aptean Food & Beverage ERP can provide.

4. Scalability to Allow for Growth

Knowing that the deployment of an organization-wide platform can be costly and takes many months—if not years—to accomplish, you need to find a system that can last and accommodate your company’s scope as it expands. It must be able to scale with your growth and allow for the introduction of new supply chain partners, products, staff and processes.

Food manufacturing ERP are designed with this in mind and can ramp up as your operations do, allowing for the incorporation of new lines, roles and departments. With a fully configurable backend that’s built based on the knowledge that the industry is in constant flux and no two businesses face the exact same circumstances, you’ll know your technology can adjust as necessary and will continue to serve for the foreseeable future.

Checking All the Boxes

Now you have a better understanding of the key advantages of ERP technology and how it helps food and beverage manufacturers stay on their toes in periods of uncertainty and achieve their mission-critical goals more reliably. Then again, if you go comparing ERP systems now, you may find yourself overwhelmed by the different options and facing a sort of “analysis paralysis.”

Identifying what sets a particular ERP product apart from another will be of great importance in your selection process. You know that you’re looking for a system that was built for your industry, but pay special attention to the sector- and segment-specific features that any given package offers, including catch weight management for meat and seafood companies or consignment tracking for fresh produce suppliers.

Aptean Food & Beverage ERP has a full suite of such specialized tools, and we also offer the kind of cloud implementations discussed above for a lightweight approach that’s perfect for today’s world. Then, there’s the additional advantage of the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central framework of our platform, which lends it familiarity for many users and provides an intuitive, user-friendly interface.

What’s more, choosing us as your provider means gaining an experienced partner with decades of collective expertise and best practices knowledge. Aptean’s dedicated professionals can help map out the deployment process, complete with a timeline and milestones and provide excellent IT support down the road.

When you’re ready to find out more and explore just what Aptean Food & Beverage ERP can do for your food manufacturing business, contact us. We also offer personalized demos so you can see the system in action.