Focus points for the food industry
The food industry has always known challenges. But whoever says challenges also says opportunities. To seize those opportunities, the food industry can fortunately look to technology. For instance, specific ERP software for the food industry is constantly evolving, leading to more insight, more flexibility and higher productivity. However, a few points of attention are important here.
Everything becomes software
As technology continues to advance, software is becoming increasingly central within companies. It offers them flexibility, insights and performance. Software solutions developed specifically for the food industry have therefore become a must-have for any food company looking for support and efficiency.
Our IC-trace solution is one such comprehensive software package for the food industry.
Rising costs
In times when margins are small, it is important to look for ways to optimise profitability. Industry-specific ERP software includes several features that enable savings. For example, for the food industry, these include expiry management tools to reduce waste. Production planning functions, in turn, keep productivity high.
Automatic costing is another particularly useful feature of ERP software for dynamic pricing and margin optimisation. It allows you to see the cost price of each ingredient in a recipe, compare prices and identify expensive production ingredients. You can also calculate the impact of price changes or of your variable costs (for electricity, gas and water) on your margin.
Flexibility
Being able to respond quickly to changing circumstances is more important than ever for food companies. The right ERP solution for food can really make a difference in this area, with production planning functions to match supply and demand in advance and the flexibility to set up multiple production scenarios. Those scenarios start from your primary plan, supplemented by backups in case unforeseen circumstances or disruptions occur in the supply chain.
The power of data
The basis for preparing reports or being able to make meaningful analyses is your own data. These can be collected by companies in both quantitative and qualitative ways. Data are the new raw material for gaining accurate insights into internal optimisations or market and customer trends.
Getting the most out of this data also requires business intelligence software developed specifically for the food industry that can create simulations to support decisions.
Sustainability
Software boosts the sustainability efforts of food companies. For instance, ERPs help with effective expiry management functions and reduce waste. They track data on shelf lives, can recalculate them after any tampering or provide alerts before ingredients, semi-finished or finished products spoil.
Changing consumer preferences
Research shows that changes in consumer demands and preferences will have the second biggest impact on the food industry over the next five years, just after higher operating costs. Responding to the increasing demand for foods with health benefits, including those suitable for specific diets such as sugar- and gluten-free, will therefore become very important. To seize these opportunities, organisations need to optimise the development processes of new products and emerging product categories. And that too is done through specific software for the food sector.
