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Benefits of Using SAP Business One: Food Industry Case Study
The food industry has grown significantly in the last twenty years and has enormous potential to grow even more. Easy access to raw materials, new lifestyles, and suitable policies have helped a great deal in the growth of this industry. However, there are still various challenges to overcome, especially in terms of outdated infrastructure, the lack of skilled workforce, low efficiency, etc.
In addition, continuous technological advancements offer a vast range of opportunities that never existed before. To do so, the food industry needs to be a lot faster to meet changing consumer demands. Online shopping, providing organic products, and on-demand deliveries are just some of the factors that can help the food industry expand further.
All they need is a reliable ERP solution like SAP Business One. While many key players in the food industry have shifted towards utilizing such solutions, many are still on the fence. Hence, in this article, we’ll explore the benefits of using SAP Business One for the food sector.
- Sales Management & Planning
If you operate like most companies, you probably start sales planning at the start of the financial year and figure out the numbers based on your growth targets for the year. Then, the annual numbers break down into quarterly or monthly figures that basically set the bar for your company’s performance. They could be related to improving your product, product categories, and even extending your territory.
But, as you already know, you cannot set those numbers out of whim. They need to be based on fully detailed sales data from the previous year. That’s precisely what SAP Business One does for your company. This software will continuously track and capture all transactions, such as sales orders, deliveries, and invoices. Plus, it’ll provide the data in an easy-to-understand format to help your planning process.
Furthermore, using the software’s project management function, you can determine with pinpoint accuracy the development costs of a new product, helping you adjust your pricing strategy.
- Material Management
To deal with the seasonality of certain materials, food companies have to purchase agricultural produce in bulk. But for the remainder of items, they can use the product and procurement proposals of an automated solution like SAP Business One, which will greatly boost their speed and accuracy.
The lengthy, erroneous process of manual formulation is one of the primary factors delaying the launch of food products. Many food companies still utilize manual processes, which is why they cannot keep up with changing customer demands, market trends, and the latest regulations.
Using an automated solution like SAP Business one, they can effortlessly manage their material and formulas while having the freedom to adjust their operations based on current consumer demands. For instance, they can utilize the software to lower the Time to Market (TTM) without racketing up costs. Material management also keeps formulas safe from any external forcesو maintaining the competitive advantage in the market.
- Inventory Management
Perhaps the operational cornerstone of any food company is inventory management. A slight error in maintaining perishable items on the inventory can cause great losses for your company since you have to restock the inventory and will likely struggle with delayed deliveries. No matter how dedicated and skilled, your personnel cannot be continuously watching over the inventory.
It’s far easier to deploy a reliable solution like SAP Business One. Using the MRP function, you can accurately plan material quantities at every given time and monitor material consumption during the recipe and production process. An automated solution keeps an eye on the perishable goods 24/7 and alerts you about expiration dates well ahead of time. That allows you to avoid material loss due to expiration.
- More Competitive Pricing
The food industry is a brutal business in terms of competition over customers. In such a price-sensitive market, it’s vital to continuously monitor the price of your products and dynamically adjust it to sales and your market share levels.
This is where SAP Business One comes in and helps you develop and manage several price lists. By using this solution, you can quickly apply periodic discounts while continuously making changes to the entire list, enabling you to focus on the next profitable opportunity and stay ahead of the curve.
- Quality Consistency
During the production process, ingredients are mixed with the aim of arriving at a specific flavor, texture, and color. But since these products are made and delivered in bulk, you have to maintain quality at a certain high level. Hence, the existence of process parameters at mixing stations to ensure consistency. Needless to say, it’s incredibly difficult (if not impossible) for manual labor to have such consistency.
A wiser approach would be to use the quality management function of SAP Business One that perpetually monitors such parameters and instantly alerts the product supervisor in case of any incorrect parameter values.
- Regulatory Compliance
You, better than anyone, know the struggles of a food sector firm with auditing and regulatory matters related to customers, suppliers, and even inside the organization. Keeping up with the latest food safety standards and requirements takes significant time and effort. You can make the job easier by using SAP Business One since it already has an inbuilt system for regulatory compliance and quality assurance.
By using such a system, you can prevent slight production problems from aggravating into crises. SAP continuously collects vital info regarding all production stages, keeping you on top of all regulatory developments.
Bottom Line
In the digital era we live in, businesses in the food industry are under immense pressure to meet changing customer expectations. Speed, precision, and consistency are three pillars of a successful enterprise’s food production process. Doing all three with manual processes is nearly impossible and takes a significant portion of your time, budget, and effort that could’ve been spent elsewhere.
This is where a reliable automated ERP solution like SAP Business One can enhance your operation’s efficiency and keep you up to speed with the latest changes in customer demands, market trends, and safety regulations.
At IMTS, we can provide you with a tailor-made solution to take a massive burden off your shoulders and enable you to laser focus on the core aspects of your business. Therefore, don’t hesitate to contact us.