e10 Food Processing Solutions

Food Processing Industry is the only Food Industry type that does not have personal touch with the customer that is typical in Food and Hospitality Industry. The success solely depends on the products it offers, efficiency of the Supply Chain, quality of the products and its package. In the absence of Direct or Personal communication, there is a great dependency on indirect channel of communication like Social Media for which there has to be a robust system.

As per recent studies, the industry is experiencing a turbulent period due to the growing global demands for food safety, increasing food insecurity and consumer demand for higher quality and sustainability. It is a $2 Trillion industry and consists of 400,000 businesses. With such high turn-over and business volume there would be huge economic impact of getting food safety wrong if supply chains are incorrectly assessed and the risk mitigation is absent.

The Food Processing Industry is affected by the following factors – both internal and external:

• Economic Trend, Climate Change, Demographic Shifts, Emerging Power Markets, Trade Partnerships, Population Growth Prediction, etc.
• Continued Consolidation of the Market.
• Supply Chain Optimization – Continued monitoring of the Distribution & Suppliers Processes to improve Distribution Processes and Suppliers Assurances.
• Raw Material Costs – Some of the raw materials availability is seasonal. Major cost is raw material cost and there should be mechanism to monitor and order appropriately for which a sound Material Planning and Procurement process should be in place.
• Emerging Food Safety Risks – There is increasing trend to comply with HACCP. Need to have robust mechanism to address this.
• Dietary Guidelines – It is important that any product sold should have the dietary details of the ingredients used.

Based on the key factors listed above, Food Processing Companies need to have a robust and well defined process that should take care of:

• Recipe Management – This has 2 major purposes. Primarily, it should have the wherewithal to define the Ingredients, its brand, quantity, etc. for getting the output of desired quantity of finished goods. Secondarily, it should be able to provide the dietary details of the ingredients used for the defined weight. This should have link to Procurement for getting the cost of the ingredients used. In essence, this should be designed in such a fashion to address Raw Material Cost monitoring, Compliance to Dietary guidelines requirements, Compliance to HACCP requirements, etc.
• Production Process – This is the key process in which majority of Quality processes have to be complied with. Both Compliance and the data related to Quality verifications are to be maintained. There should be facility to maintain Quality Inspection schedule, Lab Tests Schedules, External Agencies Inspection Schedule, Proactive reminders, Recording of the Findings, Remedial Action Suggested for Non-Compliance, Recording of Remedial Action, etc
• Material Planning – The material requirement planning should be based on the committed and expected sales. The planning should consider to the minutest level the Ingredients required, the brand, its quantity converted from the Recipe level quantity to Procurable quantity, etc.
• Stock Monitoring – Stock can be either as Raw Material or Finished Goods. The stock should be at the right level.
• Certifications – The Industry need to maintain high standards in Hygiene and should ensure that all the Health related certifications are current for the employees who are working in Production, Quality Control, etc.
• Back-Office Process – The deployment of resources with the right skill sets and certifications is important when the production is run in shifts. The roster should consider these parameters.

It is difficult to maintain the key processes listed above in a manual way with the help of MS Office tools. There is a strong need to have a system that can address the requirements listed above. We have considered the Industry requirements, had workshops with hands-on Industry experts and have developed an end-to-end Food Industry specific ERP – Taeam.

Take a few moments to visit our product page and understand how our solution can help you in:

• Defining Recipes with the minutest details like Ingredients, its brand, quantity required, etc.
• Conversion of Recipe Quantity of items to Procurable quantity - Typically the quantity of individual items required to get the planned output of finished goods would be expressed in Grams/KGs if the item is solid, Liters if the item is liquid. The procurement could be in different parameters which are called as SKU (Stock keeping Unit). Our system automatically converts to achieve efficient inventory planning and procurement planning
• Quality compliance – The quality module has the features to enable you to incorporate the Quality Plans, related activities, schedules, etc. System proactively sends triggers for the activities to be carried out and also offers you to update the quality inspection findings, remedial action planning where required, actions taken, etc. In other words – the entire workflow of Quality compliance activities are automated.
• Cost Determination – System automatically arrives at the cost raw materials used in production for a given production plan based on the procurement price. The details are available at the individual item level. Further even the complimentary quantity is factored in while arriving at the cost.
• Tracking of Batch id – One of the parameters of Item definition is Batch id and the choice is with the users to make it mandatory or optional. By defining batch id for the items procured, Users will be able to track the complete consignment if a particular used in the production is not of standard and return the consignment to the vendor
• As part of Employee Administration system allows the Users to create certification related records, its due date for renewal, roster, etc.