“Logistics planners struggle every day with expedited freight events, poorly utilized transportation resources, excess, slow moving stock, and competing customer priorities,” says Stephen Dombroski, director, consumer markets, QAD Inc., Santa Barbara, CA. The right ERP system can improve all of these operational factors.
“The value chain today has expanded, and consumer preferences have changed and evolved to include more snacking to supplement or replace full meals, forcing manufacturers’ inventory and promotion management needs to match up with the changes to the business,” says Dombroski. Regulations and compliance requirements are also increasing, and field-to-fork traceability is now becoming a necessity. “With the changing consumer demands comes the need to adjust product offerings and an increase in new products that complicates manufacturing, operations, and supply,” he says. These issues all dictate the need for expert asset management.
“Many bakery products have very short shelf lives and lead times,” says Mikael Bengtsson, industry and solution strategy director, food and beverage, Infor, New York. “Advanced capable-to-promise rules check available stock, production lead times, eventual external sourcing options, and transportation routes at order entry to accurately and instantly plan the complete supply chain. This drives all operations—sourcing, production schedule, picking and packing, truck loading, and transportation—down to the minute. Minimum ‘Best if used by’ dates can be customer- and SKU-specific. Strict rotation rules can be enabled to guarantee that products with the correct shelf life are delivered. To increase efficiency, a continuous process is also supported, including demand sensing to adjust the volumes on time and allow for smart grouping of activities.”