ACUMATICA: FOOD & BEVERAGE MANUFACTURING

Food and beverage manufacturers operate in a highly regulated industry. To succeed, they need a modern ERP solution that will deliver long-lasting results.

As 2023 is officially upon us, the food and beverage industries remain at battle with elevated costs, supply chain delays, and product/ingredient shortages. In addition to these concerns, growth of the food and beverage industry is expected to be virtually non-existent in the immediate future.

According to the 2023 Foodservice Industry and Segment Projections from the International Foodservice Manufacturers Association (IMFA), “operator spend in the foodservice industry will decline by 0.1 percent, considered flat on a real basis in 2023, compared to 2022.”

The IFMA also believes the industry will experience inflation of 7.7%, leading to high-priced goods and increased expenditure.

* These projections are based upon several key assumptions, including an economic recession in 2022, supply chain constraints, labor shortages, and many white-collar employees continuing to work remotely rather than in the office.

To address these complexities, food and beverage manufacturers must first assess the technology they’re using to manage the manufacturing processes—the setup for monitoring expiration dates, handling recall requirements, complying with governmental regulations, managing financials and customers, etc. Food and beverage ERP strategies are a must – but it’s time to thin outside of the box, not just any ordinary ERP.

Legacy ERP systems maintain the name ‘legacy’ because they’re difficult to maintain, with siloed data and manual processes. Luckily, there’s modern ERP solutions, such as Acumatica, to assist with automation, and connection for a resilient organization that is ready to meet expected—and unexpected—challenges head on.

How an ERP Implementation Can Transform a Company

Food and beverage ERP tactics should be established in software which can integrate multiple systems—enabling businesses to handle financials, order and inventory management, quality management, regulatory compliance, EDI transactions, sales, reporting, and more from a single application. Acumatica does just that. As a cloud-based ERP solution, Acumatica is designed with end-users in mind; accesses company-wide data from anywhere, at anytime in a single-centralized location. Additionally, third-party applications seamlessly integrate with Acuamtica to create a customized experience.

Below, we’ll talk about some of the ways Acumatica’s wide-ranging capabilities and functionalities can help food and beverage manufacturers transform their operations for success in today’s economy.

1. Integrated, Optimized Workflows and Data

To maintain the ongoing challenges of optimizing workflows while sharing updated, accurate information across the organization and throughout the supply chain, food and beverage manufacturers must take advantage of a modern ERP solution. Without an ERP, disconnected systems, changing conditions, and evolving regulations make it difficult for leaders to obtain the proper data to make informed decisions.

With Acumatica’s cloud-based ERP system, data from every part of the business flows into and out of a central, unified solution, providing a single, comprehensive view of the entire organization. This clear visibility exposes a business’s performance in real time and provides the information necessary for data-driven decision-making.

According to Acumatica, a good example of this is Marikina Food Corporation, the producer of HOBE “QUICK COOK” Bihon and Hobe Express products. Marikina once managed its business with legacy ERP software and Excel spreadsheets, but, as the company grew, this disconnected system soon became a stumbling block. So, Marikina began researching other solutions that manage ERP for the food and beverage industry, and this search led to Acumatica.

Now, Marikina Foods is an efficient business that experiences less downtime and operates on a solid base of accurate, complete, real-time data.

“We used to wait seven days for the information to come in. With Acumatica, we have it in two days or less. This allows us to make decisions at a faster rate, react faster, and stay ahead of the competition,” says Patrick Ordonez, Financial Consultant at Marikina. “We can now see which items need to be discontinued, if there is a problem with costs, and do a deep dive by product, by region, by salesperson, and product category. Our decision making is much better.”

2. Energized Production Lines and Operations

Food and beverage manufacturers manage numerous materials and products at once. While many still use spreadsheets to manually track inventory, there’s huge gap for human error.

Luckily with Acumatica’s Cloud ERP solution these slow, and inaccurate inventory management processes are solved with automation to track inventory and provide updated, reliable information to all end-users. Businesses can also oversee and analyze production lines and transactions across multiple channels and platforms.

Acumatica customer Derek Szabo, Managing Director at Devil’s Peak Brewing Company, says they replaced QuickBooks with Acumatica, and it has helped them improve “control and visibility of inventory as it moves through the end-to-end value chain.”

He also says: “Full supply chain visibility will enable us to target the areas where we have issues and tackle them, to ensure we are operating efficiently and driving growth across sales, supply chain, manufacturing, and finance. We are already trusting the numbers in our systems more, and as our business becomes more and more complex that becomes more critical. We can focus on selling and making beer.”

3. Accelerated Hiring and Staffing Cycles

‘The Great Resignation’ has made it difficult for manufacturers to fill open positions, which has now placed a strong emphasis on recruiting and employee retention.

This is another area in which Acumatica can help. It provides business leaders with a single dashboard which shows accurate data about current staffing resources, labor rates, and costs. With this information, end-users can easily pinpoint hiring and staffing cycle needs. By automating business processes and streamlining workflows, Acumatica can also reduce the number of staff members needed to keep the organization running.

In a recent article on staffing shortages, Martha Lucia Groulx, Chief People Officer at Acumatica, writes, “With ERP systems, people, processes, and records are brought together under one umbrella. Employees don’t have to switch from one system to another, saving them time and effort. Managers have a 360-degree view of the business, including the workload and resourcing of their teams, which provides insight into where and why pain points exist. Working smarter with fewer people is a reality when SMBs implement the right ERP system.”

4. Streamlined Quality Assurance and Management

Quality and safety are top priorities in the food industry. According to Acumatica’s “Manufacturing: Food and Beverage Industry Digest,” food and beverage manufacturers are heavily regulated.

*Companies face strict lot tracking and must manage recalls, allergens, nutritional labeling, and more. Other challenges include process manufacturing production methods, expiration dates for perishable inventory, catch weights, byproducts, and flexible pricing with promotions and allowances for customer returns due to spoilage and damage.

Food and beverage ERP tactics must align with manufacturers’ overall goal of ensuring the safety of product consumption, regulatory requirements, and exceeding consumer expectations. With Acumatica, manufacturers have a connected quality management application with the quality testing capabilities, certificates of analysis (COA), AQL and sampling features, traceability and recall notices (and more) which are needed for success.

Your Next Steps

Acumatica’s cloud-based ERP solution integrates and optimizes workflows and data across an organization, manages inventory, assists in hiring/retaining employees, helps companies ensure food quality and safety, and much more. Ultimately, it’s exactly what manufacturers need to manage ERP in the food and beverage industry, overcome challenges, and transform their operations for success in today’s marketplace.

When you team up with ACC Software Solutions, you’ll receive a team of experts with over 25 years of industry experience to help determine the right solution for you and your business. Contact our staff today for your FREE consultation!