The key to transformation for manufacturing/distribution warehouse enterprises of food-beverage and dairy industry
The Corona pandemic has shown the general public how important logistical processes around food-beverage goods are. It is important to understand that the requirements for a warehouse management system in the food-beverage industry are extremely complex, especially for the dairy sector in this industry. This article will be addressing the warehouse problems in the food-beverage and dairy industry…
What are the biggest challenges for food-beverage & dairy warehouses?
- Real-time transparency and inventory
Food-beverage or dairy need to ensure precise conditions, on-time delivery, compliance and stability. With no visibility, how can you be sure your cargo will turn up on time, in the right condition? The drive for full end-to-end transparency is a massive, and ongoing, challenge for food-beverage & dairy logistics.
- Traceability of raw materials
Along with pharmaceuticals, food-beverage & dairy is one of the most regulated markets in the world today. Food-beverage companies need to be confident that machinery is operating correctly, and the logistics can handle issues in case something goes wrong.
Besides, in a time where food safety concerns seem to dominate amongst consumers, F&B businesses are facing a greater need to reinforce food traceability practices across their warehouse processes. Tech is crucial, but if the inbound of raw materials is not good, is technology still indispensable?
Yet with food ingredients and finished products often having different and specific storage and handling instructions, food traceability and safety can be a real challenge within a warehouse environment. Warehouse operators need to keep in mind basic factors such as first-in first-out (FIFO), humidity levels and storage temperatures, as food product safety is often highly scrutinized, especially when errors do arise.
There are two problems posed at the traceability stage. First, trace the raw materials that make this industry’s products on one line at a time. The next step is to trace the products to consumers. When there is a case of a quality-related problem, it will take a lot of time to contact, look up and reverse the product. At the same time, it entails the traceability of production materials.
- Digitisation and integration
The challenge for food-beverage & dairy companies is how to safely transition and adapt to the “new normal”, enhancing the safety of the post-COVID work environment. Digitizing and standardizing documents or reports that used to be manual on paper, now switched to computer platforms, automation – digital can improve many aspects.
Digitization always comes with integration, assuming your business already has a warehouse management system but that system is discrete and not connected to other systems like ERP or DMS. This means that an intermediate stitch is still needed between these two systems and still consumes additional downtime of enterprise resources.
- Labor and sustainability
Even before the pandemic, many food-beverage & dairy warehouse businesses faced the problem of labor shortages. Furthermore, the pandemic has only exacerbated the problem. This leads to some impact factoring in higher labor costs to compete and attract. Not to mention the quality of this much labor!
Even if the number of employees is sufficient for the large warehouse area, the coordination between work tasks and operators with vehicles is a big challenge for most warehouse businesses in general and food & dairy warehouses in particular.
What does long-term change look like?
Since most tasks involved in warehouse management are linked in some way, a problem in one can lead to costly errors in the others as well. Using a warehouse management system can help you maintain a smooth running warehouse, free of these hiccups and remove the challenges that listed above.
Around the world, it is a trend that F&B businesses are investing in new processes and technologies are increasing, such as Warehouse Management Systems to help support product traceability and to accelerate responsiveness in times of product recall.
In addition, with a smart and efficient warehouse management system, food-beverage & dairy warehouse administrators will be able to control and monitor inventory in real time. By the same token, from recording changes in inventory to anticipating inventory needs, such automated solutions allow businesses to better schedule and execute warehouse operations effortlessly, from the time goods enter a warehouse until they are transported out.
Check out Blue Yonder Warehouse Management System (BY WMS), a real-time warehouse management solution based on comprehensive SaaS. The solution cleverly addresses supply chain interruptions, creating a competitive advantage for the business.
BY WMS is applied technology to optimize tasks, ensuring every aspect of the goods’ movement is implemented in the best way. It is a comprehensive, mobile-ready solution for inventory distribution and management, including labor management, yard management, domestic operations, inventory management, single processing: operations, external activities, third-party logistics operations, and business analytics.
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