Why integrated ERP software is crucial for the food industry

It’s no secret that the food industry has experienced a strange and unpredictable year. From panic buying and empty shelves to the rise of takeaway-only dining, businesses have had to pivot fast. From one extreme to the other, food businesses have had to respond quickly to the changes. While some have struggled to keep up, those with the right tech, like a fully integrated ERP system, have stayed ahead of the curve.

ERP software for the food industry has demonstrated its essential and crucial role for food manufacturers, processors, and distributors to survive and thrive in the chaos.

Optimising food shelf life: a race against time

In food, time is money. Whether it’s a use-by, sell-by, or display-by date, you’ve got to move fast to get products out the door with enough shelf life left to keep customers happy whilst adhering to health and safety regulations. How can food businesses manage this?

Dynamics Food, the ERP system built for food businesses and powered by Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, keeps your fast-moving and short-use inventory near the front of your warehouse, allowing your forklift drivers to pick up the orders that are ready to go. 

Dynamics Food adds huge value by optimising your warehouse management by considering the remaining shelf life of a product and matching it to the requirements of the next part of the handling chain. Automating this process gives your warehouse staff back their valuable time and money by avoiding time spent delving into the deepest depths of your warehouse to retrieve a product.  

Integrated EDI with the major food retailers

Printing out EDI orders and manually creating invoices or barcode labels is a recipe for errors and wasted time.

Being more responsive to the changing demands of the retailers elevates your food company above the competition. With fully integrated EDI, Dynamics Food:

• Automatically processes orders from major retailers
• Speeds up shipping and reduces admin
• Keeps you responsive to last-minute changes

You’ll be ready to ship before your competitors have even printed the order.

3PL integration that keeps food businesses in the loop

Using third-party logistics (3PLs) is great, until you lose track of your stock. The more you use 3PLs, the more you’ll need to keep track of your consignment stock in warehouses, and paper trails just don’t cut it when your products are flying off the shelves.

Using Dynamics Food gives you:

• Real-time visibility of stock at your 3PL
• Seamless data exchange between your system and theirs
• Confidence that your deliveries are where they should be

Farm to fork traceability

Using a paper-based traceability process to manage your stock is evidence of a bygone era and not only becomes outdated very quickly, but manually keeping this accurate will be difficult to manage. With tighter regulations and BRC audits, growing food businesses need a system that’s fast, accurate, and stress-free for full farm-to-fork traceability.

As a centralised ERP system, Dynamics Food ensures your food manufacturing or distribution business can maintain farm-to-fork traceability, while enabling you to complete an end-to-end reverse trace in seconds (rather than hours!) on your raw ingredients and packaging. So when the auditors arrive, you’re ready.

Catchweight management – right out of the box

Working in the food industry often means distributing products that naturally vary in weight, can shrink, or are sold in one unit of measure whilst priced in another.

Manually tracking catchweight is costly, time-consuming, and prone to human error - another headache you don’t need. 

Dynamics Food automatically measures your margins and profitability without the extra labour, helping you manage shrinkage and/or wastage from goods receipts to production and shipping at various stages in your business processes.  

Ready to Take Control?

Whether you’re dealing with shelf-life stress, EDI overload, or traceability nightmares, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. 
Dynamics Food is built by people who understand the food industry and its unique challenges.

Want to see Dynamics Food in action? Get in touch today.