Success, even survival, in the Food & Beverage Manufacturing business is about having your quality product on the shelf, at the right time, at the right price.

And your job as a Food & Beverage Manufacturer is to manage...

- All the steps along the way to make that happen, from Procurement through Production to Dispatch.

- All the different disciplines that make up the modern food industry, from Food Technology to Quality

Control to Plant Management to Technical Sales.

Your Management judgements become even more critical as Supermarket Chains, Fast Food Chains, and indeed all your customers squeeze your margins while demanding excellent quality and improved delivery. End consumers add other agendas of healthy choices, allergy-free products and so on.

You know you must exploit the new manufacturing management information and decision support systems to help in making those management judgements.

There is: The concept is ERP, especially designed for Food and beverages Industry combined with everything the modern Food Manufacturer needs to meet the regulatory compliance needs of this complex industry while focusing on what's really important: delivering quality products at the right price to their customers right when they need them.

While evaluating an ERP following features should be considered:

o HACCP, USDA and FDA requirements Regulatory Compliance support, including Nutritional Labeling, Ingredients statement, Audit Logs and reporting

o cGMP support with SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) screen - embedded access to written and audio instructions, graphic process flows, even video!

o The original and most proven formula management system with comprehensive bill of materials functionality that provides flexible packaging alternatives, with support for private label manufacturing

o Advanced costing decision support: 'What-if' costing, 5 simultaneous costing methods supported, plus productivity, utilization and yield analysis

o Comprehensive and effective Inventory management

o Repack functionality

o Weight and quantity wise Inventory storage/maintenance (Catch Weight)

o Consistent and coherent lot tracking system with product recall and explosion capabilities

o Lot Attributes

o Availability of numerous analytical reports to cater to different needs

o Pre- process, In process and Post-process Quality Control testing

o Automatic reformulation based on target values as well as pricing

o Complete allergen management, including tracking of Kosher, Organic, Halal, etc.

o Proper co-products and by-products Management

o Numerous lot Picking strategies plus quarantine support and shelf Life longevity

o Advanced forecasting, with transfer of forecasts to sales orders

o Sales templates for rapid customer Service response

o Business Intelligence & CRM Capabilities.

Apart from the industry specific features one should also make sure that the solution has robust accounting modules which can offer the following:

· Tight Control on all accounting modules and Information

· True integration across the application

· Full multilingual and multi currency capabilities

· Efficiently tackles demanding budgets

· Easily handles processing needs

· Maximized Accuracy of financial data

· Up-to-date sales information along with outstanding balances

· Full-Integration with banking services, for complete bank reconciliation

· Streamlined cash flow system

· Varied accounting and reporting features resulting in fast invoice entry, flexible cash disbursement and full-cheque reconciliation

· TDS and fixed assets accounting

Sage India is having its ERP Solutions for Food processing industry. To know more you can visit http://www.sagesoftware.co.in

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