Track, Trace Technology Drives Business Improvements

In contrast, automated track and trace solutions allow production tracking through each manufacturing area, supplying the key data needed to make informed decisions on actual completion dates. Advanced systems can also help manufacturers better meet customer requests for expedited orders by easily revising production schedules and more directly routing priority products through the manufacturing process.

Companies that successfully improve the supply chain through responsive manufacturing processes have the opportunity to increase both revenue and brand marketability by earning prime shelf space at leading grocery and retail outlets.

Benefit #3: Increased Inventory Accuracy

Food and beverage manufacturers are also working to reduce costs and increase efficiency related to inventory. These continuous improvement processes are focused on carefully measuring and managing raw materials while maintaining control over finished goods inventory. To meet such goals, companies can use tracking and tracing systems to monitor and record actual usages in real time, enabling far more precise inventory control compared to manual systems, in which cycle counting is the norm.

Additionally, automated tracking and tracing solutions can track the amount of actual material used at each manufacturing stage and can automatically deduct from inventory levels in business systems. This capability enables manufacturers to track inventory levels in real time and order only the amount of raw material needed—an advantage that eliminates the need for extra stock, frees capital, and reduces overall operating expenses.

Benefit #4: Reduced Costs

Raw data collected through an automated tracking tool can provide a more complete view of the actual cost to manufacture each product by identifying the costs for each step in the production process, including:

• Actual amount of raw materials used;
• Yield from conversion processes;
• Quantity of good product produced;
• Amount of scrap;
• Labor costs involved in each process step;
• Utilities employed and their quantity;
• Cycle time for each step; and
• Equipment performance, including efficiency, downtime, cycle time, and production rate.

Using such data, companies can examine specific costs associated with individual production areas and help business leaders make decisions that will reduce manufacturing costs. Additionally, data from tracking and tracing applications can be compared to actual cost data in the company’s business system, enabling a systematic comparison of actual costs at each manufacturing step. For example, waste streams can be analyzed to determine total cost, then superior production days can be compared to sub-par days to understand differences in cost and the potential value achieved through superior performance.

The Competitive Advantage

Succeeding in today’s competitive food and beverage manufacturing industry means ensuring that consumers can consistently rely on a finished product’s taste, texture, shape, and smell. From batch to batch and facility to facility, products under the same brand banner must maintain the same high standards and qualities. Failure to do so can result in uneven or declining sales and damage to valuable brand equity.

For food and beverage manufacturers, maintaining consistency across facilities and batches requires having enough correlated data that can be analyzed to identify needed improvements in operations. Successful companies use tracking and tracing tools to analyze key data at each step of the manufacturing process, including the source of raw materials used, current operating conditions, product quality, and even the personnel working when a given batch is created. Using such data, company leaders can identify the optimal conditions that lead to superior batches—and products with excellent yield and quality.

Using current automated tracking and tracing tools, manufacturers can examine even the smallest factors that might affect final quality. A cookie producer, for example, might look to see if final quality is impacted by the use of a specific mixer or industrial oven in the manufacturing line. External factors, such as water supply and relative humidity, can also be isolated to examine the impact on a batch’s final quality.