Driving Innovation and Solving Industry Challenges: How Aptean Technology Powers the Success of Food and Beverage Companies

The ongoing labor shortage is chewing away at the food and beverage industry, with 41% of companies seeing long-term revenue losses. In addition to struggling with rising expenses and unfulfilled production targets, businesses face mounting pressures from stricter regulations and supply chain disruptions—making manual processes increasingly unsustainable. Aptean’s technology solutions unlock the potential for companies to drive innovation and overcome these hurdles by automating workflows and ensuring compliance in a rapidly changing market.

A cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) system can serve as the perfect foundation for overcoming the complexities that challenge the food and beverage industry today. Aptean’s cutting-edge ERP software enables seamless integration across departments through a platform with one single source of truth—addressing critical issues such as compliance, demand forecasting and operational efficiency. Through strategic partnerships with industry leaders, Aptean empowers businesses to streamline operations, overcome labor shortages and swiftly adapt to shifting market demands, solidifying its reputation as a trusted partner for long-term success.

Discover how successful companies are leveraging Aptean technology to drive innovation and solve Food and Beverage industry challenges.

Discover innovations to solving challenges in the Food and Beverage industry with technology

The following organizations have achieved their business goals with Aptean food and beverage-specific technology.

Operational Efficiency: How Pizza Joe’s Unlocked Substantial Operational Improvements With Aptean Food & Beverage ERP

Before it became the culinary cornerstone today, Pizza Joe's faced significant operational challenges with its outdated system, creating bottlenecks that hindered efficiency across the business. The company struggled with limited visibility into financial data and inventory inaccuracies, which led to costly reconciliations and impacted decision-making. Recognizing the need for a modern solution, Pizza Joe’s implemented Aptean Food & Beverage ERP.

Aptean’s cloud-based ERP provided enhanced visibility into stock, sales and financial data, while also simplifying inventory management with intuitive dashboards. The implementation process was smooth, with Aptean’s expert team providing on-site support and guidance, ensuring the company could start seeing benefits immediately upon go-live.

After implementing Aptean Food & Beverage ERP, Pizza Joe’s has transformed its operations, particularly in managing dough production and financial tracking. The system has enabled the company to improve accuracy, reduce waste and eliminate the need for manual calculations, resulting in better profit margins and cost savings. Enhanced financial visibility has also eliminated the need for external auditors, delivering additional cost savings and underscoring the strong return on investment Pizza Joe’s achieved with Aptean’s industry-specific suite.

Pizza Joe’s, Controller

“I’ve heard from a few of our team members that their work is so much easier than it used to be and that’s just great to hear. Sometimes change can be terrifying, but if you do it for the right reasons, there’s usually a good result.”

Ensuring Compliance and Quality: How Quality Harvest Foods Maintains Stringent FDA Compliance

Since its founding in 1964, Quality Harvest Foods has been a testament to the enduring values of quality and innovation in the industry. As its production volume increased, the family-owned company recognized the need for enhanced food safety and quality control. With over 4 million pounds of food produced each month, managing safety and traceability was crucial to meeting regulatory requirements and consumer demand. To address this, the company adopted Aptean Food & Beverage ERP, which provided comprehensive tools to automate compliance tracking and streamline quality assurance.

Aptean Food & Beverage ERP enables Quality Harvest Foods to take control of inventory management, daily production tracking and ingredient scheduling—ensuring each step of the process adheres to FDA standards. By enhancing traceability, organizations like Quality Harvest Foods are able to efficiently monitor their supply chain end-to-end, helping them stay compliant and ready for the upcoming Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) requirements. The system’s ability to streamline workflows and automate key compliance tasks positioned Quality Harvest Foods for future regulatory changes while ensuring quality and safety at scale.

Quality Harvest Foods reinforced its dedication to delivering nutritious, safe products to schools with Aptean Food & Beverage ERP. The platform not only improved operational efficiency but also reduced waste, ensuring that the company could meet its goals for sustainability and excellence. By embracing modern technology, the company continues to thrive while maintaining its commitment to quality and compliance in their dynamic industry.

Quality Harvest Foods, VP of Finance

“We use the [system to] take inventory every day. And we reconcile that with a physical count. Sometimes we must make adjustments, but it's been a real good benefit for us to use this system so we can track every day how we're progressing to meet customer demand.”

Scaling Production While Maintaining Flexibility: Gehl’s Growth Story

Having originally used a homegrown system, Gehl’s recognized the need for a solution to help them adapt to changing consumer trends, prompting the transition to Aptean’s industry-specific ERP. This move not only provided essential functionalities like integrated electronic data interchange (EDI) but also enhanced procurement and production planning, enabling the company to meet the demands of major retailers and the evolving market.

With the seamless integration of Aptean’s overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) software, Gehl’s has achieved significant improvements in productivity through real-time performance tracking and root cause analysis of delays. This capability has allowed the company to identify opportunities to minimize waste and optimize operations, directly contributing to its ability to scale efficiently. Additionally, Aptean Smart Hub integration has enhanced the company’s operational efficiency by streamlining their processes, reducing the burden of manual tasks and enabling employees to focus on higher-value responsibilities.

As a result of these technology advancements, Gehl’s has fostered a culture of continuous improvement, adapting its processes over time to enhance visibility into inventory management and production planning. For Gehl’s, these upgrades are instrumental in navigating the complexities of the food and beverage industry. By leveraging Aptean’s scalable solutions, the company is well-positioned for future growth and expansion, with the ability to integrate new facilities and product lines seamlessly into its operations.

Director of Operations, Southern Food Merchandisers

“I couldn’t imagine doing it without Aptean TMS”

Data-Driven Decision Making: How Bongards Creameries Drives Continual Growth With Aptean Smart Hub

Bongards Creameries realized that relying on outdated tools like notebooks and spreadsheets was holding back its growth potential. To modernize operations and stay competitive, they turned to Aptean Smart Hub, which automated critical processes and unlocked new efficiencies. This transformation freed up employees to focus on high-priority tasks, empowering the business to meet growing demands and increase overall productivity.

With Aptean Smart Hub, Bongards automated processes across several areas, including inventory management and warehouse operations. These enhancements, combined with auto-invoicing capabilities, saved the company’s Accounts Receivable team up to two and a half weeks of labor in peak months, demonstrating the impact of automation on efficiency.

The positive results of Aptean’s solution extend beyond time savings. By automating key operational tasks, Bongards has improved inventory control, enhanced data accuracy and streamlined warehouse operations, which ultimately position the company for continued growth. These gains underscore Aptean's role in enabling the company to scale effectively while staying competitive in a dynamic market.

IT Director, Bongards Creameries

“[Aptean Smart Hub] looks at the data, analyzes it and alerts certain team members if conditions are met. We didn’t have that capability before Smart Hub—we didn’t have any system at all that would look at data and send out a notification to alert someone."

Future Proofing Operations: How Packaged Produce Solutions Drives Growth

Packaged Produce Solutions knows that in the fresh produce industry, precise traceability in food products from processing to consumer is critical. To meet this challenge, the company implemented Aptean Food & Beverage ERP, a highly flexible cloud-based solution that provided industry-specific functionalities like country of origin labeling and real-time inventory management. The system provides comprehensive transparency across the supply chain, helping the business meet regulatory requirements and improve operational efficiency.

By leveraging the cloud-based capabilities of Aptean Food & Beverage ERP, Packaged Produce Solutions gained flexibility, enhanced data protection and broader accessibility. These features were particularly valuable as the company scaled, allowing for streamlined workflows and robust integration with the company’s accounting system. This flexibility also enabled the team to efficiently manage operations, reducing the risk of errors and improving overall business performance.

The results were evident as Packaged Produce Solutions future-proofed its operations, benefiting from automation in expiration management and enhanced traceability. This modern technology helped the company significantly reduce manual tasks, ensuring food safety while supporting sustainability efforts. The scalable nature of Aptean Food & Beverage ERP has positioned Packaged Produce Solutions for continued growth and long-term success.

Director of Technology and Improvement, Packaged Produce Solutions

“Having our solution hosted in the cloud, that’s really great. It takes a lot of work and worry off our plate.”

Aptean Suite of Technology Drives Innovation for Food and Beverage Organizations

These company stories have shown how Aptean Food & Beverage ERP alongside Aptean TMS, Aptean Smart Hub and Aptean OEE help address industry challenges with precision—head on. As the food and beverage sector continues to grapple with labor shortages, rising costs and tighter regulations, Aptean’s cloud-based technology suite addresses these challenges by automating key processes and ensuring compliance. With streamlined workflows and greater operational visibility, companies can adapt quickly to market demands while improving efficiency and nurturing growth.

Aptean’s solutions offer concrete results, such as reduced production time, enhanced traceability and better financial management. The system's scalability allows businesses to handle changing customer demands, while its seamless integration with tools like CRM and TMS enhances overall performance. Aptean’s industry-specific expertise ensures that companies not only meet regulatory requirements, but also stay ahead of market changes.

Moreover, with its proven track record of successful software implementations, Aptean has a team of solution experts that supports long-term growth for food and beverage businesses, offering insights to help you overcome your operational hurdles and thrive in a complex industry environment.

Learn more from our blog on how you can drive innovation, or schedule your personalized demo today to see our solutions in action.