How the Streamlined Workflows and Status Visibility of Food ERP Software Boost Operational Efficiency

Research commissioned by Aptean and conducted by B2B International revealed that building up inventory was the most successful strategy for overcoming supply chain challenges for food and beverage businesses over the past year. By raising production targets to increase stock levels, respondents in North America achieved 2.1% more revenue growth compared to peers, and their European counterparts using the same tactic enjoyed a comparable 1.8% gap on the competition.

The approach certainly makes sense—if you accumulate extra raw materials and finished goods, you’ll be better able to weather disruptions that might arise, like a material shortage that results in having to halt one of your lines. But it’s important to keep in mind that if the goal is to up your facilities’ daily output, that demands greater efficiency and highly streamlined processes.

Your employees can’t be left wondering what their next action item is, and your key decision-makers need to have eyes on the current status of many simultaneous procedures, from receiving ingredients and substance screening to production runs and quality checks. Each step in your mission-critical exercises must flow seamlessly into the next, and the more visibility you have into the latest progress, the better.

Of course, if you’re shooting for that level of performance and insight, you can’t rely on paper-based systems and manual methods. You need an easy-to-use, organization-wide digital platform, like an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution designed specifically for food and beverage manufacturers. And it must have purpose-built functionalities that facilitate standardized procedures and promote consistently excellent results.

So that you can get an idea of just what we’re describing, let's examine in detail two features of Aptean Food & Beverage ERP that drive efficiency and keep your operations moving forward: the advanced workflow engine and the status management toolset. You’ll learn how they work, some of their many use cases and the benefits they can help you unlock.

Streamlined Processes With Advanced Workflow Engine

Our solution’s advanced workflow engine can simplify and streamline even the most complex business processes, thereby boosting operational efficiency and minimizing the risk that human error will cause a delay or necessitate rework. It does so by facilitating the creation of structured, step-by-step workflows with clear parameters that establish the “who,” “what,” “why” and “when” for each action.

Once you choose from the many workflow and “to-do” templates the engine offers, you’re able to define the “who” by assigning responsibility for a certain action to a specific employee or even an external contact. The assignee will then receive an email notification to alert them and see the to-do in their queue on the ERP platform.

To establish the “what” that is entailed in a given action, you can select from a number of to-do types, and you can also set up rules for automatic completion of a task by the system. Meanwhile, you can set the “why” behind the to-do by defining the terms for its activation—in other words, the conditions that must be satisfied before it becomes active and in queue to execute.

Lastly, to define the “when” for the to-do, you can use time dependencies to align the start or end of a process with certain conditions, like the completion of a separate to-do. The system automatically accounts for changes in your schedule, updating future points in a larger workflow based on the actual completion dates of prior actions.

With the tools to clearly establish the specifics for each action in your processes and facilitate smooth progress from step to step, the advanced workflow engine of Aptean Food & Beverage ERP can help improve productivity and promote consistency in day-to-day operations.

Clear Visibility With Status Management

The status management toolset that our software provides helps your key decision-makers monitor the progress of your processes in detail while also affording shop floor staff easy visibility into current priorities and their next action items. In many ways, it acts in concert with the workflow engine by making it clear to everyone where various procedures are in their timelines.

Each workflow you establish, from the movement of the sales pipeline to manufacturing runs, can be tracked using status updates that provide the detail your employees need to make their best decisions. What’s more, you can set the necessary parameters that must be satisfied before each process can move forward and leverage a tile-based dashboard to monitor all actives workflows.

Within the workflow engine, statuses are denoted with color-coded icons and can be filtered to identify bottlenecks, delays or missed hand-offs. Together, all of these functionalities serve the greater purpose of keeping your operations humming along so that you can meet your ambitious production targets.

Reasons To Put Aptean at the Top of Your List

In terms of ERP features that can increase efficiency, the advanced workflow engine and status management toolset are two excellent examples, but Aptean Food & Beverage ERP offers several more. With powerful automations to leverage at each step in your company’s supply chains, our solution can help you unlock the full potential of your operations.

Whether you’re focusing on increasing productivity to satisfy current demand or build up inventory, our food ERP software offers the functionality you need to succeed in the competitive food and beverage market. That’s because it was developed by dedicated professionals with decades of collective experience with the industry—we really know how unique your challenges are, as well as best practices to follow.

We also offer flexible cloud deployments that can afford your organization better scalability, enhanced data security, stronger cybersecurity and broader accessibility—all with minimal hardware requirements. And, our software is built on the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central platform, which lends it a user-friendly interface that facilitates worker adoption.

Finally, consider that we were recognized with Frost and Sullivan’s Customer Value Leadership Award in North American ERP Software for the Food and Beverage Industry. That stands as a testament to our commitment to the industry, as well as the value we add for our customers by acting as more than a vendor, but a long-term partner.

Now, if you’re ready to learn more about Aptean Food & Beverage ERP and how it can help your business improve efficiency from end to end, contact us today. You can also request a personalized demo.