F & B (food and beverage) and CPG (Consumer Packaging Materials) The new products in the world are full of promises and traps. There are tremendous opportunities for growth and differentiation, but obstacles that interfere with innovation require a bold problem solving and a willingness to challenge the current state.
The innovation team should simplify how to simplify and perform the work that this burden is to comply with fragmented suppliers, demands for greater efficiency or new regulations.
Paul Bradley, chief director of the product marketing director of TraceGains, said, “When the trade wind is converted, the food and beverage company is exposed to everything.” Currently, this incredibly unbelievably interconnected industry is changing with tariffs, sustainability demands, inflation, supply chain, and raw material prices. The result of the volatility is a strict requirement over the success of the product.
External factors increase the rod of risk
The risk is not new to the F & B and CPG brands. Doing something else always requires a certain level of risk. What happens if the product doesn’t resonate with the consumer? Is it noticeable in crowded shelves? However, this uncertainty is multiplied when external risk factors accumulate around.
The current brand needs to find a way to reduce risk and uncertainty. Bradley is to build a flexible sourcing strategy.
“It’s always challenged to find a new supplier, qualify, ride on boards, and operate such a relationship, but now it’s not only the company to manage it,” he explains. “To do this, there is a steep curve.”
For sourcing success, you must leave a spreadsheet.
Improving sourcing tactics begins by accepting digitalization. It is imported to a centralized integrated platform that standardizes data by signing a contract with a file cabinet and a desktop and server. Digital foundations have a common way to freely flow and capture and deliver requirements.
Bradley said, “This removes a big friction point from operation.” It is easier to collaborate, innovate, and solve the problem. “
What value does the integrated platform bring to sourcing? Integrate information with the team.
Innovation and development of new products are essentially cross -functional, requiring cooperation with several internal teams and external partners (suppliers and manufacturers). The integrated digital platform is a place where all these stakeholders can smoothly exchange information to reduce the inefficiency and waste of time during communication, adjustment and handoffs.
For example, take the ingredient specifications for food formulations. The specifications deal with everything from technology attributes and allergens to country of origin and affect all stages of new product development, such as sourcing, recipe development, manufacturing, quality control and delivery to shops.
Although you can manage this information using PDF or Prints (many brands are still so), this approach is inefficient due to the need for complexity and the necessity of fast adaptation. Instead, having a single well -managed digital specification that acts as a source of a single truth can move smoothly through all stages of the process.
The processes that have been independent for decades, such as R & D, product development and packaging design, must be gathered together. The process is different, but their actions affect each other and affect the results. For example, make a recall. Bradley said, “The cause of the first place remains an allergen problem. In general, the Allergen Declaration of the packaging has been wrong or missing.
How an integrated platform promotes the market faster time on the market
The integrated platform provides a lot of new opportunities to the table because it enables collaboration and standardization at a new level.
The brand is more agile and can adapt to change. This can be adapted to change regardless of whether the lack of ingredients or prohibitions can meet the changes of customers or to launch new products to reconstruct existing products.
This level of adaptability is interpreted faster in the market even in a rapidly changing environment. It can you save your ideas more efficiently on the shelf in the concept and reduce the delay between the handoffs.
By adopting an integrated digital platform to solve the problem at all stages of new product development, F & B manufacturers can surpass confusion and shift confusion into competitive advantage.
Learn more about the digital sourcing strategy on TraceGains.com.