In the face of increasingly strict FDA compliance, food and beverage companies struggle to make adjustments to the new demands of the the FDA’s Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). This act is a response to the food safety public health threats that require food and beverage companies worldwide to take steps to prevent intentional and potentially wide-spread contamination of the food supply. This new law adds another layer to the burden to food and beverage companies that are already struggling. Today, they already face the unpredictability of profits with the volatile pricing based in the market and irregular patterns of supply and demand. The good news is that modern ERP solutions like Sage X3 can help by providing a lot of functionality to help with compliance requirements. While Sage X3 can be tailored to fit many industries with specialized requirements, it offers unique advantages to food and beverage businesses.
So what’s at the bottom of this shift in food compliance with this new FSMA law? More and more companies are looking toward Sage X3 as a solution to help with these regulations. First of all, the Food Safety Modernization Act requires both domestic and foreign food facilities to create and maintain a written food defense plan. This plan is meant to assess their potential vulnerabilities to deliberate contamination with the intent to cause wide-scale public health harm. Facilities have to identify and implement mitigation strategies to address their vulnerabilities, establish food defense monitoring procedures and corrective actions, verify that the system is working, ensure that personnel assigned to these areas receive appropriate training, and maintain very specific records. Although these new regulations add extra responsibilities to food and beverage businesses, the law will strengthen the safety of an increasingly global and complex food supply network.
Now that the FSMA law has passed, your food and beverage business has more things to consider when looking for a new business management solution. You should look for a vendor that can provide process improvement methods through key data management, quality control, and traceability benefits.
Excellent customer service prevents customers and prospective customers from going to your competitors. Sage X3 manages promised delivery dates, lead times, docking and packing requirements, shipping and tracking information, and more. It also offers easy access to customer information, so when a customer has a problem, you can answer it immediately.
Manage contacts, set appointments, monitor marketing campaigns, and get insights into customers and orders anywhere and anytime. Sage X3 combines CRM with the power of mobile technology to make your sales and marketing efforts stronger than ever.
Managing, training, and retaining qualified staff is a significant challenge. Sage X3’s industry-leading, customizable human resources management solution integrates payroll, benefits, recruiting, employee self-service, and analytics to help you maximize every dollar you invest in employees.
Managing inventory is critical to customer satisfaction and profitability; it also reduces the loss of perishable goods. Sage X3 provides inventory management solutions so you can understand all aspects of your inventory, including product profitability, order to cash, and warehouse operations so that you can stock, pick, and fulfill orders more efficiently.
Manage and collaborate with suppliers using Sage X3's multi-language and global currency abilities, including forward and backward traceability. Get data-driven demand forecasting with X3's business management, inventory, and business intelligence solutions that increase your supply chain visibility and optimize processes to buy and sell products.
Managing your operations is the key to your success. Sage X3 simplifies traceability, recall management, allergen reporting, and more. It also manages and optimizes all phases of your operations to improve efficiency, speed up turnaround times, and increase productivity.
The accuracy of X3's data offers full traceability of products and ingredients from manufacture through to point of sale. See where promotions have influenced profits and how a single ingredient change within a recipe will affect the financial outlook as a whole. This improves your ability to make strategic pricing and product mix decisions by clearly identifying which products and customers are the most profitable.
Anyone working in the food industry understands the increased pressure to be compliant with various regulatory bodies and laws. Sage X3 simplifies the compliance process by ensuring a detailed audit trail of each lot number. The software can hold raw materials in a quality-hold queue and only release a particular lot of materials once it has passed a quality test. You can also track both raw ingredients and finished products through their life cycles; the software automatically maintains a detailed audit trail of transactions.
Manage cash flow, compliance, profitability, fixed assets, and accounting processes such as general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and cash management. Sage X3's accounting and finance solutions give you the financial insight you need to make critical decisions.
Sage X3 has a single integrated database that holds all your data and makes it available in real time. This ensures that your information is always accurate and reliable and allows you to respond to shifts in demand easily and efficiently. You have an accurate view of your stock and, by factoring in sales forecasts, your resources are always in tune with market fluctuations. The food market is a complex industry with multi-buy offers and seasonal trends; even the weather can affect stock levels. Sage X3 tracks price variations, stock levels at multiple manufacturing sites, and movement between warehouse and production.
All these benefits don’t function in isolation but rather come together to create the essential parts of an ERP system. ERP systems work their best when they can integrate all areas of your business to streamline processes and highlight cost-saving opportunities, enabling the growth of your company.
Have questions about an ERP for your food and beverage business? Contact the experts at Southeast Computer Solutions today.
Southeast Computer Solutions is based in Miami, Florida, and has additional operations in Mexico. For over 30 years, we have positively impacted the success of small and mid-sized businesses with effective business management implementations that improve our clients’ operations. We listen, we are accessible, and we care. Learn more by visiting our website or calling 305-556-4697.
Another version of this blog was previously posted on Southeast Computer's blog on July 30, 2016 - http://blog.southeastcomputers.com/10-ways-sage-x3-keeps-you-in-compliance-with-the-fda