PPC challenges in the Food Industry and their solutions

It's no secret that the food and beverage industry is booming. Its revenue grew by 12.8% and 16.9% in 2020 and 2021 respectively. The sector's strong performance in 2021 represented 10.6% of the national GDP, with R$ 766.3 billion coming from the food industry. The number of jobs has also increased in recent years. In 2021 alone, 21,000 new jobs were created to meet the growing demand (Source: ABIA – Brazilian Association of the Food Industry). This increase is also accompanied by increasingly fierce competition and the need for product diversification to meet dietary restrictions and more demanding palates.

But not everything is rosy in this scenario. The beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic brought with it extreme changes that demanded, even from the most planned and visionary company , rapid action in the face of adversity. The expansion of the diffusion and fraction of demand, the decrease in the order book and visibility of demand were just some of the impacts suffered by industries in various sectors, including the food industry. Add to this the diversification of products, taking into account flavors, formats and dietary restrictions (which considerably increase setup times), the problems and costs of storage, and, unless your industry has a good factory scheduling and planning process, chaos will be rampant.

The main challenges facing the food industry were highlighted by the pandemic. Variability in the supply chain, from supply to demand, made inventory management even more critical in order to avoid overstocking and stockouts, just as production management must be even more responsive to meet unexpected changes in a timely manner. Perishability (shelf life), storage restrictions for volatile stocks, as well as setup and balancing problems resulting from the increase in SKUs in the modern market are just some of the challenges this industry faces in terms of production planning and scheduling.

The upside of all this? All these problems are solvable! With the right tools and guidance, it's possible to reduce inventory in a healthy and agile way, increase productivity by grouping similar production orders, reduce stockouts through early identification, and gain agility exponentially. Not to mention the reduction in setup times, which are traditionally lengthy and complex in this sector.

Production Planning and Scheduling software like Siemens Opcenter APS can help even the most complex food industries overcome these challenges. We've already shared how Dauper revolutionized its results using Opcenter APS and NEO's consulting services. It's worth checking out and discovering how a month's planning can now be done in just 10 minutes. How Dauper transformed and generated results with Preactor.

Want to learn more about NEO's work with the food industry? Visit our dedicated page.