ERP Software for Bakery Industry

Food production companies or bakeries can upgrade their performance, if they adopt the right business tool, say a strong Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. An ERP software for the Baker industry can predict and coordinate customer demands, control capital flow, focus on sales, and improve all core business operations in a single platform.

Here, Jobin & Jismi is highlighting the key points for considering an ERP system for the bakery business.

Why Bakery Industry Need an ERP System?

The bakery business workflow involves several processes like purchasing, labor management, inventory management, logistics, and customer satisfaction. A growing organization will face several challenges in coordinating all these processes. An ERP software can reduce the burden of business management, quickly by automating the activities. 

An ideal bakery ERP like NetSuite is capable of providing various packaging options - like using the same formula in different BOMs (Bill of Materials), supporting multiple UOM (Unit of Measurement), etc. This is because purchase requirements and scales vary according to bakers. 

For instance, certain bakers buy ingredients in pallets, stock their inventory in blocks, maintain finished products in cases and ultimately sell as packages or loaf. 

Merging an ERP system with the business operations of the bakery industry helps in;

• Tracing and costing of inclusive and co-products.

• Determination of real-time inventory.

• Two-way tracking of product orders to overcome customer mock recalls and transparent audit trails.

• Inventory rotation methods like FIFO ( First In First Out), LIFO (Last In First Out)  should be supported to sort inventory by expiration date.

• Efficient warehouse management to track and trace raw bakery ingredients as well as finished goods.

• Predicting demand and supply to scale production and accurately costing finished products.

Benefits of ERP for Bakery Industry

The major objective of ERP implementation in the bakery industry is to enhance operational efficiency. The following points explain how an ERP system does that.

1. Inventory management

Time management is integral in managing perishable inventory. An ERP system can provide real-time information about the inventory and automate order management. ERP’s provide the capability to monitor inventory levels and understand the quantity available in inventory.

2. Minimize Wastage

Overstocking leads to wastage, especially in the bakery business. Keeping a stock record and tracking stock movements in real-time will avoid overstocking and reduce wastage. Thereby minimizing the excess and eliminating wastage, and creating a positive impact upon the revenue of the business.  

An efficient ERP system will have double-entry management, that standardizes bakery operations and give it a structure. Certain ERP systems are capable of providing advanced features like upstream and downstream traceability which tracks the stock movement right from the moment it is manufactured till it is delivered. This significantly reduces wastage and improve revenue.

3. Sales Increase

One of the best ways to improve sales is by understanding potential customers. An efficient ERP system is capable of bringing product rotations and analyzing customer demands to provide personalized selling. ERP systems store customer data like transaction history, frequency, etc. This data can be utilized to understand eating trends and helps in production planning. Custom promotions and discounts can be tailored to loyal users and sent out as text or email periodically.

4. Reduced Costs

Planning operations ahead of time will undoubtedly help the business reduce costs.  By automating core operations, ERPs can eliminate unwanted labor charges and streamline business processes, it also reduces human errors and related risks. 

By standardizing various internal functions like manpower allocation, inventory tracking, and financial audits - companies can track down and cut unwanted expenses that are dragging the company down.

5. Enhanced Reporting

ERP software often has advanced reporting capabilities. In the present scenario where data are abundant, it is important to make sense of them to beat the competition. ERP’s shed light on critical operational and financial data. It can provide custom reports based on the departments and roles. It is possible to drill down on financial statements and monitor them in real-time to understand revenue inflows and profit.

NetSuite ERP for Bakery

Oracle NetSuite provides cloud-based ERP solutions capable of running all your core business processes like purchasing, sales, order management, supply chain management,  manufacturing, warehouse management, financials, and more. 

NetSuite is chosen because of its rapid implementation time and advanced customization capabilities. Being a cloud-based solution the TCO( Total Cost of Ownership) is also low. Also in the bakery industry, owners often choose NetSuite because of its deep batch manufacturing functionality and user-friendly interface.

Take a look at the core benefits of NetSuite:

• Grow your business with NetSuite’s order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, and build-to-ship functionalities to achieve operational excellence and improved business value.

• Take control of your production volumes using NetSuite efficient SCM system.

• Enhance batch management through improved bill of materials, product routings, recipe instructions, and quality control.

• Ensure the quality of the product through first-in, first-out (FIFO) management.

• Managing materials like lot controlled raw, individual, and bulk ingredients.

• Cost-effective production of bakery products by effective maintenance of inventory.

• Capture data from devices like barcode readers, tablets, etc in real-time.

• Take your business to the next level by utilizing NetSuite’s modern supply chain management and plan your products efficiently.

• Improve customer satisfaction by enabling a ‘buy anywhere’, ‘fulfill anywhere’ facility using NetSuite’s real-time inventory management.

• Get a bird’s eye view of all your channels and touchpoints to deliver a standardized experience for the customer.

• A single platform that can deliver a true omnichannel experience - integrate information across the web, B2B portals, physical stores, etc.

If your growing bakery industry requires assistance to coordinate the business operations, NetSuite ERP is the right solution. Book an appointment with the NetSuite experts of Jobin & Jismi so that we can help you.