Benefits of automation in the food and beverage industry

Many industries have already introduced automated technology into their day-to-day operations. While the food and drink industry has been resistant to this change, digital transformation appears to be finally underway. For example, food businesses are finding automation is helping them gain full visibility of their supply chain, protect their workers from serious injury and reduce labor costs.

Let’s break these down further and take a look at the benefits of automation in the food and beverage industry:

1. Improve quality control throughout the process

2. Keep your workers safe from injury

3. Gain unprecedented levels of end-to-end traceability

4. Increase efficiency and boost output rates

5. Protect your brand from damaging product recalls

6. Become more flexible and adaptable

7. Reduce waste with better supply and demand management

1. Improve quality control throughout the process

There are so many processes, workers, and touchpoints along with the food and drink supply chain that it can be difficult to monitor the quality of food, let alone keep track of it. It goes without saying the quality of produce is incredibly important yet it’s difficult to minimize safety concerns in a complex system.

Automation can help you address these issues by improving line efficiency, maximizing ingredient usage, and enhancing food safety while reducing the risk of any human-related errors.

2. Keep your workers safe from injury

Automation eliminates the need for your workers to perform monotonous, repetitive motion jobs or dangerous tasks such as lifting heavy items. It also frees up your team to focus on more business-critical tasks.

For example, meat processing plants can use robotics when handling difficult cuts of meat. This helps reduce the risk of injury to workers and accelerates the process.

Increased safety for your workforce also helps to reduce operation/maintenance costs in the long run. Traditionally, changes to new regulations will usually involve new equipment or additional training for your workforce which can be time-consuming. You may even have to fork out for expensive (but necessary) safety gear.

3. Gain unprecedented levels of end-to-end traceability

With the number of food recalls on the rise and allergen-related hospitalizations in the news recently, improving end-to-end traceability is still high on the agenda for food businesses.

Automation and modern analytics tools can track products and goods throughout the supply chain journey, allowing you to tap in anywhere along the chain to see the information relevant to you.

For example, automation tools can be used to find a contaminated order and pinpoint where it’s been/heading. This way, you can isolate issues before they impact the wider public and protect your brand value.

4. Gain unprecedented levels of end-to-end traceability

With the number of food recalls on the rise and allergen-related hospitalizations in the news recently, improving end-to-end traceability is still high on the agenda for food businesses.

Automation and modern analytics tools can track products and goods throughout the supply chain journey, allowing you to tap in anywhere along the chain to see the information relevant to you.

For example, automation tools can be used to find a contaminated order and pinpoint where it’s been/heading. This way, you can isolate issues before they impact the wider public and protect your brand value.

5. Protect your brand from damaging product recalls

In the food and drink industry, we’re seeing added pressure from today’s consumers who want to know about several practices before purchasing food products. This includes its origin and the journey it took to get to its basket.

Therefore, to maintain trust with your consumers, you need to ensure your business is following best practices. Multiple products recalls or disease outbreaks can be highly damaging to both your company’s reputation and profits, ultimately leading to you losing valuable business to your competitors.

6. Become more flexible and scalable

By investing in automation, you can become more flexible and easily adapt to changing production needs as well as regulations. These changes can simply be programmed into the automation software, eliminating the need for added workforce training.

7. Reduce waste with better supply and demand management

Waste reduction has long been a key focus area. In particular, supply chain waste within food is always a concern, given the short shelf lives of certain products. Over-supply can also lead to products being wasted if they’re not used in time.

Automation can help food businesses improve their supply and demand management. An end-to-end solution, such as a food-specific ERP system, can provide accurate data on the amount of stock needed based on real-time demand.

An ERP system can also help food businesses avoid any lack of alignment on inventory levels and reduce their chain carbon footprint by minimizing travel throughout the supply cycle.