The Challenges

When it comes to the integration of ERP and product security, food and beverage manufacturers face several challenges, some of which include:

Optimizing Operational Processes

Both the product security solution and the ERP require involvement at the operational level in the form of personnel scanning every ingredient, food item, and batch produced. For high-volume food and beverage operations, however, a single extra step in the process can have a significant impact on aggregate production and efficiency. It is therefore critical that a single scan be capable of optimizing multiple operational processes at once by communicating critical information about a food item to the product security and traceability solution while also conveying logistical details to the ERP. By setting up the appropriate workflows and harnessing a single edge scanning device food and beverage producers and manufacturers are empowered to streamline processes while also achieving the universal insight they desire.

Standardizing Serialization Across Systems

It is critical that manufacturers have but one serialized identity per ingredient, food item, and batch. Too often, however, the ERP and the product security solution create their own disparate codes, leading to confusion that impedes visibility into the food supply chain. Through an intelligent integration effort, food and beverage manufacturers can associate serialized identities with UPC and lot numbers in the ERP system to ensure one unique identity per ingredient. This single, serialized identity empowers producers and manufacturers to establish one true data record while associating insights in both systems with specific goods to ensure quality, security, and integrity standards are upheld.

Unleashing Contextual Cross-System Insights

The insights housed in the product security solution and ERP are most powerful together. But pulling these insights together requires effective integration between the two systems. Using APIs, food and beverage manufacturers can collect ingredient-level security and traceability data across systems and convey that information to the top floor. Specifically, general ledger data from the ERP can be contextualized with ingredient-level data from the product security and traceability solution to lay the groundwork for data-driven decision making. As a result, activities like demand planning, quality control, compliance management, and recall resolution are fundamentally transformed with greater efficiency and effectiveness than ever before.

Achieving Integration Rapidly & Effectively

More than ever, food and beverage manufacturers are under heightened pressure to deliver quality food items to customers at a cost-effective price point for the business. Therefore, the modern food and beverage operation can’t afford to engage in cost or time prohibitive integration efforts. At the same time, it also can’t afford to forego valuable functionality that is required in order to secure food integrity and insight. Instead, food and beverage producers must opt for a product security and traceability solution that offers nimble configurability and robust capabilities beyond that which the ERP currently delivers. Equally critical is the identification of an integration partner that understands the complex food landscape and is capable of rapidly executing the appropriate integration steps.

The Solution

For nearly a century, Ashton Potter has served compliance-driven businesses around the world. Today, we own the entire food and beverage supply chain security process—ranging from the tamper-evident label, to the product security technology, to the data management system—and leverage partnerships with our Gold Integration Partners to cost-effectively augment and extend existing enterprise systems and processes.

Forensic Traceability for High-Volume Operations

Our ProLinc^® forensic traceability technology solution empowers high-volume, high-velocity food and beverage operations to ensure the safety, quality, and integrity of every ingredient, food item, and batch in the supply chain, while also providing valuable insights to maximize operational efficiency and streamline compliance efforts. ProLinc^® is designed to act as a natural extension of the ERP by providing a high-value and nimble layer of product security and traceability capabilities that are required by today’s complex food and beverage landscape.

Serialization, Scalable to the Billions

ProLinc^® works in partnership with tamper-evident, serialized labels to record valuable information from edge operations, which is transmitted to the ERP using APIs and housed in a secure, Blockchain-enabled database. With a single scan, approved stakeholders can trace every food item in production from the field to the store shelves. In aggregate, these valuable insights create a powerful link between production planning and production execution that improves efficiency and output. Highly scalable to billions of records, our flexible labeling solution allows food and beverage manufacturers to print and apply serialized identities on-site utilizing existing systems, or off-site in a secure facility and provided to factories and farms on demand.

White Glove Integration Services & Process Optimization

Ashton Potter augments its technology and serialized labeling solutions with a suite of services that streamline implementation, optimize operational processes, establish an intelligent bi-directional link with the ERP, and accelerate time-to-ROI. Working with its network of skilled partners, Ashton Potter provides end-to-end project management, process design, on-site and remote training services, and technology integration to its food and beverage customers.

By working seamlessly with existing enterprise resource planning systems, factory equipment, and business intelligence tools, ProLinc^® contextualizes product insights with other data sources and makes these insights actionable throughout the food and beverage environment.