In the world of food and beverage (F&B), technology fluctuates for one reason: because business changes. Why does business change? Because the demands and preferences of consumers change.
All these fluctuations create a more complicated F&B ecosystem — one that makes it nearly impossible to design the perfect supply chain.
“A ‘perfect,’ cost-driven supply chain is too fragile,” emphasizes Marc Simony, Head of Product Strategy at TraceGains. “There will always be disruption. There will always be standstills. Instead of trying to make your supply chain perfect, you should focus on making it easier to manage so you can minimize risk and operate despite disruption.”
Move Over, New Product Development … There’s a New Way to Innovate
As marketplace competition intensifies, as consumers become increasingly concerned about health, and as ESG (environmental, social, and governance) initiatives drive ideas, F&B companies have a choice to make: Are long-established approaches to new product development keeping up, or is it time to try something new?
New Product Development: The Common Approach
Historically, new product development is led by a single internal team that works in a vacuum (with little to no third-party input) to brainstorm, develop, and test new concepts.
Expensive, time-consuming PLM (product lifecycle management) platforms are used to manage critical product data. Designed by engineers for engineers, these platforms are built to wrangle information, not connect users to real-time data so they can make decisions based on valuable insights.
Although new product development has been handled this way for decades, the combination of siloed data management and lack of agility results in long bench-to-shelf times and missed opportunities to respond to trends and insights.
Networked Product Development: The Innovative Approach
The future of F&B isn’t about new product development — it’s about networked product development.
Today, new product development is doing a complete 180 as it becomes a collaborative, unified effort. F&B companies are partnering with suppliers, third-party experts, and even consumers to improve ideation and development. This collaboration must be powered by connected data that accelerates, informs, and automates the process.
Because many PLM platforms can’t support timely collaboration, networked product development finds its footing in product innovation platforms that go far beyond managing formula and packaging data.
Better, Faster Innovation through Coordination and Connection
From concept to production, networked product development is all about coordination and connection. It promotes automation over manual processes for better, faster innovation at every step, from recipe iteration to claims verification. As a result, this approach shortens ideation so F&B brands can get to market faster with more innovative, trend-responsive products.
Because networked product development changes the way F&B businesses operate, it also changes the technology required to support product development. As a complement to their PLMs, F&B companies need product innovation platforms.
Prioritizing Collaboration
Networked product development takes place in a multi-user environment that encourages the entire organization to participate in the process.
Rather than working in a siloed system, your brand’s partners, quality specialists, regulatory professionals, and formulation experts must be able to come together on a unified, integrated platform.
Ensuring Data Flow
Networked product development prioritizes strategic, organization-wide initiatives like idea management, product strategy, sourcing and cost management, and holistic supply chain transformation.
To enable collaboration and automation, real-time data to support these efforts must seamlessly move across different people, processes, and systems. This interconnected flow of information allows users to track a product throughout its innovation lifecycle, from design and development to production.
Testing in a Virtual Environment
Instead of experimenting in real life, a production innovation platform can help F&B companies virtually build and test recipes using third-party and supplier-provided data.
“Because you can ideate multiple versions of recipes and carry out all this work before even going to the bench,” says Simony, “you also create much less waste during the ideation process.”
From allergens and marketing claims to ingredient swaps, you can see how your experimental formulation will play out based on what’s available — and you can do it without spending time reaching out to vendors or actually manufacturing the product.
Once you verify that your product is perfect, then you can confidently connect with the vendors you want to work with to move to the bench.
Improving Sustainability
With the simple click of a button, you can access third-party data to conduct and report on product lifecycle analyses. “This helps you decarbonize products faster by immediately uncovering your carbon footprint and Scope 3 emissions,” explains Simony.
Instead of gathering external data, ESG information moves seamlessly through your business ecosystem to make work risk-free and more efficient.
Determine where current and potential suppliers stand on ESG issues by tapping into real-time data about:
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Supplier sustainability rankings and participation in initiatives like CDP, UN Global Compact, and SBTI
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Emission measurements and detailed emissions breakdowns of Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions
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Regional impact scores that compare the carbon intensity of different energy grids
Collaboration in Product Development Equals Resilience
A single disruption — the inability to reach a vendor or the shortage of a specific ingredient, however — can bring some F&B supply chains to a standstill. But companies that are driven by collaboration and automation and practice networked product development are more prepared to work around these interruptions.
“You may have to deal with more chaos today,” says Simony, “but the right technology will make sure you have the right relationships and strategies in place to keep innovation moving forward.”
To learn more about overcoming the most common challenges in CPG visit TraceGains.com.
