Specialization

Innovation & Differentiation

- Consumer demands for information expanding … beyond what will fit on a label

- Changing consumer tastes and expectations create drives need for new products

- New ingredients, technology, and packaging  from around the globe

Quality & Compliance

- Regulations and Labelling laws changing…and then being delayed

- Less processing/preservatives and closer to consumer mfg puts new pressures on quality

- Environmental & sustainability initiatives evolving from rules to consumer demands

Margin Pressure

- Highly volatile ingredient costs and availability is driven by weather, politics & economics

- Changing the face of retail with  new  expectations

- New and unpredictable utility and transportation costs

Consumer & Workforce

- Lack of trust and different attitudes towards food

- Recruiting and retention challenges

- New social, entertainment & communication patterns upset marketing paradigm

Dairy

- Push-pull planning with shelf life optimization
 
- Production scheduling respecting tank capacities
 
- Recipe and formula optimization
 
- Post-process market-based cost allocation
 
- Order-less production with back-flushing
 
- Grading of milk (fat%) with attributes
 
- The lot and sub-lot traceability and recall Daily forecasting and planning
 
- Farm payments based on attributes

beverage

- Demand forecasting with seasonality, promotions
 
- Sequencing and changeover by package type and size
 
- Blend and formula optimization
 
- Management of co and by-products
 
- Cleaning in-process rules
 
- The lot and sub-lot traceability and recall
 
- Management of returnable containers
 
- Support for promotions, pricing, and discounts
 
- Integrated plant maintenance – asset-intensive

bakers

- Shelf life and expiry management

- Recipe and formula optimization

- Advanced sequencing
e.g., vanilla => chocolate => nut products

- Stock building planning for seasonal products (Christmas, Easter)

- Support for retailer EDI standards

- The lot and sub-lot traceability and recall

- Van route sales and delivery

- Management of returnable containers

confectionary

- Highly seasonal demand Forecasting and stock build optimization

- Unique product attributes such as viscosity, total solids, fat content, etc.

- Catch weight for some raw materials

- Multiple sales channels including on-line

- Tank scheduling & management

- The mix of shelf-life restrictions for finished goods

- Support for promotions, pricing, and discounts

ingredients

- Seasonality of supply

- Sequencing and changeover by package type and size

- Customized formulas & specifications

- Management of co and by-products

- Cleaning in-process rules

- The lot and sub-lot traceability and recall

- Management of returnable containers

- Integrated plant maintenance – asset-intensive

prepared / chilled

- Shelf life and expiry management

- Recipe and formula optimization

- Short runs The lot and sub-lot traceability and recall

- Van route sales and delivery

- Make to stock and make to order approaches

- New product introduction

- Seasonality in demand and consumer preference

- Detailed cost management by lot

meat/ poultry / fish

- Catch-weight and random weight

- Planning and control of shelf-life

- Meat cut optimization with fresh vs. freeze vs. buy optimization

- Permissible alternate ingredients in the recipe

- Post-process market-based cost allocation

- Integrated sales and operations planning

- The lot and sub-lot traceability and recall

- Attribute-based Pricing & Promotions

Delivery times of orders

- Short delivery times M3 plans daily / hourly through forecast rate
- Short product life M3 considers the product life algorithm
- Penalties for failure to deliver M3 promotions considerations

Tracking and traceability

2-hour recovery times from raw material supplier to customer M3 provides graphical batch tracking - full traceability at all levels of the supply chain.

Develop profitable products.

Product development uses outdated and incomplete cost data M3 provides hypothetical scenarios to assess the best margin.
Cost models with unlimited cost calculation fields to integrate all costs.