Food and Beverage Companies: NetSuite 2020 Release 1 Simplifies Processes with Automation and Greater Visibility Capabilities
Blog by Gavin Davidson, Manufacturing and WD Product Management Director, Oracle NetSuite
Food and Beverage (F&B) manufacturers are forever tied to the changing desires of consumers. Today, that translates to products containing local, natural ingredients for an increasingly health-conscious population. With over three-quarters of the population reading food labels, F&B companies can count on the fact that consumers are paying attention.
However, the initial response to calls for healthier food has come from small food producers. Fortunately for them, it’s easier than ever to enter the market. Contract manufacturers enable the production of goods at low cost. Digital advertising and social media increases reach without high fees.
For more established F&B companies, shifting from entrenched strategies and products can take time and restructuring. Much of the effort comes from reengineering processes to support more sustainable foods and reconfiguring outdated technology in favor of faster, more efficient platforms.
Food specific features in NetSuite’s 2020 Release 1
NetSuite’s 2020 Release 1 offers a number of enhancements that support the goals of both small and large F&B manufacturers, including increased automation and greater visibility:
- New fill/kill backorder management automatically closes any backordered items and also allows F & B companies to identify exceptions, helping to manage regularly-placed standing orders for specific items.
- New route management can automatically assign the route, stop and delivery time of a given sales order based on the customer’s address, alleviating the challenges of assigning delivery routes. Users can override assigned ship dates if a change is required.
- Customers also routinely submit orders that are several hundred lines long. These repeated orders can be used as a guide for future orders, but they end up with a lot of manual editing when the customer needs to add or subtract quantities. The Order Guide module automatically tracks historical orders and will add items using the order guide flag.
- There’s always been a disconnect between what’s recorded in the system and what’s happening in the warehouse. With NetSuite’s new mobile application for manufacturing, employees on the floor can easily enter data via a mobile device that seamlessly connects to NetSuite WMS. Users can record completions, consume inventory and even add new fields with codeless customization.
- Without centralized, accurate data, it can be difficult to get a handle on production efficiency. Manufacturers can now automatically calculate start and end production dates on work orders based on pre-configured manufacturing tasks. Users will be able to segment efficiency data by product, class, manufacturing location and subsidiary, and then develop accurate recommendations for operational improvements.
- The NetSuite Quality Management application can now handle much larger volumes of sampling data, further speeding up the sampling process. And, the quality inspection tablet includes a suite of new features like auto-advance capability and real-time feedback for inspectors.
NetSuite’s 2020 Release 1 for Wholesale and Distribution
That means optimization and simple processes that make work easier and automating processes wherever possible to reduce costly manual work. NetSuite’s 2020 Release 1 offers a suite of features that support these critical goals:
- NetSuite WMS continues to provide greater efficiency on the warehouse floor and additional convenience to end-users by improving printing and barcode scanning via the WMS mobile SuiteApp. You can quickly enter barcode data with GS1 barcode support. Large volumes of items inside inbound shipments are easily received with the new mobile receiving interface.
- Enhancements to the order management process now allow fulfillment request records to be auto-created when the expected ship date is reached. Working with supply allocation, future expected ship dates are updated and optimized.
- Effective sampling is critical to maintain quality standards, lower inspection processing times and reducing overall costs. The Quality Management application can now handle much larger volumes of data, further speeding up the sampling process. Inspectors will find it easier than ever to capture information in real-time through the tablet application which has been updated with a new grid entry interface.
- When supply is short, the new order allocation exceptions feature will automatically analyze incoming inventory; as well as other orders that have already been allocated the requested item(s). Intelligent recommendations are generated to re-allocate from other orders. When the user has made the final choice and accepted the recommendation, NetSuite automatically executes the re-allocations across the selected orders.
- Extended capabilities of the Intelligent Predicted Risks functionality now takes transfer orders and compares them to historical data to determine when a delivery may be at risk. Recommended actions to take are also provided to avoid a late delivery. Users can also create ‘what-if simulations with the projected risks to see how they may impact future transactions. If a manufacturer is experiencing delays from a specific location or vendor, the company can project the impact on its supply chain and make adjustments before delays occur.
- With the new Supply Chain SuiteAnalytics Workbook, distributors can efficiently analyze supply-demand imbalances.
- Fill/kill backorder management capabilities will automatically close any backordered items at the time of shipment if the customer does not want to wait for line item to go off of backorder, helping to manage regularly placed standing orders.
- New route management capabilities can automatically assign the route, stop, and delivery time of a given sales order based on the customer’s address, alleviating the challenges of assigning delivery routes. Users can override assigned ship dates if a change is required.
- Order Guides can now automatically keep track of items historical ordered and will automatically add items to a guide.
NetSuite’s 2020 Release 1 Manufacturing features
Given the increased complexity of manufacturing, a failure at any point in the process can generate massive losses. NetSuite’s 2020 Release 1 continues to improve both visibility and control over production activities with the addition of expanded outsourcing, a new mobile interface and enhanced quality management:
- Extended capabilities of the Intelligent Predicted Risks functionality now takes transfer orders and compares them to historical data to determine when a delivery may be at risk. Recommended actions to take are also provided to avoid a late delivery.
- What-if simulations can be created with the projected risks to see how they may impact future transactions. If a manufacturer is experiencing delays from a specific location or vendor, the company can project the impact on its supply chain and make adjustments before delays occur.
- With the new Supply Chain SuiteAnalytics Workbook, manufactures can efficiently analyze supply-demand imbalances.
- Many companies utilize third parties to manufacture their products, which can make communication challenging. Now, with the ability to automatically create work orders when placing a purchase order on your contract manufacturer activities, it’s easier to track the progress of the manufacturing process and the consumption of inventory.
- Without centralized, accurate data, it can be difficult to get a handle on production efficiency. Manufacturers can now automatically calculate start and end production dates on work orders, based on pre-configured manufacturing tasks. Users will be able to segment efficiency data by product, class, manufacturing location and subsidiary, and then develop accurate recommendations for operational improvements.
- The introduction of order allocation exceptions management alerts users to orders that may be delivered late due to their current allocation. Users can then review alternate allocations and see how any related orders might be impacted by the change.
- Effective sampling is critical to maintain quality standards, lower inspection processing times and reducing overall costs. The Quality Management application can now handle much larger volumes of data, further speeding up the sampling process. Inspectors will find it easier than ever to capture information in real-time through the tablet application which has been updated with a new grid entry interface.
- With NetSuite’s new mobile application for manufacturing, employees on the shop floor can easily enter data via mobile devices. Users can record completions, consume inventory and even add new fields with codeless customization.
- The new manufacturing date tracking lets users uncover operational improvement opportunities. Manufacturers can easily measure and analyze production efficiency with actual production date tracking in work orders.