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ERP learning must consider can only come from the business itself . The experts can inspire business leaders with what ’ s possible , but it ’ s the business itself that needs to decide what exactly are the burning issues that it wants to address . This could be how to be more efficient , how to maximize yield , how to minimize waste , how to serve customers better , how to use less resources , how to maximize output - the possibilities are endless , but they need to be the factors that make a real difference to the business .
For example , yield improvement might be the highest priority for certain businesses . While technology providers can deliver the tools to help do this , it ’ s people within the business , those at the coal face , who are the experts in which parameters need to be monitored and analyzed for machine learning technology to make the optimum recommendations as to how the business can maximize yield .
Take goat cheese producer , Amalthea . For each cheese batch , Amalthea used to set a target yield based on practical or past knowledge of production . When a cheese batch deviated from the target yield or the right target yield wasn ’ t set , factory operators had to act and make changes to production to make the process more efficient . Production issues were identified by manually processing data and analyzing it on a weekly basis . With approximately 240,000 liters of milk processed each day , it was not optimal to wait a week or sometimes even a month to get insights and make the necessary system changes to optimize the yield . Through the application of machine learning , Amalthea can now not only see the yields per cheese batch in real time , but it also has direct insight into what contributors are causing a higher or lower milk yield so the operators can directly act on it . Yield deviation detection and explanation is now fully automated . Infor provided the enabling technology , but it was the experts within Amalthea who decided which parameters needed to be set to ensure the technology delivered the right insight .
With the pressing challenge of the industry labor shortage , businesses are looking to invest more in automation . But it ’ s important for food and beverage businesses to first identify where in the business it would be most beneficial to achieve this automation , with automation for automation ’ s sake not a wise investment . At the heart of this approach is doing more with the data you have , applying the right analytics and technology to the huge amounts of data we ’ re all dealing with to uncover intelligent , actionable insight that directly addresses the issues specific to an individual business . One size doesn ’ t fit all but done well , the right application of technology can inform decision-making and planning , boosting automation where it can make the maximum amount of difference and keeping food and beverage businesses one step ahead . ■
For a list of the sources used in this article , please contact the editor .
Marcel Koks www . infor . com
Marcel Koks is Infor ’ s Food Industry Strategy Leader . Infor is a global leader in business cloud software products for companies in industry specific markets . The organization builds complete industry suites in the cloud and efficiently deploys technology that puts the user experience first , leverages data science , and integrates easily into existing systems . Over 65,000 organizations worldwide rely on Infor to help overcome market disruptions and achieve business-wide digital transformation .
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