The Importance of Visibility in Farm to Table

October 14, 2015
by Diane Palmquist

Blue Bell Ice Cream made it back to store shelves just in time for the end of summer – but only after a costly recall forced the company to remove its products from store shelves in 23 states, throw away eight million gallons of ice cream, and shut down production at its facilities for several months.

By the time a listeria outbreak was eventually traced back to an Oklahoma plant, the damage had already been done.

These types of outbreaks are damaging not only to a company’s reputation but also to its bottom line. Blue Bell missed out on countless sales during the peak summer season while the company was forced to do damage control, assessing all the places in its supply chain where the problem might have originated, and making sure the problem was solved. It’s a big task for a company with geographically diverse manufacturing facilities and products that are sold across the country.

Food quality matters, and not simply because spoiled food can kill you.

Customers want to know where their food comes from as much as you do. But in the journey from farm to table, it’s easy to lose sight of all the things that take place in between. That’s because it rarely is just farm to table. It’s more like farm to factory to distribution center to retailer to refrigerator to table, with a few other steps in between.

Because the supply chain is often much longer than we’d like customers to believe it is, the only way to ensure food quality is to make sure you can see it all the way from the farm to the table. That kind of quality is something customers are willing to pay a premium to get.

Blue Bell was fortunate to have earned a wide array of loyal customers, largely on its ability to deliver quality ice cream. That trust and loyalty was tested over the summer, and while many were happy to see Blue Bell back on store shelves, there’s little doubt some customers will never go back.

When a disruption such as a product recall or supplier issue takes place, it has a long-tail effect on the entire supply chain. Doing reverse forensics to figure out where a problem originated costs time and money. It reneges on that promise of delivering fresh, high-quality food. That’s in part because of the fragmented nature of the systems many businesses use to manage supply chain processes today.

The enterprise resource planning software (ERP) sold by the likes of SAP and Oracle are popular for a reason. They do a great job helping businesses control many of the manufacturing processes that take place within the enterprise, such as scheduling, order processing, warehousing and managing workflow. And while that’s traditionally worked just fine, most brands are more than what is inside the four walls.

It’s rare to find a national or international brand that owns its entire supply chain from farm to table. Food manufacturing is much more distributed than that. Most companies rely on third parties for a significant portion – if not all – of the manufacturing process. It adds up to many independent parties using their own, often different ERP software to manage the portions of production for which they’re responsible and then handing it off to the next provider in line. You can’t fault companies for interacting this way – to a large extent it works. But it also introduces the opportunity for error, as disparate systems and blind handoffs give way to a small level of uncertainty as to what exactly is taking place.

Some of the smartest in the industry have come around to the idea that ERP is not enough to provide end-to-end visibility into the entire food manufacturing supply chain. Del Monte Foods is one example. The company supplements its SAP software with a separate, cloud-based platform that helps extend its ability to see across its supply chain and collaborate with its partners. As Del Monte’s director of supply chain says: “Our enterprise supply chain strategy requires seeing well beyond the walls of our business, into the supply network.”

In the highly constrained and tightly regulated world of food manufacturing, companies can’t afford to be uncertain about the products they sell. Especially when quality, safety, and customer loyalty are on the line. Visibility across the entire supply chain is a big step toward delivering that farm to table experience customers demand.