The beverage supply chain has for some time now been promised some pretty amazing things when it comes to product visibility. Years ago, for example, when the Internet was first coming into commercial use, there were hopes that a manager would be able to log on and see where all of his products were in real-time, virtually anywhere, from the warehouse to the store.

Well, we are not all there yet. While some of the bigger companies have built systems that allow for comprehensive product tracking, for many of the smaller to midsize companies, this still remains elusive with the cost of the investment being the primary hurdle, especially given the smaller volume of product they have to manage. In other words, to many it is still just not worth it.

But there have been some developments that may begin to change that, putting enhanced product visibility within the grasp of even the smallest of operations.

For the last couple of years, for example, a company called SmartTurn has been offering a warehouse management system on a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) basis, meaning the entire program is run over the Internet—the user never has to house any software on his own computers.

As you might expect, the costs are greatly reduced using SaaS even though SmartTurn offers many of the same product tracking and management capability across single or multiple warehouses of a much more expensive system, according to the company’s CEO, Jim Burleigh.

“Small to medium distributors don’t realize they can get such an advanced system so cheaply,” Burleigh says. “They’re used to the traditional software model where they have to pay US$40-$50,000 up front plus probably an equal amount to install and maintain the environment around it. They don’t realize for $3,000 to start up and about $800 a month they can solve the problem and really leap into the future of logistics capability and technology.”

One SmartTurn customer, the co-packer Giumarra & Associates Beverage Co., has been using SmartTurn to provide its customers with visibility into the amount of raw materials it has on-hand for production of their beverages. “Our customers like having the ability to log on and see their inventory status, when convenient for them,” says Eris Turner, logistics specialist for Giumarra. “They can see their actual levels and send us exactly what we need to create their particular beverage flavor.”

In terms of more traditional systems, Tom Kozenski, vice president product strategy for Red Prairie, says today’s inventory control systems provide much greater visibility than earlier one’s. “The best way to describe it is that the dots didn’t connect all the different parts in the old days,” he says. “You had solutions in each area and they didn’t share information or integrate to a common inventory identifier. Today’s environment is much more attractive, where you can go to what I like to call a ‘single source of truth’ to get the information you need.” This, he says, is especially critical when it comes to such things as product recalls, something that is always a concern to beverage companies.

Whether using an advanced inventory control system or a more rudimentary one, however, one thing still has not changed—some level of human interface is needed. The concept of an AI-type, all-knowing computer system managing inventory levels and forecasting for your company remains science fiction for now mostly due to the fact that all too often the unexpected event will occur.

“For the more dynamic and competitive products you do need some collaborative review,” explains Rory Granros, Infor’s director of marketing for process industries. “If you see an entirely new constraint—whether it’s a
retailer going out of business, a spike in sales, or a shortage of materials—you do need some level of interaction and advisement and then a mitigation process. That does require human intervention.”

From Beverage World May 15, 2009