Study Finds Food and Beverage Companies Undergoing Significant Supply Chain Changes

Push for New Capabilities Balanced with Core Operating Cost Reduction

Waukesha, WI and Raleigh, NC, July 10, 2001—A major study of supply chain initiatives in the food and beverage industry by McHugh Software International and Tompkins Associates has found an industry in the midst of significant change, adopting new processes and applications, but with a solid focus on core operating cost reduction.

The Food and Beverage Industry Report is based on a survey of logistics and supply chain executives covering 30 leading food and beverage companies in the U.S. and Europe. The survey addressed a range of topics, including the companies' supply chain strategies, technologies and investment priorities.

Key findings of the study include:

• Despite strong interest in many emerging supply chain capabilities, core operating cost reduction will remain the number one supply chain initiative over the next 2-3 years. (See Figure 5 below)
• Companies in the industry place a high priority on improving supply chain scorecarding and metric systems.
• While food and beverage companies have achieved moderate benefits from Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) initiatives, the majority felt the promised potential of ECR had not been realized.
• There is significant interest in improving supply chain visibility, but the costs and challenges of integrating with trading partners remain a barrier.
• While most companies were improving their levels of logistics process and information integration, few have actually achieved high levels of internal integration thus far.

"Food and beverage companies are moving toward a new model of continuous product flow based on end-to-end visibility and end customer pull," said Dan Gilmore, Vice President of Marketing for McHugh Software. "To support this, new digital logistics technologies that enable supply chain synchronization and collaboration will be integrated with core warehouse, transportation and labor management systems to provide truly integrated enterprise logistics management."

Added Bruce Baring, Managing Principal for Tompkins Associates: "Food and beverage companies are evolving to a new paradigm of Supply Chain Synthesis, viewing the supply chain from a holistic perspective rather than as a series of individual links. This shift will require a total operations approach starting with core functional excellence and expanding to the entire supply chain. The survey results clearly indicate the need for new supply chain strategies and technology in the food and beverage industry."

The entire 16-page report is available by calling either McHugh Software or Tompkins Associates, or can be downloaded from either company's Web site. Symbol Technologies was also a sponsor of the survey and report.

Headquartered in Waukesha, WI, McHugh Software International, Inc. has offices in Shelton, CT; Cary, NC; Eden Prairie, MN; and Brussels, Belgium. For additional information, call toll-free 1.888.MCHUGH8 (1.888.624.8448), or access www.mchugh.com.

About Symbol Technologies
Symbol Technologies, Inc., winner of this year's National Medal of Technology, is the global leader in mobile data transaction systems, providing innovative customer solutions based on wireless local area networking for data and voice, application-specific mobile computing and bar code data capture. For people on the move, Symbol's wireless computing appliances connect their physical world to the information systems and the Internet. Today, some 10 million symbol bar code scanners, mobile computers and wireless LANs are utilized worldwide in markets ranging from retailing to transportation and distribution logistics, manufacturing, parcel and postal delivery, government, healthcare and education. Symbol's systems and products are used to increase productivity from factory floors to retail stores, to offices and out to homes. Information about Symbol is available at www.symbol.com and 1.800.722.6234.

Download:
Food and Beverage Industry Report

Media Contact:
E-mail Myra Schwartz or call 919-876-3667.

See Also:
Company Fact Sheet