Why PLM Is the Missing Ingredient For Food and Beverage Innovation

The good news for food and beverage manufacturers is that demand for new products is booming. In fact, according to research from Statista, retailers sold almost $83 billion in one month alone. Sales have held steady at more than $50 billion a month since 2017, and the annual average is only climbing.

The bad news is that in order to keep up with that massive sales volume, manufacturers have to constantly innovate
and develop new flavors, new packaging, and even entirely new categories. Every iteration increases complexity, not just in terms of ingredients, but in terms of shipping logistics, marketing, product display, and even supply chain visibility.

This is an exciting time for the industry, but it can also be exhausting trying to keep up with the demand for fresh ideas while still remaining profitable. Fortunately, companies like Revalize have been cooking up their own innovations to help.

PLM: The Base Ingredient For Better Product Innovation

Product lifecycle management (PLM) is a software platform that helps manufacturers manage every aspect of a product, all the way from ideation, to initial design, to market analysis, to eventual retirement. Manufacturers use PLM to organize their product data, streamline development, and speed up workflows. Already incredibly popular with the industrial sector, Revalize offers one of the only solutions specifically designed for the needs of the F&B industry.

Here’s how it can help with product innovation.

Better Data Management For Better Decisions

Revalize serves as a complete end-to-end database for all information and assets relating to a customer’s product catalog. Users can eliminate data silos by storing ingredient lists, formulas, packaging designs, images, marketing materials, sales collateral, test results, compliance certifications, and other information all in a single location, accessible for everyone at the company. When every decision maker involved in a new product’s development has access to information, they have everything they need to make the best decision in their part of the
process.

End-to-End Project Management

Revalize doesn’t just keep data in one location, it can also create more cohesion between
workflows for a seamless, end-to-end experience. Traditionally, F&B manufacturers might store market research and product data on a cloud drive or file server, leverage an ERP for ingredient sourcing, and use a CRM for sales and customer support management.

This can create an incredibly disjointed workflow that leads to confusion, bottlenecks, and lost opportunity, while increasing time to market and development costs. Revalize can handle all of these product-centric workflows on one platform.

Better Communication Between Departments

Workflow cohesion and visibility helps manufacturers achieve better collaboration between team members, and even whole departments. Information sharing is easy and automatic, facilitating the development of inter-departmental teams that bring their own areas of insight and expertise to innovation and new product development.

For example, marketing managers can tap research and development to better communicate the value of a product. Or the reverse could happen, where sales passes along market insight and product ideas back to design based on what they’ve seen in the marketplace.

Easier Simulations and Product Testing

Without PLM, workers might keep vital information like ingredient lists and formulas locked away in word documents, spreadsheets, or even scrawled on paper. Since Revalize keeps all information in one place, it’s easy to import data into recipe simulations for ultra-fast product testing. Users can also automatically store test results so no time is wasted repeatedly running the same simulations. This allows manufacturers to perfect their recipes in a fraction of the time it would take with manual protocols so innovations can get to market faster.

Revalize offers some of the most cutting-edge PLM capabilities with a solution specifically designed to meet the demands of F&B manufacturers. Want to experience what our platform can do for your business?

Get in touch with one of our specialists for a free demo.

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