For food and beverage engineers, there’s never been a more exciting time to be in the industry than right now. There were more than 20,000 new products introduced to the market in 2020, and consumers are still hungry for new trends. But it takes more than creativity to succeed in these demanding idea-to-cash cycles — it takes a coordinated, company-wide effort for every single product.
With an overwhelming amount of data and complex regulations to navigate, the lifecycles of F&B products are notoriously challenging to manage. Not only is it labor-intensive, but it’s also hard for everyone to be on the same page, preventing different departments and team members from communicating effectively.
That’s where product lifecycle management (PLM) software comes in.
How PLM Software Improves Communication
Product lifecycle management platforms help users organize valuable product information and make it accessible for every stakeholder in their organization. This dramatically improves communication by:
- Eliminating Data Silos:
All product data is stored in a single system on the cloud, so different departments can build effortlessly on the work done before their part in a project. This catch-all database also prevents documents from being lost in the shuffle, so a map of the complete product journey remains intact.
- Creating Workflow Transparency:
PLM can be used to manage the workflows associated with every process in the lifecycle, clarifying every task that needs to be completed, by whom, and when. This not only helps each department and team member stay focused, but it also helps direct employees to the correct people if they have questions.
- Freeing Time And Resources For Collaboration:
The automations PLM software enables can take a lot of mundane, manual labor off of employees’ plates, especially in terms of data entry and distribution. With less grunt work to be done, workers have more time and energy to be creative and collaborative.
- Enabling Cross-Functional Team Building:
The relationships that blossom in such a collaborative environment can form the basis of cross-functional teams. Engineers and marketers can work together to ensure the promotional messaging actually represents the physical product, and that the physical product measures up to everything that’s promised by marketing. Best of all, PLM will help everyone keep track of the data, insight, and action items that come out of these collaborations.
How to Reap the Full Benefit of PLM Software
After years of managing product lifecycles manually, it may take some effort to integrate PLM and change your team members’ deeply ingrained habits. This means it’s important to get buy-in from leaders who see the big picture and believe the struggle is worth the benefit to their organization. They need to advocate for the operational changes and cultural shifts to ensure its full implementation and organize all of the training it takes to help workers adapt.
That’s why it’s imperative to choose the right PLM software. Revalize is one of the most advanced platforms in the market, helping manufacturers with every aspect of product design, quoting, sales, and beyond. It’s also one of the few PLM solutions designed specifically for the challenges and nuances of the F&B industry.
Effective communication is critical for manufacturers to take advantage of this incredible boom in demand for new products. If you’re looking for a one-stop solution to organize all of your data, manage the entire lifecycle from ideation to retirement, and help your teams sync more efficiently, Revalize can meet all of your needs.
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