4 Reasons to Revise Dairy Supply Chain Technology

Even though there’s great hype around digitization, the dairy industry is still dealing with quite a technological gap. It’s not easy to find solutions that can effectively deal with the unique complexities of the dairy supply chain. As such, dairy industry technology and systems exist in many different states; there’s no homogeneity.

Implementing new technologies means disruption and change, so the perceived risk is quite high, especially if the technology hasn’t been applied in the dairy industry before. As a response, companies have built their own systems by combining several other systems, such as spreadsheets, faxes, and manual tasks to achieve daily processes.

This technological gap gets in the way of effective and insightful collaboration. It also creates a disparity because, while some companies can track real-time data, others are still dealing with paper trails and spreadsheets. It’s not shocking that the data becomes unreliable, slow, and unresponsive.

The digitization of the dairy supply chain not only saves money and resources but also provides a solution to unique challenges. Today, we will provide a few of the most compelling reasons why you should revise dairy supply chain technology and make necessary updates to drive your dairy business to greater success.

4 Reasons to Revise Dairy Chain Supply Technology

1) It increases business insights

As the adage says, knowledge is power and that’s true in the dairy industry. The entire dairy supply chain is riddled with data that can improve business intelligence. Apps, barcodes, real-time sensors, and RFID tags help collect the data from the farm all the way to the factory.

However, this data is invalid if it’s not collected and analyzed in a way that leads to actionable business insight. Needless to say, inaccurate data can lead to a wide array of issues and mistakes.

When you revise dairy supply chain technology, having a centralized platform to collect, process, present, and analyze data is a must. This kind of technology allows dairy businesses to identify patterns in predictive analytics, forecasts, and trends. This kind of actionable information helps leaders foresee or identify risks in real-time, long before it becomes a problem.

MilkSwift is the right tool for the job. It allows you to centralize your entire dairy supply chain data, including the data from farms, haulers, labs, and factories. Thanks to this solution, dairy firms, third parties, legislative bodies, and auditors will be able to access the information without an issue.

Other solutions are way less effective because they don’t provide a centralized source of information. Instead, they offer a variety of individual systems that don’t work together and make data-sharing very difficult. Not to mention they don’t alert you to inconsistencies. In short, MilkSwift gives dairy leaders the power of actionable business insights.

2) It helps improve dairy products

One of the recent consumer trends in the dairy industry is the increasing demand for premium dairy products. People want to have access to environmentally friendly, clean, and high-quality dairy products with labels such as cave-aged, organic, grass-fed, triple-cream, and others.

As such, dairy industry leaders need to equip their dairy supply chains with the necessary processes to ensure quality and satisfy the demand for premium dairy products. Effective digitization leads to better results and better products.

By revising your dairy supply chain technology, you’ll make sure your dairy company has what it takes to optimize the dairy processes. Essential data such as on-farm data, milk quality tests, tanker tracking, forecasting, and producer supply will be standardized and everyone on the milk chain supply will have access to it.

You need a flexible system that will adjust to milk payment formula changes, no matter their level of complexity, to encourage better milk quality results. Higher quality milk is supported by accessibility because all the data of the products will be visible, making it easier to assure to fulfill premium claims.

Moreover, better technology leads to better collaboration and it helps build sturdy partnerships that are valuable to everyone involved. This is possible whenever dairy companies adopt technologies based on the same goals, such as greater productivity, cost-efficiency, sustainability, compliance, and more.

For instance, milk co-mingling is a difficult process and there are many hurdles involved, such as quality control, payment, and traceability. By embracing technologies that can handle these challenges, co-mingling collaboration becomes easier and more successful among dairy companies.

3) It boosts efficiency and visibility

The right dairy supply chain technology can also help you solve the issue of visibility both inside and outside the dairy company. When the information flow is lacking, efficient collaboration can easily go out the window. Dairy supply chain management technology will make the process easier and provide the necessary visibility for efficiency.

You need to make sure the dairy supply chain management tool you choose is flexible and configurable so it can handle all the information involved. You also need it to consistently collect and store all the information to improve transparency, which is key.

Data transparency allows you to onboard new producers, haulers, and partners, and it’s possible when you only have one platform to store all your information. Additionally, transparency allows you to find opportunities for cost optimization. Not to mention it provides customers with the peace of mind the premium claims dairy companies make are backed with traceability.

4) It allows you to future-proof your business

As you know, the dairy supply chain is very complicated. Transporting the milk from the farm to the factory requires expertise, optimization, and compliance. It’s an overwhelming task!

That is why you need a dairy supply chain partner that understands the industry, is innovative, collaborative, and understands the unique requirements of a dairy firm. To accomplish that, you must do your due diligence.

Look for experts in the field and vet them by checking references so you can choose the best possible solution. Make sure to find someone who can adapt to the ongoing changes in the industry and help you be more effective, measure savings, and improve traceability.