Full traceability produced by doing the job, not by keeping a second set of records for the auditor.
Early accessCubeERP for food & drink manufacturing
ERP for food and drink manufacturers - batch traceability, shelf life, allergens, yields and recall readiness that survives an audit.
- Food & drink
- UK hosted, implemented on site
- 01234 672 617
Food and drink manufacturing carries obligations that most sectors do not: batch traceability in both directions, allergen control, shelf life, and the ability to answer a recall question in minutes rather than days.
Those obligations are usually met with a great deal of paper. CubeERP captures the same information by scanning at the point the work happens, so the audit trail is a by-product of production rather than an administrative task performed alongside it.
- Minutes
From recall question to answer
- Enforced
FEFO picking on the scanner
- Per batch
Yield variance actually measured
What goes wrong
The recurring problems in food & drink
Not every business has all five. Almost every business we speak to has three.
Recall drills that take days
Cross-referencing paper goods-in records, production sheets and despatch notes is slow. It usually passes the audit, and the time taken gets written up regardless.
Shelf life managed by eye
Without enforced first-expired-first-out picking, older stock is passed over and written off while newer stock ships. The loss is real and rarely quantified.
Yield variance nobody explains
Recipe yields differ from theory. Without capture at the batch, the difference is absorbed into standard cost and the underlying cause is never identified.
Allergen control on trust
Changeover and cleaning regimes depend on people knowing the sequence. A system that does not understand allergen groups cannot stop a bad scheduling decision.
Retailer requirements as chargebacks
Label formats, despatch advices and delivery windows vary by customer. Getting them wrong is expensive and the cost is usually accepted rather than fixed.
What we do about it
How CubeERP is set up for food & drink
Configuration, not a separate edition. Everything here is in the same product - it is switched on and shaped during implementation.
Batch genealogy both ways
From a raw material batch forward to every customer, and from a finished code backward to every ingredient, operator and line - as a query, not an investigation.
Shelf life and FEFO
Use-by and best-before dates enforced at picking, with quarantine, positive release and remaining-life rules per customer where contracts demand it.
Recipes and yields
Recipes with tolerances, actual versus theoretical yield captured per batch, and variance reported by product, line and shift.
Allergen and quality control
Allergen groups held against items, with changeover rules in scheduling, plus goods-in inspection, non-conformance and concession records.
Specifications and certificates
Supplier specifications, certificates of analysis and test results held against the batch and reissued automatically with despatch documentation.
Retailer despatch
Customer-specific labels, despatch advices and EDI messaging so delivery paperwork matches what each retailer requires.
In practice
Two situations from this sector
Anonymised, but not invented. These are the situations businesses describe before they change anything.
A mock recall that took two days
The situation
A manufacturer passed its mock recall by manually cross-referencing three sets of paper records. The auditor noted the elapsed time as an observation.
What changed
Traceability is captured by scanning during production. The next drill produced a complete affected-customer list, with certificates, in under ten minutes.
Write-offs at the back of the chiller
The situation
Picking was by convenience rather than date. Short-dated stock was regularly written off while newer product of the same line shipped.
What changed
FEFO picking is enforced on the scanner and cannot be overridden without a reason. Date-related write-off fell to a fraction of its previous level.
How it happens
What implementation involves
The same five stages whatever you make. Discovery, training and go-live are done on your site, because most of what the system needs to know is learned in the building.
- 1
Discovery
A structured session mapping how you work now - the systems, the spreadsheets and the bits held together by one person’s memory. We come back with what the platform covers as standard, what needs configuration, and what needs building.
- 2
Configuration
Your sites, warehouses, price lists, approval limits, document templates, workflows and permissions set up to match the business - not a demo tenant with your logo dropped on it.
- 3
Data migration
Customers, suppliers, parts, bills of materials, price lists, open orders and stock balances brought across and reconciled. We migrate, you check the numbers against the old system, and only then do we cut over.
- 4
Training & rollout
Role-based training so the order desk learns the order desk and the warehouse learns the warehouse, with a pilot group first where it makes sense. Documentation and short screen recordings left behind for new starters.
- 5
Ongoing support
UK support from the people who built the platform, with a named contact, agreed response times, and a product roadmap you can influence.
Questions
What this sector asks first
The traceability, quality and audit-trail capability is built for that level of scrutiny, and customers use it as evidence. It does not replace your quality management system - it evidences the process you have defined.
Yes. Items can be stocked, priced and invoiced by weight as well as by unit, with actual weights captured at pack and despatch and used in invoicing.
Yes. Batches remain in quarantine until test results are recorded and the release is authorised, and quarantined stock cannot be picked.
Recipes scale to batch size with tolerances, and actual quantities issued are captured against the batch so yield variance is measured rather than assumed.
Scales, checkweighers and label printers integrate through the API or standard drivers. Where equipment is older, we will be straight with you in discovery about what is realistic.
Where to start
The parts that usually matter most here
Barcode & Traceability Software
Batch and serial traceability from goods-in to despatch, with certificates attached and a recall answered in minutes.
Read moreManufacturing Software
Bills of materials, works orders, routings, shop-floor booking and real job costing - for businesses that make things to order.
Read moreStock Control Software
Multi-location stock with bin locations, barcode scanning, batch and serial traceability, and figures that are right first time.
Read moreProduction Planning Software
Schedule works orders against real capacity - people, machines and shifts - and see the effect of a rush job before you accept it.
Read more
Related
Sectors with similar problems
- Chemicals, Coatings & Formulated ProductsERP for formulators and blenders - recipes, batch traceability, yields, hazardous stock and compliance documentation.
- Print & PackagingERP for printers and packaging converters - estimating that reflects make-ready, substrate stock, artwork approval and waste that is measured.
- Wholesale & DistributionERP for wholesalers, importers and distributors - trade pricing, multi-warehouse stock, fast order entry and integrated despatch.
If your process really is unusual
Some requirements are specific to one business rather than one sector. Those get built against the same documented API everybody else uses - not bolted on to the side of a database nobody is allowed to look at.
Food & drink
Show us a real job from your food & drink operation
Bring one order that went wrong and the paperwork that went with it. That tells us more about whether this fits than any list of features.