SOFTWARE
The benefits of product lifecycle management Product lifecycle management software, a specialty of Centric Software, has a digitised database system that streamlines product development and compliance. Adam McCleery explains.
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oftware company Centric Software main focus is to help its food and beverage industry customers develop and adopt new practices for product development with a series of software tools. The company’s offerings to industry include a range of events and webinars that inform stakeholders about the benefits of its product lifecycle management (PLM) software solutions by tackling the operational challenges the industry faces every day. Identifying the operational challenges that face the food and beverage industry is a critical step to working on viable solutions for any stakeholders. Some of those key operational challenges include range management and performance optimisation, compliance, labelling, traceability and recall management, and supplier communication and vendor management, among others. The most recent webinar from the software company that focused on the food and beverage industry was titled Design. Prototype. Formulate: Ensure Food and Beverage quality compliance while maintaining business performance. In the webinar, sales director EMEA F&B and retail for Centric Software, Adam Lower, and global CPG industry expert at Centric Software, Sidi Ragi, detailed how stakeholders could protect their business performance and maintain top-level quality compliance and assurance through the use of PLM software solutions. Centric PLM software solutions are purpose-built to record all the product development data in one easy-to-use digital space. The main areas of focus in the webinar – which can be viewed through Centric Software’s website – were data-driven and efficient product development, not necessarily starting with a brief, launching on
Use of product lifecycle management software has become increasingly important in a digitiased world.
time, seamless product portfolio management, more creativity, and ensuring compliance while building consumer trust. The software provides a centralised digital location that allows users to track and manage all product-related data in real time, cutting back on lost labour hours usually spent on admin data entry individually, which some companies are stuck doing. The webinar shows stakeholders the benefits of being able to manage and trace product development from the prototype stages right up to packaging, labelling and sales. Lower and Ragi also shared their expertise about how to ensure productdevelopment is both data-driven and efficient. Lower said some of the critical aspects to product lifecycle management systems were centred around planning and how to provide accurate and timely briefs with company benchmarks, guidelines etc, to stakeholders. He said if a brief isn’t fuelled by trustworthy, centralised, and up-to-date data driven performance, then the odds of success shorten. “The more analysis up the front,
the more you increase chances of success,” said Lower. This process, Lower continued, helps with the odds of success because it ensures the launch of industrycompliant and well-performing products, which are more likely to make a customer happy. “How do you do that?’ said Lower. “The goal is to consolidate different strategic plans for the company.” Essentially, through this software solution, all product-related data will be stored in one ‘single version of truth’ platform. By doing so, it streamlines product development, which leads to increased efficiency. There are also a range of digital features that create a strong foundation for successful remote work. PLM is designed to manage the complete lifecycle, unlike traditional spreadsheets. A PLM software system is a viable option for companies of any size and can easily adapt when the company experiences growth, while also allowing timely responses to shifting market trends. Centric’s business model, when it comes to the food and beverage industry, has been to empower food
manufacturers and brand customers to accelerate and optimise product development while helping discover ways to drive down costs, boost innovative technology and speed up time-to-market windows. Full compliance and safety are other features of Centric’s PLM systems, which connect to compliance databases around the world, including such agencies as the USDA, SR Legacy, CIQUAL, and others. The software is also suitable for the current shifts being seen in the packaging sector as industry standards and sustainability targets evolve. The streamlining of product briefs will help speed up the packaging development or selection process by supplying a library of templates. Those include material types, dimensions, symbol images, and colours. The webinar covers all the benefits to product lifecycle management in less than one hour, while showcasing Centric’s own PLM software solutions. Digitalisation and traceability continue to see advancement due to the exponential growth of digital technology, and software solution companies like Centric are helping drive the awareness. F
www.foodmag.com.au | February 2022 | Food&Beverage Industry News 39
