Drink Asia September - October 2019 | Page 15

through the supply chain to the point of consumption. Enhancement in the packaging and labelling of alcoholic drinks also has an effect on its ecommerce. and retrieval system (AS/ RS) along with warehouse management and warehouse control system, promotes overall control over the inventory. Digitalization of inventory and warehouse can effectively integrate market demands with production. • Packaging and Labelling: Attractive packaging and Ecommerce i.e. the buying and selling of goods using internet services; is an interesting element of the modern world. Digitalization has expanded the scope for ecommerce. Many stores that were earlier restricted to the retail distribution system have started to sell their goods online. Be it startups or established leaders, food and beverage companies are adopting ecommerce to remain competitive. Online sales are forecast to account for 15–20 percent of The use of conventional robots the food and and collaborative beverage robots (cobots) have sector’s promising roles in overall sales the non-alcoholic beverage industry by 2025. I n d i a n market for foods and non- alcoholic beverages is already reaping huge benefits due to ecommerce. However, in India, strict laws and regulations hinder the ecommerce for alcoholic beverages. In the United States of America, many popular apps exists for alcohol delivery namely: drizly, informative labelling are thirstie, minibar, drinkin, important aspects of product doordash, saucey, klink, etc. marketing and sales. Apart Breweries, distilleries and from providing information wineries need to provide about nutritional value, accurate product information i n g r e d i e n t s , a l l e r g e n s , across the ecommerce certifications, etc., digital platforms so as to attract and labels give access to more gain customer’s trust. product attributes to the interested consumer. Printed A S t e p t o w a r d s sensors on beverages can Digitalization is all that a provide real-time data beverage industry needs to Drink Asia 15 September-October 2019 take. Initially, assessment of the manufacturing plant with respect to the equipments, raw materials, processing steps and packaging of final product is required. This is followed by evaluation of the key areas which can benefit by digitalization. F&B industries should work on reducing the number of islands of control (fragmented automation) and bring all pockets of automation under a single interface. This is possible by using manufacturing operations management (MOM) software for managing end-to-end manufacturing processes. Various types of MOM software exist for production management, quality and compliance and performance analysis. With the help of blockchain, artificial intelligence, big data analytics and robotics, the beverage industry will find permanent solutions to its big problems. Digitalization in the F&B industry brings about greater productivity, increased asset reliability, reduced on-site resources, precise process control, enhanced product traceability and reduced production wastage. Digitalization creates a company specific data repository that can be used for optimizing production with respect to demand, studying the SKU trend, tracking the product through process/shipment and scheduling plant maintenance. Strategic implementation of digitalization into the system can potentially improve and transform the beverage industry.