Supply chain safety has never been a bigger issue within the food industry. This was brought home earlier this month, with the resignation of US secretary of health and human services Tommy Thompson.
His announcement featured a surprising assessment about the bioterrorist threat to the nation's food supply in which he stated that "for the life of me, I cannot understand why the terrorists have not, you know, attacked our food supply because it is so easy to do".
Governments of course have been trying to make the task of the terrorist as hard as possible. From 1 January, all food manufacturers in Europe must comply with tough new traceability laws.
And in the US, the FDA recently announced that a new regulation requiring the food industry to produce in-depth, detailed shipping and receiving information within 24 hours' notice, would be entered in the federal register.
Such regulatory demands have obliged food manufacturers and suppliers to find means of achieving complete traceability of their supply chain, and opened up a whole new hi-tech industry in tracing solutions. One firm, Operations Technologies, has spent the last eighteen months fine-tuning a new software solution designed to offset the cost of new compliance standards with automated real-time data tracking and documentation.
The solution, called SupplySync, will be ready to launch in the first quarter of 2005.
SupplySync, a software add-on that the company claims allows food firms to meet new traceability requirements immediately while improving customer service and cutting shipping/receiving administrative costs by up to 51 per cent.
SupplySync is an easily linked, prepackaged solution designed to work with anything from ERP systems to simple browsers. This is part of the company's strategy to target state-of-the-art technology at the more "tech-challenged" small companies.
"If you have a PC, web connection and printer, we'll give you instant, outsourced infrastructure," said Operation Technologies president Dave Miller. "And we have pricing agreements that let you pay by the drink, instead of having to buy the bar."
The real value, according to Miller, is that the efficiencies SupplySync delivers make it a savings instead of a cost. "Compliance always cuts into margins," he said. "But SupplySync takes that cost right out of the equation. Not only that, but it helps reduce the risk of regional or national product recalls and the ever-present possibility of litigation."
The president of Operations Technologies believes that the food supply is indeed vulnerable, but that his team developed a solution that will achieve significant improvements in food chain security. "The good news for us is that this kind of product development takes time -- which means companies looking for a compliance solution today have few attractive alternatives."
Operations Technologies is an established provider of inventory chain solutions to the food industry. Since September 11, 2001, the company has been advising its customers, which include Cargill, Néstle and Dairy Farmers of America, to update their infrastructure compliance capabilities.