Food waste is one of the greatest problems facing the world, and it’s at the consumer, distributor, and manufacturer levels. Unfortunately, as much as 30-40% of food produced is wasted before it even reaches the market.

Fortunately, manufacturers have different types of automation available that can dramatically reduce waste. Let’s talk about using automation for food manufacturers.

What Types of Automation Can Reduce Waste?

Automation is a broad term, so it’s important to know what we’re talking about. Here are the two major types of automation that benefit food manufacturers.

Physical Automation

When you think about automation in any manufacturing system, you likely think of physical automation such as robots. Physical automation can help reduce costs and increase efficiency throughout the food manufacturing process, whether it’s through harvesting, processing, or packaging.

However, robots aren’t cheap. Industrial-scale food manufacturing automation is a major investment, but it will help reduce food waste and lower long-term costs.

Digital Automation

Yes, digital automation can dramatically reduce food waste. Digital process automation includes anything from automated email responses to order placements from customers.

Fortunately, digital automation is much cheaper for initial investments, but its benefits can be equal to that of physical automation. If you calculate the time you and your employees spend on tedious digital tasks, you’ll understand why.

How Automation Reduces Waste

Both physical and digital automation are among the best investments food manufacturers can make to reduce waste within their companies. Here are a few key reasons why.

Automation Increases Efficiency

Food is unlike a lot of manufactured goods, as food has a short lifespan and, therefore, needs to move quickly. 

Unfortunately, manual processes slow down this essential workflow. Whether it’s picking strawberries by hand, processing meat, delivering goods, or answering orders, any delays can lead to waste.

Consequently, food manufacturers should embrace automated processes to help increase efficiencies. Whether it’s robotic processes or order fulfillment and form design, this increase in efficiency will lead to less waste. When combined throughout the industry, this can dramatically reduce our global food waste problem.

Reduced Errors

According to a 2016 study, human error accounts for $3.1 trillion in losses to the economy every year. As you likely know, automation doesn’t “make mistakes” when it’s programmed correctly. If you have the right automation tools at your disposal, you can dramatically reduce errors across your enterprise, potentially saving millions of dollars every year.

Improved Communication Systems

Automated forms, email responses, archival, and secure backup can dramatically improve communication with customers, distributors, or even between in-house staff. The right workflow automation will help reduce turnaround times due to delays in communication, as automation can run around the clock, even after working hours.

Also, this will only help improve your customer experience, as well as your relationships with vendors and distributors. The easier and more effective your communication is, the better it is for all of your stakeholders.

How to Choose the Right Automation

There is no shortage of automation tools available for all industries, especially for digital automation. However, it’s important that you choose a service that’s right for your needs, fits your budget, and works across your entire workflow.

For that, you’ll need a flexible system that you can adapt to fit your business’s workflow, even as you adapt or scale your business. Assuming you don’t have a team of software engineers on your staff, you’ll need a low-code platform with the training resources you need to adapt your digital processes. This way, your in-house team can program and adjust your workflow automation over time to meet your needs.

From there, you can adjust the rules, tasks, and microservices to work across multiple tenants, platforms, and users. This will allow you to synchronize, archive, and analyze all of your sensitive data as efficiently as possible.

Grow Your Food (Manufacturing Business) Today

Clearly, workflow automation is one of the most essential, but overlooked, tools that food manufacturers can use to reduce waste within their enterprises. On top of that, the right platform will help you reduce costs as you continue to scale your business. With the right platform, the sky is the limit.

Stay up to date with our blog for our latest automation tips, and schedule a consultation to learn more about how FlowWright can help your food manufacturing business!