10-step route to cut food manufacturing costs

Montag 16 August 2010

A new 10-step route to help food manufacturers and other organisations offset higher raw material and labour costs has been launched by supply chain organization, TradeCard.

"You can't lower the price of raw materials or labor. But with prices rising it's more important than ever to get your own costs down," said a spokesperson for the organization. "Overhead costs, processing costs, capital costs... look across your supply chain — into the extended network of parties and layers involved. There's room for efficiency and savings. Now is the time to address it."

The 10-step route to costs savings and greater efficiency include:

1 Paper assessment

2 Change transactions

3 Maximise financial strengths

4 Go direct

5 Keep close to source

6 Find partners

7 Diversify

8 Closer sourcing

9 Explore new options

10 Low investment

TradeCard’s top recommendation is to perform a paper assessment. “Examine your supply chain and find where paper is being used most, whether in purchasing orders, invoices, settlements or letters of financing,” according to the report. “Wherever paper is involved, there are likely to be some errors and inefficiencies.”