Learn How to Automate Your Brewing Business Basics!

Learn How to Automate Your Brewing Business Basics

People appreciate authenticity, and a lot of people like beer. So it is no wonder that artisanal breweries are growing at a rate of more than twenty percent year over year, according to the Brewers Association.

But where does that leave the artisan, who has honed his or her ability to make beer, but suddenly is facing challenges created by a rising number of SKUs, fluctuating demand and the need to ensure that the right recipe items are on hand in order to meet a changing production and delivery schedule? Suddenly, what started as a labor of love has become an increasingly complex batch process manufacturing operation with advanced recipe management needs, spoilage concerns and traceability requirements.

At Panatrack, we have found breweries benefit from barcode automation to track and manage inventory transactions in Microsoft Dynamics GP, including:

1. Recording finished product when it comes off the line and applying pallet labels for efficient recording and validation of moves and picks to staging.
2. Ensuring orders are staged efficiently for loading to trucks along with confirmation that all pallets have been loaded.
3. Knowing what raw materials and packaging materials they need to complete scheduled production runs.

Barcode scanning that updates received materials and finished products directly into Microsoft Dynamics GP is appealing for brewers because as the business grows, managing inventory becomes a growing problem. Many brewers learn to make decisions on when to order raw materials by long-studied tactile methods. As the number of products with unique recipes increases along with the book of customer orders, this places demands on a raw materials supply chain and more sophisticated methods for planning materials orders around production runs is required. Experience and artistry must be augmented by automation so that adequate materials are on hand to satisfy each production run and the throngs of thirsty customers.

Functioning as an embedded warehouse management system (WMS), PanatrackerGP augments Microsoft Dynamics GP with barcode technology to capture transactions at the point and time they occur. This takes away the guesswork that is unsustainable in a growing business, and replaces it with accurate real-time inventory tracking. You will know what you have and where it is, and can record every inventory transaction. Many small breweries are space constrained, and are either relying on vendors to stock materials for rapid delivery near the time of consumption or use off-site warehouses. Regardless, this built-in WMS takes the guesswork out of brewing great beer because you can focus on your art rather than your inventory. A WMS and Microsoft Dynamics GP can also be hosted in the cloud by your value-added reseller (VAR), taking away the distraction of supporting software at your location.

PanatrackerGP is used and trusted by a number of growing and respected breweries already, and the solution also integrates with popular batch manufacturing add-ons for Microsoft Dynamics GP.

For more information about how your brewery can benefit from Pantrack Inventory & Asset Tracking, call Kelley at Tidestone Solutions today!

207-956-6635  |  ksintz@tidestonesolutions.com

by Tidestone Solutions