New Industry Report Reveals Major Digital Gap In New Zealand Food Manufacturing

Auckland, 14 March 2022. iMonitor’s first industry report shows that most food manufacturers (93 per cent) still rely on pen and paper or Excel spreadsheets to record quality and compliance data. As a result, they report manual errors, a lack of visibility and a slow data flow between different departments.

“Most manufacturers have already a variety of software solutions in place, such as ERP or inventory management systems. But when it comes to their production floor, almost all rely entirely on old-fashioned paper clipboards or complex interlinked Excel sheets that are very difficult to maintain or keep accurate”, explains Martin Keogh, CEO of iMonitor.

“A typical production team runs up to 14 paper-based processes and the quality assurance team up to 24 paper-based processes to assure quality and compliance – this has a significant effect on data visibility and efficiency and complicates traceability exercises as well.”

According to the report, almost one in two food manufacturers tracked product recalls on paper. Another 40 per cent used Excel or Word whereas only 12% made use of software solutions to track and trace their production. This stands in stark contrast to the increased demand for granular traceability that includes products, processes, ingredients, CCP checks, equipment and personnel, which cannot be covered by a manual track and trace system.

“By digitising their production and other site processes, manufacturers can reduce the amount of time needed to run traceability exercises such as mock recalls from hours or days to just seconds,” states Mr. Keogh.

The surveyed manufacturers did not show a lack of interest in digitisation. It is rather the fear of the level of investment required and a perceived risk through wider infrastructural failure that holds manufacturers back from considering the digitisation of their production floors.

iMonitor’s industry report is the first of a planned series of reports to track the digital development of New Zealand’s food production floors. For the first report, iMonitor surveyed 57 New Zealand food manufacturers, followed by a set of in-depth interviews with a limited number of food manufacturing businesses. You can access the full industry report here.

About iMonitor

iMonitor Ltd, a privately owned New Zealand company, develops cloud-based smart manufacturing solutions for leading food and pharmaceutical manufacturers worldwide. iMonitor’s manufacturing platform offers manufacturers full visibility and control of their quality and production processes to make data-driven decisions and drive process improvements. The iMonitor manufacturing software includes smart features, such as digitised checks and processes, automated workflows, real-time insights and analytics, automatic alerts and enhanced traceability to make operations more efficient, reduce production waste, and ensure data integrity during production. www.imonitor.net

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