Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
As a food manufacturer, your company has to keep track of a lot of details. For example, you need to know the container packaging requirements related to canning, labeling, coding, and handling. You need to have weight control procedures in place to determine the net weight of each product. Finally, you have to keep every type of food at the appropriate temperature (refrigerated, frozen, heated, or room temperature).
Standard operating procedures make all of your processes easier, including the management of documents inside of your company.
Here is a list of areas for the food manufacturing industry that require standard operating procedures:
- Good manufacturing practices
- Label review
- Residual chemical testing
- Raw material testing
- Sanitation
- Housekeeping
- Product process design
- Rework
- Hold and release
- Recall procedures
- Storage
- Training
- Product sequencing
- Traceability
- Supplier approval
Sales Order Management
The manufacturing process starts with sales order management. Depending on how many customers your company serves, sales order management can keep entire departments busy all day long. A lot of companies use fax or email to send orders back and forth. While both are technically instantaneous, the information still has to be put into the system.
Fortunately, eFileCabinet can eliminate the time and cost of fax and email. Sales order management usually requires approvals as well. By using our document management system, you can add changes and approvals from one location which can speed up the process of ordering significantly.
Quality Control and Compliance
Quality control and compliance are important parts of the food manufacturing processes. The type of quality control that your company has to do will depend on the particular type of foods you manufacture. Essentially, it’s your company’s job to keep the food safe for end consumers to eat.
In order to institute quality control processes, multiple documents from multiple locations have to be managed for audits of any type. Therefore, it must be easy to access the data by authorized personnel. And due to the volume of required documentation, your information must be easily searchable within your document management system during audits.
Invoicing and Accounts Payable
Your company can increase productivity in your accounting department by utilizing document management systems for invoicing and accounts payable. The better your company can manage the workflow related to paying and getting paid, the less time and money you have to spend on these processes.
In fact, you might even be able to pay your suppliers sooner and take advantage of discounts on invoices by utilizing a document management system like eFileCabinet. When document management is used properly, your company may also see a reduction in errors and higher customer satisfaction as well.
Supplier and Customer Relationships
In order to manage your supplier relationships, you need to keep all of your documentation consistent and organized for later reference. A document management system is essential for storing and approving your paperwork quickly. This is especially important when you’re establishing new supplier and customer relationships.
In fact, handling your suppliers and customers quickly and efficiently will probably increase the likelihood of repeat business for you. The easier you make it to order from you, the more customers will take advantage of that fact. Similarly, making it easy for suppliers to do business with you will help you establish good relationships with them.
It’s difficult to put an exact value on good supplier and customer relationships; however, you might be able to negotiate better payment terms or discounts if you are one of the easiest companies to deal with. As a result of maintaining good relationships, if you need special service such as an expedited shipment, both your suppliers and customers will be more likely to work with you.
The Importance of Document Management Systems
Technically, all of your processes can be handled without the assistance of a document management system. But there are some drawbacks to trying to handle your processes without eFileCabinet. At the very least, without an easy way to store and access all of your files from various locations, your processes will take more time. This affects everything from ordering to invoicing.
Using a document management system also adds another layer of traceability that ensures quality control and compliance with your processes. It’s not easy to retrieve a document that’s securely stored with eFileCabinet, but it’s relatively easy to take important papers from a desk of one of your employees.
Why don’t you give eFileCabinet a try right now and see what it can do for your company? Simply fill out the form on this page and start your 15-minute demo.