An industry focused webinar has explored opportunities for the poultry and livestock industries to reimagine their businesses, creating opportunity and improving efficiencies.

The webinar which offered solutions and opportunities along the meat value chain attracted businesses from all over the world with attendees and speakers from as many as twenty countries.

Convenors of the webinar, SAP, had arranged for speakers including product development and project experts as well as end-users who provided an overview of the solution and how the solution had been integrated into their business.

Kondinin Group General Manager of Research and editor of Farming Ahead magazine set the scene outlining the challenges and opportunities the industry was facing. Key themes of the opening address included traceability and the importance of provenance.

According to Mr White, home-cooking has enjoyed a renaissance of sorts, spurred by celebrity chefs and a reduction in eating-out brought about by Covid-19.

"Details of provenance provides producers, processors and vendors with an important marketing opportunity allowing the consumer to see where the product was raised and the farming methods employed," White said.

According to Mr White, provenance delivers certainty, for not only the consumer, but also for the poultry and livestock industries where traceability is an essential facet of the business.

SAP solutions deliver traceability along the meat value chain ensuring identification of the path to market for product can be ascertained.

Also speaking at the webinar, was Dr Christian Kern, Product Manager and Meat Solution Expert for SAP Germany. Together with colleague, SAP Asia Industries Business Architect - Agribusiness, Jack Wang, the journey from farm to fork was explored.

Wang highlighted this importance of the meat and dairy industry in the context of the broader food and beverage industry highlighting that meat is the most important, accounting for almost a quarter of the business sector.

"Globally, meat production has grown by around 20% in the decade from 2008, while Asia specifically has seen a 42% increase in production" Wang explained.

Kern added that the meat industry is typically segregated into distinctive business models and including full supply operations to more specific traditional, combined or specialised companies.

Kern explained how the SAP solution could be tailored according to requirements with information management in an end-to-end process flow along the meat supply chain.

Kern explained that despite the challenges faced in the meat industry, including a lack of cost transparency and disconnections and fragmentation of business processes, opportunity to improve profitability existed.

"These opportunities include improvements in whole animal utilisation, real-time cost transparency, product traceability and a harmonised fit for future system and process landscapes," Kern said

The first of two end-user video examples were then provided with one of the largest producers of fresh meat, charcuterie, poultry, fish and egg products in Switzerland, Micarna outlining what SAP had helped them achieve.

Highlights for Micarna include the realisation of a 36 per cent higher operating margin and a 44 per cent reduction in IT spend as a proportion of revenue. In addition, consumer satisfaction increased by 16 per cent.

Micarna is one of dozens of meat industry businesses enjoying the benefits of SAP solutions with a range of global businesses identified as users of SAP solutions.

Webinar attendees then heard from Stephan Kronbichler, Business Development Lead, MSG Softproviding AG. In his role, Stephan has significant familiarity with the SAP solution and understands how any meat, poultry, or fish company strives to ensure greater productivity and compliance in an age of highly informed consumers and traceability.

Kronbichler went on to explain the three end-to-end processes supported by SAP meat and fish management by MSG.

"The three processes are firstly the planning connection to execution, the livestock operation and finally the livestock procurement and slaughtering," Kronbichler said.

Kronbichler then went into detail on each of these end-to-end processes.

"The meat-specific business logic is a careful balance of either a push from supply, or pull from consumer demand," he said

Kronbichler then explained the full integration and planning for demand to supply and from supply to demand, demonstrating in a live screen-share the inner workings of the solution.

The livestock operation solution from SAP was also explained with the ability to plan and monitor actuals, have insight into financials and manage Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) as well as inventories and supply planning for both animals and feed.

Kronbichler demonstrated the master data, planning cycles, activities and finance components of the livestock operation solution.

This included examples of reporting through SAP proprietary FIORI applications. FIORI applications address workflow approvals, information lookups, and self-service tasks with simple and easy-to-use access across desktops, tablets, and smartphones.

To finalise the session, Kronbichler then outlined the livestock procurement and slaughtering solution and included a live screen-share demonstration.

"The livestock procurement and slaughtering solution provides high supply visibility across all plants delivering better planning results as well as higher levels of farmer and customer satisfaction," Kronbichler said.

In concluding, Kronbichler said protein companies are ultimately striving for simplification.

"Reducing the complex IT landscapes and interfaces with an integrated one-stop-shop is key," he said, adding that, "ensuring the solution is future-proof is important with support and an identified upgrade path."

"But ultimately connectivity is key with the ability to link business areas together," Kronbichler concluded.

Attendees then heard another end-user-case with the IT team from Promotora Doñihue subsidiary, Agrosuper, joining the webinar and outlining the integration of the SAP meat and fish solution into their business.

Readers wanting to recap or who may have missed the webinar can view it at:
https://webinars.sap.com/apj/optimize-poultry-livestock-supply-chain-from-farm-to-plate-sea/en/registration.aspx

• SAP Meat and Fish Management by msg -
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