According to Preston Blevins, Vice-President of BatchMaster (www.batchmaster.com), Nutraceuticals manufacturing has been a very impressive growth industry with no end to its growth in sight. This growth is fueled by a public who is increasing focused on health and wants to have increased vitality and longevity. In many respects this parallels the situation in the food and beverage industry, consumers want healthier foods and greater variety. The popularity of organic food, kosher food and the acceptance of functional foods underscore this growing desire.

Despite the forecasted growth for nutraceuticals manufacturing there is a developing belief by some executives within the industry that there will be a consolidation of manufacturers. This consolidation will be driven in part by increasing regulatory compliance requirements, enforcement of claim statements, tighter quality requirements and operational inefficiencies. There is a formula that the nutraceutical manufacturer can use that will improve competitiveness and increase their survivability and benefit from those who ignore it. This formula has five active ingredients:

 INTEGRATION OF BUSINESS PROCESSES & INFORMATION  BUSINESS PROCESS CONSISTENCY  DATA ACCURACY  VISIBILITY  EFFICIENT USE OF RESOURCES

INTEGRATION OF BUSINESS PROCESSES & INFORMATION

Integration is a somewhat abstract word that requires explanation for those who do not have it in their business operations, individuals who have acclimated to "islands of information". The reality today is that many small to medium sized manufacturers operate off numerous independent spreadsheets and a few stand-alone computerized legacy systems. While many manufacturers are GMP compliant and individual tasks are executed per the prescribed Stand Operating Procedure (SOP), they are not connected to facilitate a logical information flow. This results in limited access to information that is cumbersome to get, with significant data quality (accuracy) problems and to add insult to injury, is expensive to maintain. How expensive will be discussed in the benefits of integration section later.

A few examples of business process integration:

 Lot/batch control and traceability in the ingredient and finished goods supply-chain  Lot/batch control and traceability in the manufacturing facility  Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

Regulatory authorities have forced a form of integration through the requirement of lot traceability record keeping throughout the entire supply chain. The illustrations below depict this requirement.

About BatchMaster

BatchMaster Software, Inc. has provided advanced ERP solutions for over two decades with more than one thousand five hundred installations worldwide. BatchMaster's customers can be found in every formula or recipe-based business, including food, beverage, cosmetic, personal care, paint, coating, nutraceutical, pharmaceutical, and specialty chemical industries. Flexible, easy to learn and use, and scalable to grow with a process manufacturing business, BatchMaster is the definitive solution for the challenges facing small to midsize process manufacturers. BatchMaster has more than a hundred technical staff numbers of highly-qualified software professionals.

BatchMaster Software, Inc. Preston W Blevins CFPIM, CIRM, CSCP Business Development phone: (949) 583-1646 Ext 240 | Mobile: (949) 813-5217 | FAX: (949) 271-4620 | pblevins@batchmaster.com | www.batchmaster.com|

About the Author

Professional Marketing Firm for the Manufacturing Community and Manufacturing Journalist to most manufacturing magazines