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In today's food and beverage climate, managing product specifications efficiently is crucial. It is unacceptable to be taking months to collect data in order to do simple tasks. By leveraging a spec-first approach, organizations are not only able to streamline their processes but also ensure compliance with regulatory standards and meet sustainability goals.
Patrick Kuryla of Bob Evans Farms recognized this first-hand, as he was met with the limitations of their previous systems. Bob Evans Farms knew they had the information needed to operate well, but the challenge lay in connecting all their pieces together to create one standard system. By taking a spec-first approach, Bob Evans Farms can now create a strong Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) system that will help them innovate, keep track of every step of their projects, and be more efficient, enabling them to hold their standing as the leader in refrigerated retail.
Streamlining Data Through a Spec-First Approach
A spec-first approach centralizes critical data such as material types, ingredient lists, packaging details, and quality standards in one accessible platform. This approach revolutionizes traditional systems like what Bob Evans Farms had where data is siloed, scattered across multiple platforms, or in spreadsheets and emails. By consolidating all specification data into a single source of truth, this ensures that all stakeholders—suppliers, manufacturers, quality assurance teams, and internal teams—are aligned on all the details that go into creating the final product.
The Importance of Standardized Data in the Food Industry
The food and beverage industry faces unique challenges that make effective specification management essential. For companies like Bob Evans Farms that have multiple brands with loyal customer bases, getting high quality products to market in record times is critical. However, there are factors that affect this goal from coming into fruition to the extent that companies would like. Some of these roadblocks include:
- Regulatory Compliance: Companies must ensure their products comply with local and international laws regarding safety, labeling, and environmental impact. Non-compliance can leave companies facing costly recalls or damage their brand reputation.
- Sustainability Initiatives: Companies need to track every step of their environmental footprint, from sourcing sustainable ingredients, reducing packaging waste, and end-of-life product management. This data will help them avoid non-compliance fees in the future.
- Data Duplication and Inefficiency: Many organizations struggle with duplicated data spread across various systems that is not always consistent. Without transparency into all data, this fragmentation makes it difficult to ensure data accuracy and traceability.
Overcoming F&B Industry Challenges with a Spec-First Approach
Bob Evans Farms didn't initially start with integrated workflows in Specright. Their first use case was to implement a digital asset management process that helped them manage their artwork, bridging a gap between their own Marketing teams and their graphic vendors.
However, after becoming more comfortable with the system, they saw opportunities to expand to meet their PLM needs. These actions alone were a step towards simplifying their complex processes. By diving into Specright, they reduced the manual effort it took to enter data into their systems, enhanced collaboration due to easier data sharing between teams, and are improving their speed-to-market by accelerating product development cycles due to accessible data. Now being able to manage their ingredient specifications in one centralized, purpose-built system, they can enable more of the product development process into the hands of their product developers.
Game-Changing Integrations
A large area of success for Bob Evans Farms comes from their ability to pair Specright’s integrations with their existing workflows. They were able to integrate Specright with their existing nutritional development system, Genesis, then later integrate with 1WorldSync—the industry's largest standardized data pool. This integration enables automatic publication of product specs to major retailers like Kroger, Albertsons, and Walmart.
According to Kuryla, the 1WorldSync integration, paired with the work they’ve done in Specright and with Genesis “...is going to allow us to do everything from managing an ingredient specification, the nutrition per a 100 grams of an ingredient all the way through the nutrition per serving and percent daily value of the finished good, all the way to publishing information to our customers and the retailers that sell our products.
The Value of Specification Management
Once recognizing the need for a standardized and centralized data system, Bob Evans Farms has seen exponential improvements in their workflows, team unity, and data visibility. They have experienced that effective specification management offers significant benefits beyond operational efficiency. This includes quality assurance that comes from quality checks that minimize errors, cost savings due to optimizing their resources, and a competitive advantage as they are able to respond faster to market demands and regulatory changes.
Conclusion
In an industry as dynamic as food and beverage, mastering specification management is not just beneficial—it’s essential to stay competitive. Bob Evans Farms’ success story underscores the transformative power of adopting a spec-first approach. To learn more about Bob Evans Farms’ story, and the power of specification management, check out the webinar featuring Patrick Kurlya of Bob Evans Farms and Matthew Wright of Specright, hosted by Food Dive. If you’re ready to start your specification management journey, whether in big or small steps, reach out to us today!
