Food informatization: SMEs lack planning process control and RFID are opportunities
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The development of informatization in my country’s food industry is extremely uneven, and the actual situation of the industry must be considered in advancing informatization. “Informatization in the food industry is a general trend, but my country’s food industry has many small and medium-sized enterprises, generally small in scale, and relatively low profit margins. Informatization construction must be gradual and orderly.” said Wang Wei, deputy secretary-general of the China Food Industry Association.
“Information technology has been widely used in my country’s food industry and is an important technical support for my country’s food safety.” In the view of Wang Wei, deputy secretary-general of the China Food Industry Association, information technology has set up a safety net for the food industry.
However, Wang Wei also admitted that the development of informatization in my country’s food industry is extremely uneven, and the actual situation of the industry must be taken into consideration to promote informatization. “Informatization of the food industry is a general trend, but my country’s food industry has many small and medium-sized enterprises, generally small in scale, and relatively low profit margins. Informatization construction must be gradual and orderly.” Wang Wei said.
Informatization of small and medium-sized enterprises lacks overall planning
Bie Fenglei, deputy general manager of the smart card industry of Tongfang Co., Ltd., told the reporter of “China Electronics News” that informatization construction is more common in large food companies, and almost all of them have adopted the solutions of large general software suppliers. As the main body of the food industry, small and medium-sized enterprises still need to further promote informatization.
Bie Fenglei believes that the application of industry management software in the food industry is not as extensive as in other manufacturing industries, and there are not many successful experiences to learn from. Most small and medium-sized food companies, either because of low awareness or because of the high IT threshold, have not paid too much attention to informatization construction. This situation directly leads to the fact that most of the small and medium-sized food companies can only be in a certain scale. Wandering within the range.
In this regard, IDC China Industry Research and Advisory Services Senior Analyst Gao Liang agreed. He pointed out that many small and medium-sized food companies in my country have insufficient understanding of informatization, and their concept is still on the level of computer plus website equal to informatization, which also leads to less investment in informatization construction by enterprises. However, some enterprises that are in the process of or are preparing to carry out informatization construction have not considered the enterprise informatization construction from a strategic point of view, and lack long-term strategic planning. Many small and medium-sized food companies do not have overall plans for informatization construction, overall designs, or plans that are mere formalities, with many single projects and few integrated application systems. Most of the projects developed are single-item management, which cannot achieve system integration and information sharing, and has not formed a comprehensive application system for the decision-making level of the enterprise.
Gao Liang emphasized that, compared with the large food companies in the industry, small and medium food companies have fewer internal management links, centralized decision-making power, small batches, diversification, and rapid response to the market. This determines that Chinese small and medium-sized food companies must conform to their own characteristics in informatization construction; while formulating long-term strategic planning for informatization construction, they must carry out informatization construction in stages and in a targeted manner. Of course, they must also improve related human resources. Configuration.
The informatization of food companies can be divided into two levels. The first level is the use of tools or independent software, such as financial management systems or material management systems. This level mainly emphasizes the improvement of personal capabilities or local capabilities of the company. The second level is to use enterprise-level systems. The more common ones are enterprise-level management systems such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), product life cycle management (PLM), and supply chain management (SCM). Gao Liang believes that most of the informatization of small and medium-sized food companies is still at the first level, and the informatization construction remains at the application of some financial management software, only achieving informatization in some areas, and the second level involves less.
Liu Xiaobing, chief information officer of Shuanghui Group, believes that there are small problems and big difficulties. He told reporters that the business of Shuanghui Group is very large, involving agriculture and slaughter industry, as well as huge logistics systems and commercial companies, so it is impossible to buy a general-purpose software. At this time, Shuanghui has two options. One is to buy various software and put them together. If you do this, the IT system will become larger and larger, and upgrades will definitely cause problems. Another option is to integrate the software business. But what troubles him is that no domestic manufacturer can make this kind of software. Today, Shuanghui uses a software platform developed by itself.
Regardless of the scale, the most common problem in the informatization of food companies is that each department’s system is independent, information is scattered, and incompatible, and there is no unified standard. The information management system focuses on production capacity and cost control, resulting in low utilization of information or repeated input, resulting in a waste of information and time. In response to this situation, Zhu Haijun, deputy director of the food department of SGS, said that integrating the information content related to product quality and safety and the requirements of the food safety standard system into the existing information system should be the key to improving the management level of food companies.
Process control and RFID are opportunities
“More and more food companies will need IT products that are standardized, perfect, and suitable for the characteristics of the industry, and IT companies should also take a long-term view, enter this market first, and develop related products.” Zhu Haijun said, “Domestic IT companies still No good prospects for the market of food informatization have been found.”
The “Eleventh Five-Year Plan for Information Technology Transformation and Promotion of Traditional Industries” (hereinafter referred to as the “special plan”) clearly requires that in the process-based light industry, the focus of information technology application is to improve the control level of production processes and improve products Quality promotes energy saving and consumption reduction in the production process. However, the level of automatic production control in the domestic food industry is not optimistic. At present, there is a large gap between the production process control technology of domestic manufacturers and foreign countries. Part of the reason is that the company is out of cost considerations.
Zhu Haijun told reporters that the production equipment used by large domestic food companies is mainly imported from abroad. These equipment have their own information systems and data models, which are not compatible with the management systems of domestic companies. When an IT enterprise develops a management system for an enterprise, it should consider the compatibility and interface of the two data, so that the production information can be more conducive to the use of the enterprise.
He hopes that domestic IT manufacturers will “read” opportunities from the “Special Plan” to understand the characteristics and processing procedures of food companies’ processed products, and integrate and optimize existing systems. He believes that IT companies that do this will take the lead in the competition.
Gao Liang said that the demand for information construction such as food quality traceability system, advanced raw material inspection, and production process dynamic monitoring will greatly increase in the future. He told reporters that the “Food Industry Adjustment and Revitalization Plan” issued by the State Council emphasized “food safety”. It is foreseeable that the government will formulate a series of strict standards and testing systems for food safety in the future. The lack of development will become the “sacred spot” of development. Any food company that wants to develop in the long term must put food safety informatization construction in the most important position.
The reporter learned during the interview that although food safety informatization has become an indispensable part of food safety supervision work, there is still a gap between my country’s administrative management and information management level and developed countries, and the simple bar code technology has failed. Most rely on manual operations. In this case, the information chain is prone to break or untrue information appears. Bie Fenglei said: “The whole process of food quality tracking and tracing involves many links in production, processing, circulation, and consumption. Any problem in any link in the supply chain will disconnect the entire chain.”
At present, RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Technology) has been widely used in food safety management, and its advantages are beyond the reach of other identification technologies such as barcodes, magnetic cards, and IC cards. Bian Hongli, chief engineer of the National Electronic Label Product Quality Supervision and Inspection Center, said in an interview that my country attaches great importance to and supports radio frequency identification technology and applications. In recent years, the country has successively introduced relevant policies and measures to promote the development of the RFID industry, including The “Eleventh Five-Year” Science and Technology Development Plan, the “Electronic Information Industry Adjustment and Revitalization Plan”, and the National Development and Reform Commission’s “Radio Frequency Identification Technology Application Pilot Project”, etc.
However, if RFID applications are to be further promoted, there are still two hurdles in technology and cost. Bian Hongli took live pig breeding as an example, how to transfer the data in pig ear tags to a piece of pork after slaughter, and how to allocate the resulting costs will affect the application of RFID technology in pig breeding.
Bie Fenglei pointed out that in terms of the current price of RFID and the actual status of its application, it will take some time for all parties to recognize and recognize the role of RFID, so as to finally achieve a cost sharing method acceptable to all parties. In his view, the final solution to the cost problem should be the product of comprehensive coordination, requiring the participation of enterprises, governments, and consumers.
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