Smarter Beef and Pork Processing for a Leaner Market
Tap into the potential of your supply chain to maximize operations, profit, and productivity amongst market uncertainty.
In recent years, beef and pork markets faced weak or stagnant demand,* leaving traditional supply chain solutions struggling to support business complexity and meet financial targets.
Animal protein processing operates at high volumes and low margins – making it essential to extract value from every part of the animal. But how do you maximize value while managing inconsistent supply, variable weights and quality, and a near-infinite number of possible product combinations? Breeding, slaughtering, processing, packaging, and distribution – at every layer there’s a chance for plans to fail and further erode margins.
Traditional solutions like spreadsheets and ERPs cannot deliver the visibility and adaptability that meat producers need to succeed. Nor do they consider the variables needed to maximize returns: short order cycles, long-term supply contracts, shelf-life, food safety regulations, and optimal produce mix decisions.
A holistic view is vital if you’re going to effectively manage the challenges. Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) solutions bring structure to the chaos – improving coordination, reducing surprises, and unlocking measurable gains. According to McKinsey, companies using these tools can realize significant EBIT improvements.**
Moving to Advanced Planning & Scheduling
When you transform your viewpoint to cover the end-to-end value chain you can:
1
Create maximum yield and reduce waste by balancing your supply and demand with your specific capacity constraints.
2
Grow your business and enter into new market channels via forward integration of value-added products.
3
Navigate processing constraints and allocate products to the highest paying market/channel.
Organizational Benefits
- More consistent plans
- Increased customer satisfaction
- Data-driven and KPI-based decision-making
- Faster time-to-market for new products and channels
Key differentiators of this solution
- True perfect-fit with your unique animal protein operations
- Optimize supply push and demand pull
- Single platform for all planning horizons
- Strategic scenario and tactical what-if analysis
Beef Production: Adapting for Future Resilience
Beef production is projected to experience modest growth in the coming years, driven by increased cattle availability and evolving market demands. According to the OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2024–2033, production levels are expected to remain relatively stable through 2025 and beyond, with growth influenced by feed costs, shifting consumer preferences, and economic pressures. Despite this stability, high prices and profitability challenges persist, making it crucial for producers to maximize the value of each animal and optimize operations to weather market disruptions.
Pork Production: Navigating Challenges Ahead
In contrast, the global outlook for pork is less optimistic. The OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2024–2033 predicts that pork production may face notable challenges in 2025 and beyond due to stricter environmental regulations, biosecurity concerns, and adjustments in major markets like China. Efforts to manage oversupply and stabilize local prices are anticipated to continue, potentially impacting global supply chains. This creates an imperative for producers to innovate and streamline operations to remain competitive.
What Does This Mean for the Coming Years?
The long-term trends identified by the FAO suggest:
- Beef and Veal: Steady production with moderate growth driven by market demand and cost-management strategies.
- Pig Meat: Heightened vulnerability to external factors such as disease outbreaks and regulatory shifts, potentially suppressing growth in key regions.
Staying ahead means not only anticipating these shifts but also adapting supply chain strategies to enhance resilience and sustainability.
This presents some interesting opportunities:
AI-driven optimization has recovered up to 22% of profits typically lost through traditional decision-making.¹
Real-time tracking and dynamic planning systems could improve processing plant efficiency by 10–15%.²
AI-powered forecasting can reduce errors by 20–50%, cutting lost sales and product unavailability by up to 65%.³
Optimizing The Journey: Sustainable Value Creation
Unlock opportunities for efficiency, sustainability and profitability
Supply - Push
Source to meet forecasted demand
Balancing the capacity of processing locations while ensuring animal welfare requirements are met, adds an extra layer of complexity to sourcing animals of the appropriate grade, size and type.
Manage supply disruptions in real-time
Effectively replan upon receipt of live animals to maximize capacity despite variations in the expected size, grade, quantity, or arrival times.
Go beyond being demand-driven
Align supply-push with demand-pull to maximize efficiency, reduce waste, boost margins and free up cash tied up in inventory
Automate cutting patterns
Consider all cut, de-bone and packaging paths so you always choose the best cutting pattern to fulfill demand across different time horizons.
Maximize secondary product value
With full visibility of current and future inventory levels of secondary products, you connect operations with future demand to drive more value.
Demand - Pull
Increase the price per kilo
Compare KPIs across various scenarios to determine the optimal mix of primary and secondary products to maximize the total value from each animal.
Optimize recipes for lowest cost formulation
Blending optimization enables you to effectively balance recipes to control ingredient costs and minimize waste, yet still guarantee product quality, taste, and freshness.
Capitalize on seasonal fluctuations
Optimally adjust to fluctuations in demand associated with BBQ season, football matches, and other seasonal events with full visibility into upcoming demand in days, weeks, and months.
Reduce new product introduction time
Assess the viability and reduce R&D cycle time by evaluating the impact of new product introductions on current and future commitments across your value chain.
Effectively plan rush orders
Compare multiple scenarios and evaluate the impact of rush orders on all your KPIs to always make the optimal decision.
Prioritize markets/ channels
Maximize profitability by considering different priority customers, intra-site shipments, and agreed MLOR to fulfill customer SLA targets. Aim for the highest euro per kg.
Decision Intelligence:
Smart Planning For A Complex Industry
In the fast-moving animal protein sector, Decision Intelligence transforms complexity into clarity. By integrating AI and advanced analytics with APS, it empowers planners to make faster, smarter decisions – consistently. For example:
- Carcass balancing: How do identify the specific cut plan that translates to the optimal product mix?
- Peak Planning: Can you avoid the cost of external storage during peak periods?
- Value from Excess: Detect aging stock early and unlock value before it expires.
- Growth and Expansion: Procure extra livestock to grow market share?
- Co-Product Optimization: How do you turn pork trimmings or beef offcuts into profit?
Embracing Decision Intelligence breaks down planning silos, giving all stakeholders timely insights into the impact of any changes. Gain the flexibility to navigate changes fast, better meet customer demands and increase profitability.
Transforming Together:
Our Approach To Your Success
Transformation doesn’t happen in isolation. Our structured, partnership-based approach ensures change is meaningful, measurable, and lasting. We work with you to define, design, and unlock tangible value for your business. With our three-step approach, we ensure that people, processes, and technology align to drive resilient, efficient, and sustainable operations:
Value Discovery
First Time Right
Transformation
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