# VKS for Food & Beverage

Consumers favor companies who prioritize sustainability & traceability.

Capitalize on changing consumer trends by going digital.

## Reduce Supply Chain Waste

With an increase in the desire from consumers for sustainability and
eco-friendliness, waste reduction is now the dominating challenge
for manufacturers and the one that influences all subsequent
decisions. To this day, one of the best ways to achieve Lean
Manufacturing continues to be through the standardization of work.

A common situation across shop floors globally is that only certain
employees within the organization possess key knowledge. If this
knowledge has ever been recorded on paper, then documentation of it
is either stored away in a cabinet somewhere or has long since been
outdated.

By using the VKS software to digitally document the invaluable
knowledge of your senior operators, you can rest assured that
production is always maintained at optimal levels. Now more than
ever, it is important to standardize work at each level of
production with digital work instructions, which also offer the
fundamental advantage of decreasing overproduction, reducing
defects, and maximizing human potential.

Once tribal knowledge is documented in digital format, the training
of new employees is then streamlined through the use of digital work
instructions. Instead of spending countless hours training new
employees, senior operators are now able to spend time on other
valuable tasks and can quickly review training progress through
interactive questionnaires.

## Keep Up with Regulatory Changes

Keeping up with rapidly changing consumer trends is a major
challenge within both food and beverage as well as consumer goods
industries. The process of creating a new product from start to
finish is time-consuming and the reality is that by the time it’s
done, changing consumer trends or regulations may throw a wrench
into the plans.

But with digital work instruction software, the setbacks are minimal
compared to those that result from still using paper-printed guides.
Using templates, managers can quickly make changes to hundreds of
Guidebooks at the same time, while broadcasting an alert to all
affected operators that this change has been made. These alerts can
be created for any situation, whether to remind shop floor operators
to wash their hands frequently or remember to maintain a
socially-safe distance from each other.

Any action performed within the VKS work instruction software is
also recorded. A history of changes applied to a Guidebook is
recoverable through Version Control, allowing users to review
previous versions and review which users applied these changes,
ensuring traceability.

## Improve Product Traceability & Transparency

The ability to track and trace the life of a product from raw
material to finished goods is one of the most important aspects
within manufacturing – it’s also one of the biggest challenges.
Within the food and beverage industry, the global supply chain is of
heightened importance as a result of changing regulations, the
digital revolution, and world events such as the pandemic.

Recording data at every step of the way is crucial towards ensuring
transparency across the entire food supply chain. While standard
operating procedures (SOPs) have always been the norm, keeping up
with technology through the digitization of work instructions offers
an unparalleled advantage.

Once any data is entered into the VKS software, it can then be
retrieved through the search function and aggregated within a
report. Operators can enter data in two ways: either by scanning a
barcode or by completing a Smart Form to enter specific information
such as product measurements, temperature readings, etc.

By analyzing the collected data, you can then detect opportunities
to improve quality, reduce recalls, correct inventory shortages, and
surpass the competition.

### Recommended Suite | VKS Pro

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Move beyond Tribal Knowledge

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Stay unaffected by changing regulations.

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Collect supply chain data.

#### Key Features

- ##### Interactive Questionnaires

Enhance training by quizzing employees.

- ##### Mass Updates

Use templates to update multiple work instructions

- ##### Version Control

Review past Guidebook versions.

- ##### Smart Forms

Collect data and track product details.

- ##### Operator Feedback

Receive comments from operators.

#### VKS in Action

VKS experts offer their best advice, research, how-tos, and
insights, because their main goal is to help you increase your
productivity and become the smart factory of the future. Read our
use cases about work instructions, MES and more…

[See How They Do It](/content/case-studies/index.html)