Manual work is everywhere in food and beverage, and not because teams prefer it.
From food safety and quality to procurement, R&D, supply chain, and packaging, organizations are still relying on spreadsheets, email chains, and paper-based processes to manage some of their most critical workflows. It’s not a lack of awareness. It’s a structural problem.
82% of teams still depend on manual methods to manage product development and supplier-related processes, according to research by TraceGains. Even more telling: only 2% report having fully digitized, automated NPD workflows.
That gap isn’t just a technology issue. It’s a data problem.
Manual work isn’t the root cause, it’s the symptom
Most organizations don’t set out to run on spreadsheets. They end up there because their data is fragmented across systems, teams, and formats.
Supplier documentation lives in inboxes. Specifications sit in shared drives. Packaging details are tracked separately from formulations. COAs arrive in inconsistent formats. Each function builds its own workaround to keep things moving.
Manual work then becomes the glue holding everything together.
- Quality teams manually verify COAs against specs
- Procurement chases supplier updates across emails
- R&D re-enters data across systems to move formulations forward
- Packaging teams reconcile specs and artwork line by line
It’s not inefficient because people are slow. It’s inefficient because the data isn’t connected.
“Manual work persists because the systems behind it aren’t designed to share data, disagree on the content of the data, and are often speaking about the same data in different ways,” says Zoltan Gombosi, SVP of Engineering at TraceGains. “Teams are forced to bridge those gaps one spreadsheet, one email, one workaround at a time.”
The real cost of disconnected data
When data doesn’t move seamlessly, neither do decisions.
Manual processes introduce delays at every stage of the product lifecycle, from supplier onboarding to formulation to final packaging approval. More importantly, they create risk.
An out-of-spec ingredient slips through because a COA wasn’t fully validated.
A packaging claim doesn’t match the latest formulation.
A supplier issue goes unnoticed because performance data isn’t centralized.
These aren’t edge cases. They’re the natural byproduct of disconnected systems.
And while each issue may seem isolated, the cumulative impact is significant:
- Slower time to market
- Increased cost of quality
- Greater exposure to recalls and compliance failures
- Lost negotiating power with suppliers
Why digitization alone isn’t enough
Many companies have already invested in digital tools. But digitization doesn’t automatically eliminate manual work.
If systems don’t communicate—or if data remains locked in documents—teams are still forced to extract, validate, and re-enter information manually.
In other words, you can digitize a broken process and still end up with the same inefficiencies.
True transformation requires more than moving from paper to digital. It requires making data usable, accessible, and connected across the entire ecosystem.
From manual entry to connected intelligence
This is where connected data changes the game.
When supplier, specification, formulation, packaging, and compliance data are unified in a single ecosystem, manual work begins to disappear — not because it’s automated in isolation, but because it’s no longer necessary.
- COAs are automatically validated against specifications
- Supplier performance is tracked and visible across locations
- Formulation changes update downstream packaging and labeling requirements
- Compliance data flows seamlessly into decision-making processes
Instead of chasing information, teams work from a shared, real-time source of truth.
“When data is connected and standardized, workflows accelerate naturally,” Gombosi says. “You’re not just eliminating manual steps; you’re enabling the right decisions to be made faster across the business.”
The competitive advantage of connected data
The 2% of organizations that have achieved fully digitized, automated processes aren’t just more efficient; they’re fundamentally more agile.
They bring products to market faster.
They respond to supply chain disruptions with confidence. They reduce compliance risk without slowing innovation.
Most importantly, they shift their teams’ focus from administrative work to strategic impact.
In a market defined by volatility and complexity, that’s not just an operational improvement; it’s a competitive advantage.
From disconnected workflows to a connected ecosystem
Manual work in food and beverage isn’t going away on its own. As long as data remains disconnected, teams will continue to fill the gaps.
But when organizations move toward a connected ecosystem—linking supplier data, specifications, formulations, packaging, and compliance—those gaps start to disappear. Data flows across functions, workflows stay aligned, and decisions happen faster with far greater confidence.
The real shift isn’t just digitization, it’s connection. Because when your data works as a system, your business does too.
