Deli Brands of America supplies wholesalers, restaurants and steakhouses, food retailers and industrial customers with delicatessen meats, steaks, veal, pork, lamb and other specialties. Previously the company had used several manual systems—including Excel and Outlook—as well as many paper-based forms for operating its production facility. Unfortunately, this led to inaccurate data, time-consuming information retrieval and poor reports.

With many foodservice operations—including quick-serve restaurants (QSRs) and delis—tightening costs by discontinuing in-store meat slicing, often processors must assume that function. In response, Berks Packing Company, a family owned Reading, Pennsylvania based meat processor, took steps to expand its slicing and interleaving capabilities.

When a food or beverage processor begins breaking down costs, sometimes startling facts are revealed. Here’s a case in point: Widmer Brothers Brewery (Portland, Ore.), founded in 1984 and part of the Craft Brew Alliance (CBA), had been using a liquid ring vacuum pump to bottle its beers, but realized the technology was consuming roughly 5,000 gallons of water per day.