After the mad dash to end one year, January seems like a chance to get your feet back under you as you start the next.

Whether it’s water efficiency, packaging, food safety, material flow or anything else you can think of, there is always a point in the process that creates challenges, and that point is usually a headache for processors of any size.

Depending on who is asked, Kannapolis, N.C., is most well known for being the birthplace of either Parliament-Funkadelic’s George Clinton or NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Sr. The mind behind “Atomic Dog” and the Intimidator don’t have a whole lot in common, but one thing they do share is a legacy of turning their respective fields on their heads

It’s fair to say that the easy part is over, or at least mostly over. But sustainability isn’t going away because corporate sustainability goals, cost pressures and demands for details about sustainable production and ingredients from consumers are all here to stay.

Both throughput and budgets are generally increasing, which means the industry is growing and companies are investing in hardware and software to help manage that growth.

Since 2014, respondents to Food Engineering’s annual State of Food Manufacturing survey have ranked automation as the No. 1 trend affecting the industry—until this year.

The one thing that all of the largest food and beverage companies have in common is that they’ve built an infrastructure that allows them to face challenges to existing businesses while still finding ways to grow.

The small stuff falling through the cracks is often an indicator of larger issues within an organization, and paying close attention to the details can often help head off those larger issues.