Impact of PLM system in the new food development process performances: An empirical research

Over the last few years, the food industry has become increasingly more relevant since it represents excellence not only at the European level, but also for the worldwide economy. Starting with this consideration, the main objective of this paper is to provide some elements that could support food companies to be successful in the market. In 2016, during the last PLM conference, the first results of a wider research were presented with the aim to understand how the PLM solution has been adopted into the food industry, and its limits and challenges of the deployment in this sector. This paper presents how the study has evolved through this year. Starting from this point, the impacts and effects from the use of the PLM solution on the New Food Development (NFD) process performances have been described. To identify these effects, a questionnaire was developed and used as a framework to support the data gathering process; each section of the questionnaire is described in the paper. Furthermore, the results of a preliminary empirical research based on a case study are shown. The results of this work will help both food companies and PLM vendors. Indeed, it will support PLM vendors to understand the food industry vision about their NFD process and performances. On the other hand, food companies will be able to better understand their NFD process, their NFD process performances and how they can use the PLM solution to affect their performances.