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In the fast-paced world of food manufacturing, staying ahead of the competition while managing costs is a constant challenge. Many companies struggle with product lifecycle management (PLM) due to high costs and complex systems. Fortunately, Click-PLM offers an affordable and user-friendly solution tailored specifically for food manufacturers. This blog post will explore how Click-PLM can transform your operations, streamline processes, and ultimately enhance your product offerings. Eye-level view of a modern food manufacturing facility Understanding Product Lifecycle Management Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is a systematic approach to managing a product's lifecycle from inception, through engineering design and manufacturing, to service and disposal. In the food industry, effective PLM is crucial for several reasons: Regulatory Compliance: Food manufacturers must adhere to strict regulations regarding safety and labeling. A robust PLM system helps ensure compliance throughout the product lifecycle. Quality Control: Maintaining high-quality standards is essential in food production. PLM systems facilitate quality checks and traceability. Speed to Market: The ability to quickly develop and launch new products can provide a competitive edge. PLM systems streamline the development process. The Challenges of Traditional PLM Systems Many traditional PLM systems are expensive and complex, making them inaccessible for smaller food manufacturers. Here are some common challenges faced: High Costs: Licensing fees, implementation costs, and ongoing maintenance can strain budgets. Complexity: Many PLM systems require extensive training and technical expertise, which can lead to delays and inefficiencies. Lack of Customisation: Off-the-shelf solutions often do not meet the specific needs of food manufacturers, leading to workarounds that complicate processes. Introducing Click-PLM Click-PLM is designed to address these challenges head-on. It offers an affordable, intuitive platform that simplifies product lifecycle management for food manufacturers. Here’s how Click-PLM stands out: User-Friendly Interface Click-PLM features a clean and intuitive interface that allows users to navigate the system with ease. This reduces the learning curve and enables teams to focus on what matters most - developing high-quality products. Cost-Effective Solution With Click-PLM, food manufacturers can access powerful PLM tools without breaking the bank. The subscription-based model ensures predictable costs, making it easier to budget for PLM solutions. Customisation Options Every food manufacturer has unique needs. Click-PLM offers customizable features that allow companies to tailor the system to their specific requirements, ensuring that they get the most out of their investment. Key Features of Click-PLM Click-PLM is packed with features that enhance product lifecycle management for food manufacturers. Here are some of the standout functionalities: Recipe Management Managing recipes is a critical aspect of food manufacturing. Click-PLM allows users to create, modify, and store recipes in a centralized location. This ensures consistency and accuracy in product formulation. Regulatory Compliance Tracking Click-PLM helps manufacturers stay compliant with food safety regulations by providing tools for tracking compliance documentation and ensuring that all necessary certifications are up to date. Supplier Collaboration Collaboration with suppliers is vital for sourcing quality ingredients. Click-PLM facilitates communication and collaboration with suppliers, allowing manufacturers to manage ingredient sourcing more effectively. Quality Assurance Quality assurance is paramount in the food industry. Click-PLM includes features for tracking quality metrics, conducting audits, and managing corrective actions, ensuring that products meet the highest standards. Project Management Click-PLM includes project management tools that help teams coordinate tasks, set deadlines, and monitor progress. This ensures that product development stays on track and within budget. Real-World Applications of Click-PLM To illustrate the effectiveness of Click-PLM, let’s look at a couple of real-world examples of food manufacturers who have successfully implemented the system. Case Study 1: Fresh Foods Inc. Fresh Foods Inc., a mid-sized manufacturer of organic snacks, faced challenges with recipe management and regulatory compliance. After implementing Click-PLM, they streamlined their recipe management process, reducing errors and improving consistency. Additionally, the compliance tracking feature helped them stay ahead of regulatory changes, resulting in fewer compliance-related issues. Case Study 2: Gourmet Sauces Co. Gourmet Sauces Co. struggled with supplier collaboration and quality assurance. By using Click-PLM, they improved communication with suppliers, leading to better ingredient quality and reduced lead times. The quality assurance tools allowed them to monitor product quality more effectively, resulting in higher customer satisfaction. Benefits of Using Click-PLM The advantages of adopting Click-PLM for food manufacturers are numerous: Increased Efficiency: Streamlined processes reduce time spent on administrative tasks, allowing teams to focus on innovation. Improved Product Quality: Enhanced quality control measures lead to better products and higher customer satisfaction. Cost Savings: The affordable pricing model and reduced operational inefficiencies translate to significant cost savings. Faster Time to Market: With improved collaboration and project management, companies can bring new products to market more quickly. Getting Started with Click-PLM Transitioning to Click-PLM is a straightforward process. Here are the steps to get started: Assessment: Evaluate your current PLM processes and identify areas for improvement. Demo: Schedule a demo with Click-PLM to see the system in action and understand how it can meet your needs. Implementation: Work with the Click-PLM team to implement the system, ensuring that it is customised to your specific requirements. Training: Provide training for your team to ensure they are comfortable using the new system. Launch: Go live with Click-PLM and start reaping the benefits of improved product lifecycle management. Conclusion In the competitive landscape of food manufacturing, having an effective PLM system is essential for success. Click-PLM offers an affordable, user-friendly solution that addresses the unique challenges faced by food manufacturers. By streamlining processes, enhancing collaboration, and ensuring compliance, Click-PLM empowers companies to focus on what they do best - creating high-quality food products. If you’re ready to take your product lifecycle management to the next level, consider exploring Click-PLM. With its tailored features and cost-effective pricing, it may be the solution you’ve been looking for.

"Optimising global partnerships and streamlining sourcing for maximum efficiency" At Click-PLM, we empower your business to efficiently manage global sourcing and cultivate strong supplier relationships. Our platform enables seamless collaboration with suppliers, offering real-time access to product data, design specifications, and procurement needs. By centralising supplier information and ensuring consistent communication across teams, Click-PLM helps you reduce costs, mitigate risks, and improve product quality. With advanced tools for tracking supplier performance, managing sourcing decisions, and optimising your supply chain, you can drive better decision-making and create more strategic, long-term partnerships. Click-PLM ensures that your global sourcing process is transparent, efficient, and aligned with your company’s goals.

Upload the product specification documents you already have. Let Click-PLM read, understand and populate your specification automatically - in less than 30 seconds. For food and FMCG teams, one of the most time-consuming parts of specification management has always been getting the information into the system. The data already exists. It may be contained within a supplier specification, Finished Product Standard, spreadsheet, Word document, scanned PDF or CCP document. But somebody still has to open the file, find the relevant information and type it all into the PLM - field by field, page by page. Not anymore. ClickAI Spec Import, our new AI-powered specification ingester, is now live within Click-PLM. It allows users to upload an existing document and automatically convert the information it contains into structured specification data. The AI reads the document, identifies the relevant information, maps it to the correct fields and populates the product specification automatically. What previously took hours can now take seconds. Use the documents you already have There is no need to start with an empty specification template or manually reformat your information before importing it. Simply attach whatever you have, including: Finished Product Standards Supplier product specifications CCP and food safety information Text-based or scanned PDFs Microsoft Word documents Excel spreadsheets and CSV files Plain text files ClickAI Spec Import analyses the content, extracts the key information and transfers it into the relevant areas of the Click-PLM specification. A whole document can be imported, or the user can select a specific section where appropriate. How ClickAI Spec Import works The process is deliberately simple: 1. Upload your document Open the relevant product specification in Click-PLM and select Upload Spec. Choose the document you want to use from your device. 2. Let the AI understand it ClickAI analyses the file, including its headings, sections, tables and product information. It identifies the data that is relevant to your specification template. 3. Automatically populate the specification The extracted information is mapped to the appropriate fields within Click-PLM and added to the specification automatically. 4. Review and continue The populated information is presented to the user for review. Your team remains in control and can check, amend or approve the information before progressing through the normal workflow. In many cases, the initial specification is populated and ready to review in less than 30 seconds. Already saving customers hours of work Since going live, ClickAI Spec Import has proved an immediate hit with our customers. Tasks that previously required hours of repetitive copying and typing can now be reduced to a quick upload and review. For businesses managing hundreds or thousands of specifications, the cumulative time saving can be enormous. Instead of spending valuable technical resource transferring information between documents and systems, teams can focus on the work that requires their knowledge and judgement: Reviewing product information Checking accuracy and compliance Managing suppliers Resolving exceptions Approving products Getting products ready for launch The AI does the initial data entry. Your technical team reviews the result. Less manual entry. More structured data. The benefit is not only speed. Manual rekeying creates opportunities for missed fields, inconsistent terminology and transcription errors. By extracting information directly from the original source document and mapping it into a structured specification, ClickAI Spec Import helps create a more consistent starting point. Once imported, the information becomes part of the wider Click-PLM process, ready to support workflows, approvals, reporting and ongoing specification management. It also removes one of the biggest barriers to adopting a PLM system: the time and effort required to transfer existing product data into it. Built for real food and FMCG specifications Food and FMCG specifications are rarely simple. Information can be spread across multiple pages, sections and formats, with separate content covering areas such as product standards, ingredients, allergens, nutrition, production controls and critical control points. ClickAI Spec Import has been designed to help teams work with the documents they encounter every day - not just perfectly formatted data files. It supports common document formats, including scanned PDFs, and can interpret the information before mapping it into the Click-PLM structure. Clear headings, consistent terminology and well-organised source documents will naturally produce the most accurate results. The system is designed to assist the user, with human review remaining an important part of the process. A faster way to create product specifications We believe PLM software should remove administrative work rather than create more of it. ClickAI Spec Import is an important step towards that goal. No more opening two screens and copying information from one to the other. No more spending hours typing data that already exists. No more starting every specification from a blank template. Just upload the document, let ClickAI do the initial work and review the completed specification. See ClickAI Spec Import in action Discover how Click-PLM can help your team reduce manual data entry, improve specification management and launch products faster. Book a demo and see a product specification populated by AI in less than 30 seconds.

Managing product data often means dealing with a flood of unstructured documents- PDFs, emails, reports, and technical sheets- filled with crucial details. Manually extracting and inputting this information into your Product Lifecycle Management (Click-PLM) software is time-consuming and prone to errors. That’s where AI-powered document parsing transforms the process. Why Use AI for Document Parsing in Click-PLM? 1. Automatically Extract Key Product Data AI can scan and interpret your attachments and certificate, intelligently identifying key information such as material specifications, dimensions, compliance details, and certificate expiry dates. This data is then automatically populated into the correct fields within your Click-PLM system. 2. Eliminate Manual Downloads and Reviews Manually downloading hundreds of attachments and reviewing them, sometimes just to find an expiry date, can be a time-consuming process. AI parsing with Click-PLM enables hundreds of attachments to be read, validated and data extracted at the touch of a button. 3. Speed Up Product Development By automating data extraction, AI dramatically accelerates the product development process. Teams can access structured, accurate information instantly, keeping projects moving without administrative delays. 4. Ensure Consistency & Compliance AI enforces data consistency by standardising information across your Click-PLM system. This ensures that product specifications align with regulatory requirements and internal quality standards. 5. Seamless Integration with Click-PLM AI-powered parsing works directly within your Click-PLM software, eliminating the need for external tools or manual formatting. It seamlessly extracts and structures data, ensuring smooth workflows and accurate documentation. Smarter Click-PLM with AI With AI-driven document parsing, your Click-PLM system becomes more efficient, reducing workload while improving data accuracy and compliance. Ready to streamline your product data management? Get in touch with us today!

Managing a complex product portfolio requires clear visibility into every stage of development. Our PLM software dashboards provide real-time insights into your product progress, helping you identify bottlenecks, improve workflow efficiencies, and access detailed product data-down to the ingredient level. Key Benefits of Our PLM Dashboards 1. Track Product Progress in Real Time Monitor every stage of your product lifecycle, from concept to market, ensuring nothing gets delayed or overlooked. 2. Spot Bottlenecks & Improve Efficiency Identify slowdowns in your workflow and make data-driven decisions to optimise processes, improve speed to market, and enhance collaboration. 3. Full Search & Download Capability Easily search and retrieve product data, technical specifications, and compliance documents. Whether you need details on a single product or an entire category, everything is at your fingertips. 4. Deep Ingredient-Level Insights Need to find all products containing a specific ingredient-like chillies from Chile? Our PLM allows precise searching, helping you manage formulations, supplier compliance, and sourcing strategies. 5. Data-Driven Decision Making Our dashboards provide powerful analytics, helping you track performance, manage risk, and ensure every product meets business and regulatory requirements. Take Control of Your Product Lifecycle With our PLM software dashboards, you gain full visibility, control, and efficiency across your product portfolio. Ready to streamline your product management? Contact us today to learn more!

“Where will it actually make a difference in our day-to-day operations?" What AI Actually Means for PLM in Food & FMCG AI is everywhere right now. But for food and FMCG businesses, the real question isn’t “What is AI?” - it’s: “Where will it actually make a difference in our day-to-day operations?” The answer: it’s already starting - and it will evolve in stages. Short term: Removing the pain Right now, AI is about eliminating manual effort. Think about an audit scenario: An auditor asks for full recipe history Teams scramble through emails, shared drives, spreadsheets AI changes that. Instead of searching, you retrieve instantly. At Click-PLM, we’re already seeing impact with: Automated document processing (pulling data from specs, certificates, supplier docs) Auto-translation of product data across global supply chains Faster access to audit evidence Less chasing. Less risk. Faster answers. Medium term: Better decisions Next comes AI as a decision support layer. Imagine: Flagging a supplier as high risk before an audit Identifying a formulation that may fail compliance in a specific market Suggesting alternative ingredients based on cost or availability This is where PLM moves from storing data > guiding decisions. Long term: Autonomous systems Looking further ahead: Continuous compliance monitoring against changing regulations Supply chains that adjust automatically to risk and disruption Asking your PLM: “Which products are at risk under new EU legislation?”…and getting an immediate answer This is where AI becomes part of how the business operates - not just a feature. But here’s the reality AI is only as good as the data behind it. If your product, supplier, and compliance data is: fragmented inconsistent buried in documents AI won’t fix that. A strong PLM foundation is what makes AI useful. Final thought AI won’t replace PLM. But PLM platforms that use AI effectively will replace those that don’t. The goal isn’t to chase AI - it’s to apply it where it delivers real value: faster audits stronger compliance better decisions

Bringing products to international markets comes with challenges, especially when it comes to translating product information accurately. From safety instructions to technical specifications, every detail must be precise to ensure compliance and avoid costly misunderstandings. That’s where AI-powered translation within your Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software makes a difference. AI-powered translation in PLM: Expanding global reach with accuracy. Bringing products to international markets comes with challenges, especially when it comes to translating product information accurately. From safety instructions to technical specifications, every detail must be precise to ensure compliance and avoid costly misunderstandings. That’s where AI-powered translations with Click-PLM makes a difference. Why Use AI for Product Translations? 1. Instant, Accurate Translations AI-driven translation tools provide fast, context-aware translations directly within Click-PLM. This ensures that product descriptions and Pack Copy information are correctly localised without delays. This is not a simple translation model, Click-PLM’s AI-powered translations also include built-in learning. As you approve translations Click-PLM will learn the specific translations preferred by your brand. 2. Reduce Costs & Manual Effort Traditional translation methods can be expensive and time-consuming. AI eliminates the need for repeated manual translations, cutting costs while maintaining accuracy. 3. Consistency Across Markets Our AI-powered translation tools ensure brand and terminology consistency across all languages. Whether you’re selling in Europe, Asia, or South America, your product information remains clear and aligned with your brand’s messaging. 4. Seamless Integration with PLM Since translation happens natively within Click-PLM, there’s no need to export, translate, and re-import documents manually. Click-PLM automates the process of creating your International Pack Copy documents that it can send straight to your preferred artwork solution. 5. Unlock Global Opportunities with AI By integrating AI-powered translations into your Product Lifecycle Management process, you can confidently expand into new markets while ensuring compliance, accuracy, and efficiency. Ready to take your products worldwide? Contact us today to learn more!

Streamline product development with intelligent recipe management that automates ingredient declarations, ensures compliance, and accelerates specification creation across your entire product range. Recipe management is a foundational element of successful product development. At its core, a recipe is far more than a simple list of ingredients - it is a structured framework that defines exactly what a product is made of, how ingredients interact, and how they must be declared, controlled, and maintained throughout the product lifecycle. In industries where formulations, compound ingredients, and regulatory compliance play a central role, effective recipe management is critical. Without a robust system in place, businesses can face inefficiencies, duplication of work, specification errors, compliance risks, and delays in getting products to market. At Click-PLM, we provide advanced recipe management solutions designed specifically to streamline and simplify this complexity. Our system enables users to create detailed recipes and compound ingredients once, then reuse them effortlessly across multiple products. This eliminates repetitive data entry while ensuring consistency and accuracy across product ranges. For businesses managing similar or variant products, recipes can be seamlessly copied between specifications, dramatically accelerating product setup and reducing administrative workload. Whether adapting an existing formulation for a new market or creating a line extension, teams can move faster while maintaining full control and traceability. Beyond structure and efficiency, Click-PLM automates one of the most critical aspects of product development: ingredient declarations. The system automatically generates compliant ingredient declarations directly from the recipe, reducing manual errors. It intelligently optimises declarations by combining ingredients where appropriate, ensuring they are declared only once when required - improving clarity, regulatory alignment, and label accuracy. Compliance is further strengthened through built-in regulatory intelligence. Ingredients restricted or prohibited in specific countries are automatically flagged, helping teams proactively manage market-specific requirements. Our extensive ingredient database also identifies materials requiring additional verification - such as Palm Oil content or other sustainability-related disclosures - enabling businesses to address compliance and ethical sourcing considerations early in the process. By centralising data, automating declarations, and embedding compliance intelligence directly into recipe structures, Click-PLM transforms recipe management from an administrative task into a strategic advantage. The result is faster product development, reduced risk, improved accuracy, and greater confidence when launching products across multiple markets.

In today’s fast-paced business environment, managing a high volume of documents and attachments can be time-consuming and error-prone. Manually searching for critical information- such as expiry dates, contract terms, or key details- can slow down operations and increase the risk of oversight. That’s where AI-powered automation comes in. Why Use AI for Document Processing? AI-driven solutions can automatically scan, read, and extract essential information from email attachments, PDFs, invoices, contracts, and more. This technology provides several key benefits: 1. Save Time & Reduce Manual Work AI can instantly process large volumes of documents, extracting relevant data without human intervention. This eliminates tedious tasks, freeing up your team for higher-value work. 2. Increase Accuracy & Reduce Errors Manual data entry is prone to mistakes, especially when dealing with complex or repetitive information. AI ensures greater accuracy, reducing costly errors and compliance risks. 3. Never Miss an Expiry Date Whether tracking contract renewals, certifications, or warranties, AI can identify and extract expiry dates automatically. You can set up alerts and reminders to ensure nothing falls through the cracks. 4. Improve Compliance & Auditing AI can categorise and store extracted data securely, making it easier to retrieve documents for audits, legal compliance, or regulatory requirements. 5. Enhance Decision-Making With real-time data extraction, businesses can make informed decisions faster. No more waiting for manual document reviews- AI delivers instant insights. How It Works AI-powered document processing tools use optical character recognition (OCR) and natural language processing (NLP) to scan, understand, and extract relevant details from various file formats. These systems integrate seamlessly with your existing workflows, ensuring smooth automation with minimal disruption. Ready to Automate? By leveraging AI for document processing, your business can improve efficiency, reduce risk, and stay ahead of deadlines. If you’re ready to streamline your workflow, get in touch with us today!

"Bringing teams together to innovate, design, and deliver exceptional products" At Click-PLM, we help retailers and brands optimise their planning and product strategies with powerful, data-driven solutions. Our platform enables seamless collaboration across product development, sourcing, and approval. With Click-PLM, you can collaborate directly with your vendors on new product development ideas allowing real time exchange of ideas and information directly onto Click-PLM. No email chain required!

Expanding into international markets comes with complex regulatory challenges. Each country has its own product safety standards, labelling requirements, and compliance laws- keeping up with them all is a daunting task. Manually verifying product compliance across multiple regions is not only time-consuming but also prone to costly errors. That’s where AI-powered regulatory compliance checking within your Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software changes the game. At Click-PLM we are working to deliver the first AI driven regulatory assessment software on the market. Regulatory assessment can be the most costly element of launching new products and adds a significant amount of time to the product launch process. At Click-PLM we have already developed our regulatory bot to help guide and advise users to their technical and regulatory questions and we are working to expand the software to remove the need for human regulatory checking entirely. Once complete the benefits to Product Lifecycle Management are numerous: 1. Ensure Global Compliance Automatically AI scans and cross-references your product data with the latest global regulations, ensuring that every product meets the legal requirements of each target market before launch. 2. Eliminate Costly Compliance Errors Non-compliance can lead to fines, product recalls, or even bans on selling in certain regions. AI reduces these risks by proactively identifying potential issues before they become costly mistakes. 3. Save Time; Reduce Manual Work Manually checking compliance for multiple countries is a slow, labour-intensive process. AI automates these checks in real time, cutting down weeks of regulatory research to mere seconds. 4. A Game Changer for Multinational Retailers For retailers selling across multiple countries, AI-driven compliance checking ensures smooth expansion by removing regulatory barriers. No more juggling different standards- AI keeps everything in check automatically. 5. Cost Savings at Scale By reducing manual compliance efforts, avoiding regulatory fines, and accelerating product launches, AI-powered compliance checking translates into significant cost savings, particularly for large retailers operating in global markets. Future-Proof Your Business with AI AI-powered compliance checking within PLM is a must-have for global retailers looking to expand seamlessly while staying compliant. It saves time, cuts costs, and ensures that your products are always ready for any market. Ready to take the hassle out of regulatory compliance? Contact us today to learn more!

"Optimising supplier collaboration for faster, smarter procurement" At Click-PLM, we help businesses streamline sourcing by providing a centralised platform for managing new and existing supplier relationships and procurement processes. Our solution integrates product data with supplier capabilities, and automatically transfers data captured during the sourcing process into your finished product specifications. Starting your NPD process with your Claims, Nutrition, recipes and more already completed is a significant time saving, helping you launch your products faster. With Click-PLM, you can easily capture new supplier and product information, award business, and ensure timely delivery of your new products. By automating sourcing workflows and reducing manual processes, we empower your team to make smarter, faster sourcing decisions- ultimately improving efficiency, reducing lead times, and driving cost savings across your business.