Why do shoppers choose to buy one drink instead of another in a supermarket? Is it the design, the brand, the label, the package material or the drink itself? For most consumers, the reality is that the final decision often is the result of several considerations.

How do you imagine the typical brainstorming session goes? Imagine that brainstorming session is about creating new flavors of beer — a market that is growing in size and sophistication.

Tequila is gaining interest among consumers across the globe. However, agave, the raw material that is used to manufacture tequila, is expected to face a severe shortage in the near future.

“Beer rangers” can’t be found in digital history books, but they can be found on their Ultrabook tablets, clicking their way across 30 states as they market the handcrafted wares of the New Belgium Brewing Co., based in Ft. Collins, Colo.

Beer and wine producers represent a growing segment of the beverage industry today. According to the Brewers Association, Boulder, Colo., the number of breweries in the United States is at a 25-year high, with this growth attributed to the popularity of craft beers across every demographic. Craft beers include those produced by small- and medium-sized breweries as well as by large, well-known producers that have introduced a wide variety of specialty artisanal beers to meet consumer demand.

Brewing is an extremely energy-intensive process in which the costs of electricity, heat, gas and other energy carriers make up a large share of total costs.

Packaging is as nuanced as the culture it speaks to.  Its solutions are shaped by shifts in popular culture, scientific breakthroughs, and the marketer’s need to fill their pipeline with a steady stream of groundbreaking innovation. A consumer need can even ignite a whole new category.

The Ontario Natural Food Co-op moved to JustFoodERP in 2012 as its centralized business software system primarily to solve the problems of unsatisfactory fill rates, inaccurate inventory management, and inaccurate manufacturing charge-backs.

What is a warehouse? It sounds like a silly question at first, but posing and answering this question will help operations managers better understand the role of automation in their warehouses.