What is the most vivid image we have of an oil mill? Probably that of the olives just picked and still wet from the dew. The constant sound of pressing and the deep green color of the freshly extracted oil beginning to flow.
Running an olive mill today, however, is not only a matter of tradition and passion, but also of organization, efficiency and digitization. That is why more and more companies in the industry are discovering the advantages of an ERP system integrated with an MES specifically for oil mills and olive mills.
This technological solution not only optimizes production and administrative processes, but also helps monitor the entire production cycle. But first let’s take a brief recap of what has happened in the industry and the forecast for 2025.
Market analysis of oil and olive mills
The extra virgin olive oil (evo) market in 2024 was particularly dynamic, marking a decline in prices compared to previous years, but with significant regional differences.
In Italy, the average price of evo oil remained higher than in Spain, maintaining a gap of 30 percent, thanks to the resilience of the Italian product despite seasonal downturns.
Southern regions such as Puglia and Calabria recorded prices below 9 euros per kilo, while central areas such as Abruzzo and Sicily, with higher values, confirmed high quality and variable yields.
Internationally, world production has grown, but limited stocks in Europe have affected overall availability. Moreover, 2024 saw a 7 percent increase in volume for Italian exports and a remarkable +61 percent in value, confirming the competitiveness of the domestic product.
2025 Market Forecast for Oil Mills and Crushers
Unfortunately, the outlook for the 2024-2025 oil campaign reflects a complex scenario marked by climatic uncertainties and a shortage of oil stocks in the main Mediterranean producing countries.
The general decline in production, coupled with a contraction in extra virgin olive oil consumption, creates great pressure on the sector, making management of the phenological stages of olive groves and preparation for fruit set crucial.
Despite the difficulties, expert meetings, such as the one organized in Milan by the Granary Association, are key to outlining strategies for coping with emergencies and planning for fall 2025. The health of olive groves, production yields and the ability of mills to meet demand will be key factors for next year.
Although it is premature to say that the oil crisis is over, monitoring production and bloom data offers a chance to chart a course toward recovery.
Digitization in Crushers: the importance of MES-ERP integration
In this context, the issue on the digitization of mills and oil mills becomes increasingly important, as it would represent a strategic opportunity capable of giving agricultural enterprises tools to face the challenges of the oil supply chain with greater efficiency, especially in a context marked by production and climate uncertainties.
Technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and remote control systems enable real-time monitoring of plants, anticipate production downtime, and optimize operational efficiency.
In addition, the traceability of the supply chain, made possible through smart sensors and advanced software, provides transparency on product origin and quality, increasing consumer confidence. While digital resource management contributes to greater sustainability and reduction of waste and energy consumption.
ERP for Oil Mill Management: Benefits and Features
An ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) is an integrated management software that centralizes all business functions in one system, such as production management, warehousing, logistics, accounting, and resource planning. The adoption of an ERP enables businesses to automate and optimize internal processes, reducing human error and increasing operational efficiency.
The digitization that an ERP brings offers long-term benefits, such as improved productivity, reduced operating costs and more accurate resource management.
With an ERP, you can operate more efficiently, respond more quickly to market challenges, and improve product quality.
Here are the concrete benefits an ERP can bring to your oil or olive mill:
- Centralized management: integrates all business functions into one system, simplifying management and reducing errors due to data duplication.
- Production monitoring and planning: enables planning and monitoring of every stage of production, improving efficiency and reducing raw material waste.
- Batch traceability: allows you to track each individual batch from olive harvest to finished product, ensuring precise quality control and optimal stock management.
- Inventory control: optimizes the management of raw materials and finished products, preventing shortages or surpluses and enabling you to respond promptly to market demand.
- Data analysis and more informed decisions: with detailed reports, ERP gives you a clear view of business performance, enabling you to make strategic decisions to improve competitiveness and reduce costs.
- Greater operational efficiency: by automating processes such as accounting and inventory management, ERP saves time and resources, increasing overall productivity.
FOOD365: The ERP Solution for Oil Mills and Millers Based on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central
FOOD365 is a vertical ERP solution built on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. This platform offers an integrated system for the complete management of all business processes: administrative, commercial, logistics and production, optimizing and digitizing every stage of the business cycle. By adopting FOOD365, mills and oil mills can achieve greater efficiency, improve traceability and process control, and obtain real-time analytics, enhancing productivity and competitiveness in the oil industry.
Oleificio ERP: the Functionality of FOOD365
FOOD365 easily and flexibly integrates and manages all business processes in the agribusiness sector. Its functionalities range from administration area to logistics. In particular, with FOOD365 it is possible to:
Administration and Finance
- Multilevel chart of accounts and accounting situations (EEC Budget)
- Pivot analysis of all accounting and administrative data
- Cash flow forecasting, financial management (customers, suppliers, cross reference)
- Budgets and final reports with detailed analysis
- Financial data control and margin analysis by customer/item
Commercial
- Manage price lists, discounts, freebies, promotions, assortments by customer/item
- Contract, reward and incentive management (GDO)
- Scheduled orders and acceptance phase management
- Analysis of sales, variances and turnover trends with advanced reporting using Power BI
- Integrated sales and contract management with external platforms
Logistics and Warehouse
- Management of multiple warehouses and automated warehouses
- Movement traceability, batch analysis and product expiration dates
- Forwarder management, shipping route planning
- Integration with proprietary WMS systems (MAGANET) for automated material handling
- Traceability and traceability of finished product and raw materials
Production
- Production orders planned, confirmed, and released
- Production and consumption summary automated by MES/WMS
- MPS and MRP planning, production cycle management and work account management
- Finished product traceability and logistics label management by product and customer
- Production planning on sales orders
Benefits of Food365 for Oil Farms and Crushers.
If you’re wondering about the benefits of our Food Erp for the oil industry, here you are. Food365 enables:
- Complete control of production and logistics: monitor the entire production process in real time, from raw material collection to inventory and logistics management, optimizing production time and resources.
- Advanced financial management: with features such as production cost analysis, budget management, and cash flow forecasting, accurate and continuous control of economic performance can be maintained.
- Improved traceability and retraceability: ensures full traceability of raw materials and finished products, which is crucial for quality management and complying with food industry regulations.
- Advanced analysisand reportingUsing analysis and reporting tools, such as Power BI, you can visualize sales, production, and logistics data to optimize decision making.
- Flexibility and customizationFood365is fully customizable to fit the specific needs of each company, improving efficiency and process management based on the characteristics of the oil and food industry.
Go to our page dedicated to FOOD365
Oil mills and olive presses management system: the Food365 ERP integrated with MES AGRONET
AGRONET is a Manufacturing Execution System (MES) software that seamlessly integrates with Food365 to optimize production management. With AGRONET, you can monitor and manage data in real time, improving production efficiency and quality. Key features include:
- Supplier qualification and raw material procurement management
- Movement between silos and blending management
- Monitoring of processing and packaging of products
- Logistics management with intelligent warehouse mapping and pallet management
- Traceability and traceability of products and raw materials
- Integration to production machinery (Industry 4.0) to monitor and optimize production operations
This integration enables real-time collection and analysis of production data, improving quality control, consumption management and overall production line efficiency. But let’s take a closer look at the benefits of integrating an ERP with an MES!
The advantage of putting together an ERP with an MES
Integrating an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) with an MES (Manufacturing Execution System) offers numerous benefits that improve the efficiency and accuracy of business processes, especially in complex production environments such as those of oil mills or agribusinesses. Here are the main advantages:
1. Real-Time Visibility.
Integrating an ERP with an MES provides a real-time view of the entire production process. While the ERP manages the administrative, financial and commercial side, the MES takes care of monitoring and managing production operations. By combining the two systems, the company gets a complete and up-to-date overview of production, stock and sales data, improving decision making.
2. Increased Traceability and Traceability
An ERP on its own provides good business data management, but integration with an MES makes it possible to track every single step of the raw material in the production process. This is critical, especially for food safety regulations, where product traceability is crucial. With both systems, it is possible to easily trace every step in the production cycle, from raw material collection to delivery of the finished product.
3. Automation and Process Optimization
Integration makes it possible to automate various business processes, reducing the risk of manual errors and increasing operational speed. For example, the ERP can automatically send production orders to the MES, which then manages the execution of factory operations, such as production planning, resource allocation and inventory management. This leads to smoother and more responsive management, with less downtime and waste.
4. Improved Production Planning and Control
With integration, the ERP can leverage data from the MES to optimize production planning, ensuring that resources are always available when needed. The MES, in turn, provides real-time data on production performance (such as production rates and raw material consumption), which feeds into the ERP, contributing to more accurate planning and better resource management.
5. Optimized Inventory Management
By integrating an ERP with an MES, inventory and raw materials can be optimally managed, improving the forecasting of supply needs and reducing the risk of inventory shortages or surpluses. Production data from the MES are used by the ERP to continuously update inventory status, contributing to more accurate and dynamic resource management.
6. Improved Quality and Production Control
An MES directly manages quality and production processes in real time. By integrating with the ERP, information about quality parameters, any anomalies or other production issues are automatically transferred to the ERP, which can alert managers to make immediate corrective decisions. This allows high quality standards to be maintained, reducing defects and returns.
7. Advanced Reporting and Analysis
The integration of ERP and MES allows data to be collected and analyzed from all areas of the business, providing customized reports and dashboards for each department. The integrated information enables accurate assessment of business performance, providing details on production costs, operational efficiency, inventory management, and sales, which improves strategic planning and business decisions.
8. Adaptability and Scalability
Combining an ERP with an MES enables companies to be more agile and responsive to market changes. Because both systems can be easily adapted to specific business needs (such as new production batches or changes in demand), the company is able to scale and adapt quickly to new challenges or opportunities.
9. Reduction in Operating Costs
By integrating ERP and MES, companies can reduce operating costs through automation, error reduction and optimization of production processes. For example, effective integration reduces the need for double data entry and minimizes the risk of human error, improving overall productivity.
Choose Velika to digitize your Oil Mill with vertical ERP and MES for the industry
Velika is an experienced partner in the agribusiness sector and, in particular, in the food industry. Formed from the merger of two historical companies, Kelyan and Basilia, with decades of know-how in Microsoft solutions, Velika helps companies digitize and optimize their business processes through customized ERP, MES and WMS solutions (yes, you read that right, we also deal with warehouse management), ensuring maximum control, efficiency and innovation.
Give your business a boost and do it with solutions that can help you meet the challenges of the oil industry. Contact us now!
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