1. The Upheaval of the Pandemic  

The COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing regulations to prevent its spread have disrupted almost every facet of the global economy - and the foodservice supply chain is no exception.  From food production, to processing, storage, and delivery, the foodservice supply chain has been thrown into disarray at all levels 

COVID-19 health and safety protocols in the workplace have coincided with catastrophic labor shortages across the industry’s supply chain. Restaurants are struggling to find workers to staff their locations, warehouses and food processing plants are scrambling to find enough employees to handle shipments, and the shortage of delivery drivers in the United States has reached unprecedented levels. 

Shipping restrictions and supply shortages have resulted in daily challenges for restaurants getting the products they need to operate. Data collected from ArrowStream software has shown a two-fold increase in foodservice supply shortages since the start of the pandemic. Restaurants have not only faced an increase of supply shortages, but also late, damaged, or incorrect deliveries, and deliveries of expired or contaminated food products. The supply shortages are not only affecting food products - restaurants are encountering difficulty in acquiring containers, trays, boxes, gloves, and utensils.

2. Zaxby’s Effective Utilization of ArrowStream FSIM 

In response to the industry’s present adversity, ArrowStream’s Chief Revenue Officer, Raj Badarinath, and Chief Product Officer, Bill Michalsky, joined with Zaxby’s Director of Distribution, Steve Miller, and Distributor Coordinator, Michelle Stephens, to discuss the current difficulties in the foodservice supply chain - as well as how Zaxby’s has been able to rise to the challenge through the use of ArrowStream’s Foodservice Incident Management software.   

Zaxby’s - the American fast casual restaurant chain known for its chicken - has utilized ArrowStream Foodservice Incident Management software since 2019 at all 941 restaurants locations and their distribution centers. As with many restaurants, Zaxby’s has recently encountered severe adversity in supplying its locations with the necessary products to conduct business due to the pandemic. Since implementing ArrowStream FSIM software, Zaxby’s has been able to effectively address the supply chain hurdles of the pandemic - having logged over 27,700 foodservice incidents and tracking over $1.8 million in credits. 

3. How ArrowStream Alleviates the Adversity 

With ArrowStream’s Foodservice Incident Management software, Zaxby’s has been able to identify, prevent, and solve foodservice incidents with swift and streamlined efficiency - saving time and money by reducing the amount of resources they were spending on chasing down vendors after foodservice incidents. With no discernible end to the chaos of the pandemic in sight, ArrowStream software provides Zaxby’s with the ability to confidently and effectively manage their inventory and deliveries. The enhanced visibility and ease of communication also allowed them to solve problems before they had spread out of control. 

Employees were able to log incidents into the ArrowStream platform within seconds of the delivery, allowing the distribution team at Zaxby’s to get real-time feedback from their restaurants about the product and delivery quality from various suppliers. The software provides automated workflow and tracking between Zaxby’s corporate team, their distributors, and their suppliers - allowing for efficient and punctual incident resolution. ArrowStream also provides Zaxby’s with nearly effortless recovery of credits through automatically matching credit invoices and reporting discrepancies. 

The distribution team at Zaxby’s especially loved how ArrowStream software provides configurable data, and analytics on incident rates, types, and severity - so they could effectively evaluate the reliability of their suppliers and make informed decisions for the future. ArrowStream’s FSIM system allowed them to utilize data trends to assess vendor performance and effectively leverage business across their supply-chain. ArrowStream is the only foodservice industry software that offers this level of data analytics on suppliers; and this trove of information empowered Zaxby’s to take a proactive approach to their foodservice incident management instead of a reactive one - foreseeing and addressing potential problems before they even happened.

The team at Zaxby’s have become ardent proponents of the ArrowStream FSIM software for its ability to increase accountability and provide a measure of predictability amid the chaos of the pandemic and the disruption of the supply chain. 

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