Grocery & Food Supply Chain Implementation Support | BaszGroup

Grocery & Food Supply Chain Implementation Support

ERP, WMS, TMS, OMS, EDI, APIs, micro fulfillment, and store supply chain execution support.

Grocery and food implementations are unforgiving. The margin is tight, the customer expects availability, and product value declines every hour it sits in the wrong place. Systems do not just need to "work." They need to protect freshness, control temperature, prevent waste, and keep stores in stock.

BaszGroup supports grocery and food teams through the hardest parts of change, including new system rollouts, multi site transitions, micro fulfillment deployments, store replenishment redesign, 3PL takeovers, carve outs, and remediation after a difficult go live.

Talk to an Implementation Advisor Get the Grocery Implementation Readiness Checklist

What makes grocery and food implementations different

Food supply chains have more constraints than most industries, and a lot more ways to fail quietly.

🥬

Freshness and shelf life pressure

FEFO rules, expiry capture, rotation discipline, and shrink control

❄️

Temperature zones

Ambient, chilled, frozen, and controlled handling across pick, pack, stage, and transport

🔍

Traceability expectations

Lot tracking, recalls, supplier visibility, and customer facing confidence

⚡

High velocity operations

Daily order cycles, short cutoffs, frequent waves, and constant exceptions

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Store execution reality

Planograms, backroom constraints, store labor limits, and last 50 feet complexity

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Micro fulfillment and store picking

Goods to person automation, in store pick paths, substitution logic, and customer pickup windows

🛒

Omnichannel and delivery promises

Pickup, delivery, ship from store, and third party marketplaces

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EDI and API integration footprint

Retailers, suppliers, 3PLs, last mile partners, item data pools, and QA systems all must stay in sync

When these realities are not built into design and testing, go live becomes a shrink event.

The most common pitfalls (and what they look like in the real world)
Pitfall 1

Freshness rules are not truly enforced

  • FEFO is configured but not operationally achievable with the slotting and pick paths
  • Expiration dates are inconsistent or missing at receiving
  • Rotation relies on tribal knowledge instead of system supported discipline
  • Fresh and short dated product gets mixed with long life inventory
Store Symptom
"We are in stock on paper, but not on shelf."
Pitfall 2

Temperature controlled handling breaks in the handoffs

  • Staging areas are not designed by temperature zone
  • Pick to stage timing exceeds limits, especially during peak
  • Load planning does not protect cold chain sequencing
  • Returns and reshop processes reintroduce food safety risk
Operations Symptom
"Quality issues show up after delivery, not during the process."
Pitfall 3

Item data is not retail ready

  • Pack and unit conversions are wrong, which breaks receiving and replenishment
  • Catch weight items and variable weight labeling are not handled correctly
  • Attributes needed for ecommerce are missing, including allergens and nutrition data
  • Substitution rules are not defined by category and customer expectations
Customer Symptom
"We cannot fulfill orders cleanly or predictably."
Pitfall 4

Micro fulfillment is installed, but store reality is ignored

  • MFC capacity, cutoffs, and order profiles are mismatched
  • Pick paths and tote logic do not align to real item velocity and constraints
  • Exception handling is weak, especially for shorts, subs, and damages
  • The system does not clearly decide what is picked from store versus MFC
Store Symptom
"The system keeps sending work we cannot execute."
Pitfall 5

Replenishment logic is wrong, so stores stop trusting it

  • Min max settings are not grounded in actual demand and lead times
  • Forecast and order cycles are misaligned with supplier schedules
  • Allocation rules do not protect priority stores or key promo items
  • In transit and on order visibility is incomplete, so teams over order
Planning Symptom
"We have the wrong inventory in the wrong place."
Pitfall 6

Integrations work technically, but fail under daily cadence

  • EDI documents do not reflect edits, shorts, and substitutions correctly
  • APIs duplicate orders or fail silently during retries
  • Slotting, labor planning, and ecommerce platforms disagree on inventory status
  • Carrier and last mile systems do not align to cutoff times and promised windows
Customer Symptom
"We keep missing windows even though we shipped."
Pitfall 7

Testing does not include real grocery chaos

  • UAT skips recalls, lot holds, and rapid withdrawals
  • Peak day volume and store wave timing are not simulated
  • Temperature zone staging, dwell time, and load sequencing are not rehearsed
  • Returns, reshop, and waste workflows are not tested end to end
Operations Symptom
"It worked in testing, but daily operations are drowning."

Where we engage (pick the support you actually need)

Typical transition and digitization timelines

These ranges are common in grocery and food. Site count, automation, and store scope can shift them.

  • Discovery and current state mapping 2–6 weeks
  • Future state design and fit gap 4–10 weeks
  • Build, configuration, and integrations (ERP, WMS, TMS, OMS, EDI, APIs) 8–20+ weeks
  • Micro fulfillment deployment and ramp (if in scope) 8–24+ weeks
  • Testing (SIT, UAT, volume, exceptions, food safety scenarios) 4–12 weeks
  • Cutover planning and dress rehearsals 2–6 weeks
  • Go live and hypercare stabilization 4–12 weeks
  • Optimization and KPI maturity 8–24+ weeks
Callout:
If micro fulfillment or store picking is in scope, plan additional time for labor model alignment, substitution rules, and daily wave timing.
M&A supply chain focus areas (what breaks first)

Food M&A is usually a system problem and an operating model problem at the same time.

  • Item and vendor master conflicts
    Pack sizes, GTINs, variable weight rules, cost structures, and supplier terms
  • Fresh standards mismatch
    Rotation rules, shrink accounting, quality thresholds, and food safety practices
  • Network overlap
    DC footprint decisions, cross shipping, and store service models
  • Replenishment policy mismatch
    Order cycles, safety stock logic, promo planning, and allocation practices
  • Cold chain inconsistency
    Staging rules, carrier compliance, and temperature monitoring
  • Integration sprawl
    Duplicate APIs, overlapping EDI flows, and conflicting inventory definitions
  • System strategy decisions
    Standardize now versus coexist then converge, which requires strong governance
Practical approach:
Protect store availability first, then harmonize systems and processes in controlled phases.
What "good" looks like (measurable outcomes)
  • In stock improves on shelf, not just in the system
  • Shrink stabilizes and becomes measurable by root cause
  • Freshness compliance improves through FEFO discipline and receiving accuracy
  • Cold chain exceptions are visible early and handled consistently
  • Micro fulfillment and store picking hit promised windows with fewer cancels
  • Replenishment becomes trusted, and overrides decline
  • APIs and EDI run reliably under daily cadence with monitoring and clear ownership
How we work (simple, execution forward)
1
Assess
Current state, risk, readiness, store and DC constraints, integration inventory
2
Align
Operating model, RACI, critical flows, freshness and service metrics
3
Plan
Testing, cutover, food safety scenarios, integration failure mode planning, and contingency paths
4
Execute
DC and store triage, daily cadence, backlog burn down, service recovery focus
5
Stabilize
Reinforce controls, reduce shrink drivers, mature KPIs, and build the optimization roadmap
Deliverables you can expect
  • Implementation risk and readiness scorecard (ops, item data, integrations, testing, cutover, food safety)
  • Freshness and traceability requirements map (FEFO, lot, expiry capture, recall workflows)
  • Temperature zone process design and validation plan (pick, stage, load, transport)
  • Micro fulfillment and store picking playbooks (capacity, cutoffs, subs, exceptions, labor alignment)
  • Replenishment tuning plan (order cycles, min max, allocation, service level targets)
  • EDI and API integration inventory (documents, endpoints, owners, retries, monitoring, data ownership)
  • Cutover plan, dress rehearsal scripts, and Day 1 and Day 2 playbooks
  • Stabilization command center model (cadence, triage, service recovery plan)
  • M&A unification plan (30, 60, 90 plus governance and converge or coexist roadmap)

Looking for more?

Planning a rollout? Recovering from turbulence?

If you are in grocery or food and dealing with a rollout, a micro fulfillment launch, a store replenishment redesign, a takeover, remediation, or M&A unification, we can help reduce risk and protect availability while the business changes underneath you.

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