ERP for the Coffee Industry: From Farm to Cup with Real-Time Control

ERP for the Coffee Industry: From Farm to Cup with Real-Time Control

Coffee supply chains are long, fragmented, and highly sensitive to quality, seasonality, and compliance. An industry-ready ERP centralizes procurement, traceability, quality, warehousing, logistics, contracts, finance, and CRM—so you can buy smarter, process faster, certify ethically, and deliver on time. BaffleSol’s Commodity Management Solution gives coffee traders, processors, exporters, and roasters an end-to-end platform built for growth. Explore real implementations in our Commodity Management case studies.

 Why coffee companies outgrow spreadsheets and generic ERPs

Coffee changes hands many times—from smallholders and co-ops to processors, exporters, importers, and roasters. Prices move daily; moisture and defects affect yield; certifications and origin claims affect price; and recalls or quality issues can be costly. A coffee-ready ERP should unify:

• Origin & contract buying (farmer/supplier onboarding, advances, differential pricing)
• Traceability (lot/grade/origin/certifications)
• Quality (moisture, defects, cup score)
• Warehouse & logistics (bags/tons, humidity/temperature control, freight)
• Risk & compliance (recalls, audits, sustainability reporting)
• Finance & CRM (landed cost, FX, margin, sales performance, customer analytics)

Core modules you need—end to end

1) Supply Chain Management (SCM)
‍Track the entire chain—from farm intake and transit to export and customer delivery. Optimize procurement, enforce vendor SLAs, manage Incoterms®, and keep full farm-to-cup traceability.

2) Inventory Management (WMS)
‍Real-time stock by site/bin/lot/grade/owner in bags or tons; humidity/temperature tracking; FIFO/FEFO; auto-reconciliation with weighbridge data; safety stock and available-to-promise visibility.

3) Quality Management (QMS)
‍Digitize grading and cupping: moisture, defects, cup score, and tolerances. Link lab outcomes to price formulas and settlements. Maintain audit trails for certifications (Organic/Fairtrade/Rainforest, etc.).

4) Production Planning
‍Plan and schedule hulling, grading, blending, and roasting. Allocate people, lines, and equipment; monitor yield and shrink; run variance analysis to improve throughput and consistency.

5) Distribution Management
‍End-to-end export execution: ASN/GRN, pick/put-away, cross-dock, packing lists, CO/COO/COI, carrier bookings, and dispatch tracking. Integrate with 3PLs and port systems for on-time shipments.

6) Financial Management
‍Multi-currency, landed cost, FX revaluation, mark-to-market, margin by origin/grade/customer, and consolidated reporting. Drill from P&L to contract/lot for true cost-to-serve.

7) Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
‍Manage buyers, price lists, samples, approvals, and opportunities. Analyse demand, run campaigns, and forecast volumes to align sourcing and production with market signals.

Want to see these modules in practice? Browse our Commodity Management case studies.

What BaffleSol’s Commodity Management Solution adds for coffee

Traceability, Ethical Sourcing & Sustainability
‍Capture farm/estate, co-op, region, certification, and processing method (washed/natural/honey). Attach input usage, audits, and field photos. Produce sustainability KPIs and compliance packs on demand.

Risk Management & Recall Readiness
‍One-click backward/forward trace; isolate affected lots across warehouses and deliveries; standardize CAPA; stay audit-ready for buyers and regulators.

Combating Counterfeits & Product Integrity
‍Serialized lots, tamper-evident labels, and digital certificates deter grey-market diversion and protect input integrity across channels.

Warehouse Intelligence
‍Smart warehouses with sensor feeds (humidity/temperature) and alerting. Improve turns, reduce spoilage, and balance capacity across sites.

Contract Management for Real-World Buying
‍Support centralized, multipartite, nucleus-estate, intermediary, and public-private-farmer models—each with terms for price, quality, delivery, and settlement.

Pricing, Costing & Margin Control
‍Formula pricing (market index + differential), quality-linked adjustments, FX/basis tracking, and landed cost simulation. See margin by origin, grade, route, or customer.

How it fits your existing landscape

• IoT & weighbridge: automatic weights and storage conditions; fewer manual errors.
• Office & collaboration: standardized export documents; secure sharing with partners.
• Dynamics 365: works with FinOps.
• Power BI analytics: positions, risk, route profitability, OTIF, warehouse turns—all in one pane.

What success looks like

• 20–30% faster intake-to-approval via digital contracts and lab workflows
• >98% inventory accuracy by lot/grade across multi-site warehouses
• Recall in hours, not days with complete documentation packs
• 2–5% margin uplift via better differential pricing and loss reduction
• Continuous compliance for certification bodies and buyer audits

Getting started (low-risk path)

1. Discovery & blueprint: map buying models, quality steps, and certifications; define master data.
2. Pilot: contracts + intake + quality + traceability in one origin/warehouse.
3. Scale-out: add WMS, logistics, and export flows; extend to multiple origins and customers.
4. Analytics: roll out Power BI dashboards for positions, risk, and profitability.

See it in action

If you trade, process, export, or roast coffee—and want one system for SCM, inventory, quality, production, distribution, finance, and CRM—explore BaffleSol’s Commodity Management Solution:

Prefer a quick walkthrough tailored to your supply chain?
Email: sales@bafflesol.com

Note: Regulations, certifications, and export paperwork vary by country and customer—our team tailors the setup accordingly. For real-world results, see our Commodity Management case studies