Why Grocery Retailers are Evolving from Specification Management to PLM

Specification management is the strategic process of creating, managing, controlling and updating product specifications throughout the product lifecycle, from ideation and design to manufacturing and delivery to market.

Specification management platforms emerged to solve a simple problem: how to stop storing critical product information in scattered spreadsheets, email threads and filing cabinets. They pulled technical data into one place, ingredient specifications, nutritional panels, packaging dimensions, supplier certifications. For brands with modest portfolios and stable formulas, that centralization made a clear difference.

The idea was straightforward. Put specifications in one location. Make them easy to find. Let teams use what they need. Reduce the risk of losing information when people leave or when the one person who knows the system is out for a week. For a long time, specification management fixed the daily pain points food and beverage manufacturers and grocery retailers ran into.

The limits appear when development work speeds up. These platforms organize specifications; they do not manage the real work that shapes products. R&D builds a formula. Procurement evaluates three possible suppliers. Regulatory reviews allergen rules for several markets. Marketing lines up launch plans. Quality flags a supplier issue that triggers reformulation. Each group works in its own lane and treats the specification tool as a reference shelf, not a shared workspace.

That was enough when development moved slowly and involved fewer people. Launch a product twice a year with a stable supplier list and predictable regulations and specification management does its job. It tells a manufacturer what the specifications are and that was all that was needed, because those specifications rarely changed.

That world and those processes have all now changed. Food and beverage manufacturers and grocery retailers now reformulate in response to shortages, launch regional variants to match local tastes and adjust to shifting labeling laws across whole portfolios. A supplier fails an audit and an ingredient used in forty products needs a new source. A new allergen rule lands and every affected label must change within weeks.

Specification management shows what the specifications are. It does not help change them with speed. It does not show how one update ripples through other systems. It does not coordinate the work spread across departments when something shifts.

The space between knowing a specification and acting on it is where brands lose time, make mistakes and miss launch dates.

Specification management and product lifecycle management both serve specific needs, though their differences ultimately determine which solution is best for every food and beverage brand.

Specification management functions like a well-kept filing system. It stores product data, recipes, ingredients, packaging specs, supplier certifications, in one place where teams can find what they need. It answers a narrow question: what are the specifications?

PLM asks a larger, more encompassing question. How do products get developed, changed and managed across their full lifecycle. Instead of keeping data in neat but isolated folders, PLM ties the stages of development into one system. It includes specification management because accurate specs matter, yet the purpose is broader, to connect people, processes and data as products move toward market.

The difference shows itself when something shifts. In a specification tool, changing an ingredient means chasing records and updating them by hand, hoping nothing was missed. In PLM, that same change updates formulations, recalculates nutritional values, flags allergens that need new declarations, identifies packaging that requires label edits and alerts regulatory teams to check compliance for each market.

Specification management is a repository. PLM is a workflow engine. One stores information. The other links information to the work it sets in motion.

Food and beverage manufacturers and grocery retailers rarely fail because they cannot locate a specification. They fail when departments collide, when a formula change in R&D creates a sourcing problem that goes unseen until it turns into a scramble. PLM brings those connections into view before they turn into crises.

The functionality of PLM naturally elevates it beyond specification management alone: PLM platforms include specification management because they must.

Accurate specs, then, are the base layer. But PLM exists to do more. It connects the stages of product development inside one system rather than leaving data in separate buckets. When R&D adjusts a formula, procurement sees which suppliers can support the change. When a supplier reports a delay, quality knows which products are exposed. When EU rules shift, the system flags every item that needs a new label.

This connection closes the gap between knowing a specification and acting on it. A specification tool can store a tomato sauce recipe. A PLM platform shows the recipe, the suppliers behind the tomato paste, their certifications and delivery patterns, the packaging specs that control nutritional panels, the compliance files needed for each market and the workflow for making changes when anything moves.

The difference becomes obvious when something breaks. An ingredient runs short. A rule changes. A supplier fails an audit. In a specification tool, one team spots the issue but turning that knowledge into action takes days of emails and meetings.

In PLM, the issue is visible to everyone who must respond. R&D can check alternatives. Quality can judge whether the substitute meets standards. Regulatory can confirm label needs. Marketing can shift timelines if needed. Response happens in hours instead of days because the system connects the work, not just the data.

Before adopting PLM, Great Kitchens, a major private label food producer for North American grocers, worked the way most grocery brands still do.

Commercialization meant spreadsheets, long email chains and constant manual follow up. Product specifications sat in one system, customer requirements in another, task lists in a third. Project managers spent more time chasing updates than solving problems.

The company’s acquisition in 2020 gave it a chance to rebuild these workflows. Great Kitchens chose PLM not as a small upgrade but as a new way to run product development.

The shift was felt at once. Tasks that once needed manual assignment and constant reminders now triggered on their own. When R&D finished a formulation, packaging teams were notified automatically. When a customer asked for spec changes, the system sent those changes to the right reviewers. Timelines that had been invisible were now visible, tracked in real time.

The efficiency gains were large, measured in weeks of follow up removed from each project. The deeper change was cultural. Teams stopped working alone. Responsibilities became clear because the system made them clear. New employees learned faster because workflows and decision points no longer lived only in someone’s memory.

Speed to market rose. For a private label manufacturer, where customers expect quick turnaround on tailored products, that speed became a competitive edge.

Great Kitchens could answer customer requests faster, adjust formulas with less friction and move products from concept to production on timelines that had been out of reach with their old and fragmented setup.

The food and beverage manufacturers and grocery retailers that hold their ground in years to come will be the ones that can change direction fast without losing control.

They need to reformulate when ingredients run short, release market-specific variants without compliance slips and scale product lines without risking quality. None of that comes from working harder inside isolated systems. It comes from systems built to connect people and data and to move work forward instead of slowing it down.

Centric PLM doesn’t erase the complexity of food and beverage development but it does make that complexity something a team can manage. Specifications still matter but they sit inside a larger web of suppliers, regulations, market needs and cross-functional work. Handling that reality takes tools built for the job.

For brands ready to move past the limits of specification management, Centric Software offers a way forward.