Embracing Connections and Transparency to Drive Efficiency

At the conference’s Distributor Focus panel, executives will share how improved data sharing, supply chain visibility, and shipping standards can drive operational improvements for the entire industry.

By Ashley Mueller
And Tim O’Connor

Business leaders are known for getting excited about the idea of new technology, but until recently, it seemed to Jason Boomer that few people in the foodservice equipment and supplies industry truly understood everything that goes into powering those advancements. “For a long time, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, integration, and data work felt like back-end plumbing that nobody in the business actually wanted to talk about.”

A better understanding of the potential of connected data, combined with industry initiatives such as the FEDA Future of Distribution Council (FDC), has begun to shift that perspective. Boomer said sales, operations, finance, and leadership teams now ask better questions about data, visibility, and how those systems can work together. That change is positioning the industry to more fully embrace the foundational technologies it needs to modernize. “When the whole business cares about this stuff, the technology investments start producing outcomes you can measure instead of just taking up a bullet point on a roadmap,” Boomer said.

Boomer will join Rory Clarke, president of Avanti Restaurant Solutions, and consultant J Schneider, managing director at the Dorn Group, for the Distributor Focus session at the FEDA Annual Executive Leadership Conference in September. The session will dive into how the FDC’s work is moving the industry closer to realizing the Supply Chain 2040 vision of a more technologically capable, interconnected, responsive, and resilient supply chain. Attendees will learn how the council and its three subcommittees are addressing real operational challenges affecting distributors and manufacturers — such as freight damage, packaging expectations, product data accuracy, and transportation visibility — and how potential solutions can enhance the end-customer experience.

At the conference, Clarke plans to share some of the ways enterprise platforms have been a game changer for distributors like Avanti, especially in the areas of accounting, purchasing, sales, marketing, and freight management. “The benefits are undeniable,” he said. Today’s technology solutions not only help companies increase the speed of work, Clarke added, but also allow them to hire and train more quickly and better understand their data to inform decision making. The value of such organized software platforms is only growing as they serve as the foundation for implementing agentic artificial intelligence tools for businesses. “I don’t see this as being optional anymore,” Clarke said.

Although technology offers some answers to these persistent challenges, Boomer said they are at their core business problems that require multidisciplinary coordination to solve. “The companies making real progress are the ones bringing operations, IT, sales, and customer service into the same conversation early, instead of treating system work as something that happens in a corner of the IT department,” he said. “I’m looking forward to hearing how the other panelists in the room are approaching that.”

Shipping, Packaging & Handling Standards (SPHS) Subcommittee
One of the operational topics expected to generate significant discussion during the Distributor Focus session is freight damage reduction and packaging consistency in the less-than-truckload (LTL) shipping environment. LTL is a key part of the distribution channel, with both distributors and manufacturers using carriers to transport equipment between warehouses or to end customers. However, these carriers often lack complete information on the products they are handling, which can lead to mishandling and damage. The Shipping, Packaging & Handling Standards (SPHS) Subcommittee is addressing this issue by developing industry standards that build on existing National Motor Freight Classification (NMFC) requirements, with the first phase of recommendations targeted for September 2026.

Conversations within the SPHS group have centered on improving handling procedures and reducing issues that contribute to damage claims, operational inefficiencies, and customer frustration throughout the supply chain. Members have also shared examples of operational improvements already producing positive results, such as how a plywood reinforcement trial reduced damage rates by approximately 40% over a six-month period. Alongside packaging discussions, the committee is developing processes to improve delivery documentation, concealed damage inspections, and carrier accountability when properly packaged freight is damaged in transit.

While participants recognize that industry standards alone will not eliminate every freight challenge, many view greater consistency and clearer expectations as important milestones toward improving communication and reducing friction throughout the shipping process.

Product Data Standards & Integration (PDSI) Subcommittee
While better packaging standards can help alleviate physical damage, the FDC’s other work is tackling the digital equivalent of dents and deformations. At the Distributor Focus session, panelists will detail how FDC participants are creating processes and procedures that improve product data consistency and system integration so that information can better move through today’s increasingly connected business platforms.

The discussion will draw on the work of the FDC Product Data Standards & Integration (PDSI) Subcommittee. This group has spent the first half of the year uncovering how inaccurate or disconnected information creates downstream challenges involving quoting, logistics, delivery coordination, and customer communication. As organizations invest more heavily in operational visibility and system integration, many companies are realizing that more complete data and greater consistency spanning the order lifecycle are increasingly important to both operational efficiency and customer experience.

For this reason, the PDSI Subcommittee’s work will be especially beneficial to the FEDA Data Portal, the database of industry-owned product information that is managed by FEDA. One of the group’s objectives is to identify potential challenges to entering and maintaining information in priority data fields, then find ways to make that process more efficient and easier. Additionally, the PDSI will continually refine the FEDA Data Portal’s standards for uniform data and recommend new specification fields to further expand the depth of product information in the database.

Transportation Management Systems (TMS) Subcommittee
Product information is not the only kind of data that distributors and manufacturers need to take their operations to the next level. An improved technology backend can also deliver the transportation visibility and operational transparency companies need to support more effective communications, reporting, and decision-making across increasingly complex freight operations.

The Distributor Focus panel will highlight the Transportation Management Systems (TMS) Subcommittee’s development of case-study-based resources that will help distributors better understand how transportation management systems are being used in real-world environments and the practical considerations involved in implementation.

The subcommittee is finding that the benefits of a fully featured TMS extend beyond freight cost savings. Participants identified improved visibility, enhanced customer communication, historical lead-time tracking, shipment consolidation opportunities, and better internal transparency as meaningful operational advantages tied to transportation data management. Conferencegoers will gain practical insight into how companies from all over the industry are approaching transportation visibility and operational modernization.

One issue that has stood out to Clarke, a member of the TMS Subcommittee, is the growing difficulty of estimating inbound freight costs for equipment on projects. Five years ago, he explained, the industry’s existing quoting and freight systems were able to estimate freight costs for a project with one click. That is no longer true as the freight industry has adjusted how it calculates shipping costs. “Since then, shipping companies have widely adopted technology to calculate freight density on every pallet,” Clarke said. “The freight estimates being generated can be significantly off because we aren’t doing perfect calculations. The freight industry is constantly evolving, so you really need a good management platform, visibility, and ownership of your data to keep up.”

A More Connected Industry
While the FDC’s initiatives focus on specific issues — freight damage, product data accuracy, and transportation visibility — they collectively point toward something larger: a more connected, transparent, and efficient foodservice equipment supply chain. Viewing the challenges through this common lens is useful as Boomer believes they all boil down to the same root issue.

“If your systems don’t agree on what a product is, what an order looks like, or where a shipment actually is, none of the downstream improvements really stick,” he said. “Distributors who treat data as an asset and invest in clean integration between ERP, e-commerce, transportation, and finance systems are going to have a much easier time adapting to whatever comes next.”

The FDC’s progress demonstrates that the industry is eager to move forward. The Distributor Focus session will offer a glimpse into what this next generation of distribution looks like — and the steps companies can take today to help shape it.