Many manufacturers still measure performance in silos, separating operational efficiency, financial outcomes, and environmental impact. And food and beverage is no exception. But value is not created in isolation; it emerges from how these dimensions interact. As long as KPIs and their underlying data remain disconnected, decisions that improve one area can erode another, making it impossible to optimize the system as a whole.
Across the food and beverage industry, there is a persistent disconnect. Many of the KPIs in use today were designed for a different era and are no longer suited to the complexity and pressure manufacturers now face.
This is not about metrics being wrong. It’s about them being used in isolation when their real value lies in how they connect.
After years of investment in automation, digitalization and modern equipment, many organizations still struggle to reduce energy intensity, cut waste at scale, or improve margin resilience. At the same time, sustainability is no longer optional: it is embedded in customer expectations and regulation.
Yet operational performance, financial performance, and environmental are measured – and managed – in isolation. That is the core issue.
OEE: Valuable, but incomplete
Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) remains one of the most widely used metrics in manufacturing, offering visibility into availability, performance, and quality.
But it was never designed to answer today’s key questions:
- Are we fully utilizing capital across the enterprise?
- Are we scaling production in a way that improves margins?
- What is the carbon cost of each incremental unit?
OEE shows how efficiently assets run. But not whether they create optimal value. In many cases, improving throughput simply scales inefficiency.
CCE: Moving to a dual lens: Capital and Carbon
Leading organizations are recognizing the need for a more integrated view of performance.
Capital and Carbon Efficiency (CCE) is not another KPI: it is a shift in decision-making. It asks two questions at once:
- Are we maximizing value from deployed capital?
- Are we increasing output while reducing carbon impact?
These are not separate agendas. They describe the same system. When viewed together, trade-offs become visible. Decisions that look optimal in one dimension often reveal hidden inefficiencies in another.
Where value is lost and recovered
The opportunity exists in everyday operations.
CIP (Clean-In-Place) is a clear example. Traditionally treated as a fixed cost, it can be optimized through better sequencing and real-time monitoring to reduce resource consumption, downtime, and improve utilization.
This is not a sustainability initiative or a productivity initiative. It is both.
Food waste is even more direct. Every off-spec unit represents lost materials, energy, and capital. Reducing waste simultaneously improves margin, lowers emissions, and increases resource efficiency.
Yet in many organizations, waste reduction sits under sustainability programs, while margin optimization sits under operations or finance, again reinforcing the silo.
Packaging optimization follows the same pattern. Reducing material usage lowers costs, decreases transport weight, and improves emissions performance. One decision, multiple value streams. The constraint is rarely technology. It is alignment.
What needs to change
The limiting factor is not technology.
Most organizations already have the data and platforms to connect operations, energy, and performance. The real barrier is how decisions are made. Operations, finance, and sustainability still operate separately, with different KPIs and reporting cycles. Even when data is connected, decisions are not.
Until that changes, improvements will remain incremental.
How to start
This shift can begin pragmatically:
- Focus on one area where energy and utilization are visible (e.g. CIP or waste streams)
- Create a single view of capital and carbon performance
- Align decision-making across operations, finance, and sustainability
- Prioritize improvements that deliver both cost and carbon impact
This is less about new tools – and more about using existing data differently.
A more honest definition of efficiency
Single-dimension KPIs had their place. But today, efficiency is no longer just about how fast assets run. It is about whether the system as a whole – capital, energy, and output – is delivering the right outcome. Those who adapt their metrics accordingly will define the next phase of performance in food and beverage.
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