Digital Transformation in Food Distribution: Business Process Re-engineering and ERP Implementation for an Italian Wholesaler Company

Digital transformation is reshaping the future of companies, and it is established that the current and future market position will depend on the innovation generated. In this perspective, the fulcrum for innovation of internal processes and growth is the use of new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, implemented through Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) activities. From the use of these, internal processes and operational efficiency is improved to face market dynamics. Investigating the principles of BPR, the study adapts them to the digital era, underlining the synergic and essential relationship between people, processes and technology. It addresses the challenges of change management and organizational restructuring, highlighting the imperative of leadership, workforce involvement and comprehensive training to facilitate the adoption of new technologies. Furthermore, it examines the essential role of data in strategic and sustainable decision-making, with a focus on how modern and integrated systems can enable effective and efficient monitoring and analysis. A case study from the food distribution sector follows to strengthen the theoretical analysis, presenting the methodology used for the process analysis, which includes process mapping, expert interviews, workshop-based discovery and system integrator selection. A complete current-state configuration of the processes is presented, identifying inefficiencies and establishing a digital transformation roadmap, incorporating innovative technologies. This foundation supports a gap analysis and the development of an optimized future model integrating a new ERP system with extensive digitalization of methods. The proposed framework aims at a unified approach to organizational processes and software, improving the efficiency of the process and decisions taken. The thesis identifies practical insights for BPR and digital transformation in the reference sector. It aims not only at current adaptation, but at a company equipped also ready to face the challenges and opportunities of the future market.