Aptean Food & Beverage ERP Case Study: SanoRice (UK)

SanoRice futureproofs its business with Aptean Food & Beverage ERP

Industry

Food and Beverage

Challenges

» Accurately tracking inventory

» Identifying inefficiencies in the supply chain

Benefits

» Significantly improving efficiency through use of uniform ERP system at 3 locations

» Drastically reducing inventory variances

» Optimizing the picking process

SanoRice is the market leader for rice cakes, corn cakes and other cakes made from puffed grains. If you buy a rice cake anywhere in Europe, there is a one-in-three chance that it has been produced by SanoRice. SanoRice supplies customers in over 40 countries around the world from three different locations in Europe. The company puffs and packs 15 million puffed grain cakes every day, which are either sold under private label to supermarkets or produced for A-brands.

The challenge was that SanoRice did not have an effective, standard ERP system across their three locations, making it difficult – if not impossible – to accurately track inventory. This lack of visibility prevented SanoRice from identifying inefficiencies in the company's supply chain, which further affected profitability. Aptean was engaged to implement their food-specific ERP system at the three locations.

Aptean Food & Beverage ERP

Structure

Marco Netten is IT manager at SanoRice. The company recruited him in 2012 to bring more structure to the application and data landscape in SanoRice branches, which at the time were using a hodgepodge of different software packages. "Back then, people were sharing data by emailing Excel files to each other. I came on board to turn that into one single, smooth-running entity." To get an accurate overview of activities at all three locations, SanoRice made the decision to implement a new version of Aptean Food and Beverage ERP that is specifically designed for Food & Beverage producers.

Food-specific

Aptean is a global player specializing in industry-specific business software solutions. It has in-depth knowledge and specially designed software for a range of industries, including the food and beverage industry. As well as the ERP offering, the company provides several additional software solutions such as BI (Business Intelligence), TMS (Transportation Management System), EAM (Enterprise Asset Management), OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness), MES (Manufacturing Execution System), PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) and CRM (Customer Relationship Management). Joris Kolff, Commercial Director Food and Beverage, EMEA at Aptean, says: “Potential customers sometimes ask me about the benefits of an ERP system that is designed specifically for the food and beverage industry. There is a misconception that ERP systems are all the same; in reality, things are not that simple. Aptean's products are designed to address key issues specific to the food and beverage industry, such as traceability, quality control, labelling, packaging, track & tracing, and many more. And because Aptean's solution is implemented as a cloud solution, it can help future-proof businesses by eliminating the need for future system upgrades.”

"Aptean was engaged to implement their food-specific ERP system at SanoRice's three locations."

Integration

The software solutions that integrate with the ERP system also add value. According to Kolff: "A common scenario is for Aptean to be approached by one of our ERP customers who is interested in changing their business model – for example, because they are looking to diversify their customer base beyond retailers to add local restaurant distribution. As a result, they can expand from having a few trucks delivering to between five and ten retail locations to smaller vans delivering to a few hundred restaurants. That means they need to invest in a TMS – and the benefit of purchasing the corresponding solution from Aptean is that it will integrate smoothly with the company's existing ERP. And that is invaluable because it simplifies the implementation process and helps the customer save time and money. And that benefit applies to all the solutions we offer in addition to the ERP system.

Benefits

Netten emphasizes that Aptean's ERP system definitely has specific benefits for the food industry as well. "Absolutely; with Aptean, you have everything in one system that simply runs smoothly. The add-ons like LOT tracing and all the other applications offer a whole host of benefits. That package includes the features that food producers need to be able to operate. No other companies offer such a complete package. But it also means that you can take advantage of the food-specific knowledge and experience of Aptean's consultants when you're implementing a system like this."

Positioning

Aptean is unique as an ERP leader because it fills the gap between the area often covered by local companies at one end of the spectrum and larger software companies at the other. The former may not have a wide range of products and struggle to keep them up to date, while the latter tend to provide broad, general-purpose software that then requires significant customization to meet specific industry needs. According to Kolff: "Aptean's offering is unique as it combines a solution with rich functionality tailored to the needs of food and beverage companies with support underpinned by extensive industry expertise, so we can help our customers maximize the value of their investment."

FIFO vs FEFO

“SanoRice needed food-specific functionality and knowledge,” says Kolff. “It wanted a global partner that is fully specialized in food & beverage, with experts who have knowledge of the sector. To give you an example: SanoRice is a retail supplier, so scanning is essential. And while some may argue that scanning isn't necessarily food-specific, using it for food is actually very different than for other goods,” Kolff continues. “Some types of goods can be scanned using traditional FIFO (first in first out), but food must be scanned as FEFO (first expired first out). Food companies also need specific functionality to support labelling, packaging, mass balance, LOT status, and much more. Automating these processes through an ERP creates visibility, reduces errors and cuts waste - all improvements that positively impact profitability.”

Financial tracking and tracing

Financial tracking and tracing has become increasingly important for companies in the food industry, and this functionality has become an essential feature when organizations are considering investing in an ERP solution. Kolff: "Many systems are especially good at logistics tracking and tracing, but customers also want more insight into their financial tracking and tracing because of soaring raw material prices. The financial tracking provided by Aptean's Food and Beverage ERP allows companies to visualize at batch level how a particular ingredient will affect the company's bottom line."

"Financial tracking and tracing has become increasingly important for companies in the food industry."

Three years on

Aptean's solutions clearly offer plenty of potential, but what has this particular one actually achieved? Netten is satisfied with the improvements made at SanoRice. Since the ERP package was implemented, efficiency has increased significantly. "Before we implemented Aptean's ERP, we had large inventory variances at the end of the year. Over the past year, our inventory variances have dropped dramatically, from substantial euro amounts to an insignificant figure. It's a huge difference." The ability to view output logging on HMI screens at production lines is also quite valuable to SanoRice. The picking process has also been optimized and stock reliability has improved. "We are not standard customers, because we have done quite a lot of work ourselves since the system is so easy to use," explains Netten. "Still, it's very nice to be able to draw on the expertise of the senior consultants at Aptean."

About Aptean Aptean is one of the world's leading providers of industry-specific software. Our enterprise resource planning and supply chain solutions are designed to meet the needs of specialized manufacturers and distributors in more than 20 industries, while our compliance solutions serve specific markets, such as finance and biotech. With both cloud and on-premise deployment options, Aptean's products, services and expertise help companies of all sizes to scale and succeed.

For more information, visit www.aptean.com