3 minute read
FEED SOLUTIONS
When there are changes on the raw materials market, Westway Feed Products shifts gears quickly. The formulation software BESTMIX and the ERP solution MILAS help this specialist in the field of liquid animal feed supplements to ensure its customers optimum quality for a correct price. Moreover, the synergy between both Adifo software solutions allows more than 50 hours of time saving!
Westway Feed Products is the largest North American manufacturer of liquid animal feed supplements. This experienced company supports livestock farmers by means of liquid feed supplements, feed mill products, feed supplement tubs, dried molasses and a range of industrial products. Although the main ingredient is molasses, this manufacturer also processes additional co-products such as glycerin, whey, corn solubles, corn steep and soy solubles.
What preceded
In 2012, Westway Feed Products opted for BESTMIX as a software solution in order to streamline its recipe formulation. In 2018, MILAS, the sector-specific ERP extension for Microsoft Dynamics, was implemented. Today, MILAS is live at 6 of the 28 production entities of Westway Feed Products. Since last year, this company also relies on the integration of graphic labels (or ‘feed tags’) between BESTMIX and MILAS.
The challenge
“During the corona crisis, fuel prices have sharply decreased,” says Larry Wallace Jr., technical services manager at Westway Feed Products. “The availability of biodiesel has decreased, which compromised the supply of glycerin - a co-product of biodiesel - for our feed supplements. Furthermore, we had to reformulate, amongst other things, the recipes with Condensed Molasses Solubles (CMS). Obviously, we had to quickly respond to this modified ingredient availability.”
The solution
For the reformulation, Westway Feed Products relied on BESTMIX. “This software gives us insight into the impact of a recipe adaptation on the end product,” Larry Wallace Jr. explains. “The formulation software seamlessly transfers these new recipes to the MILAS ERP package. This allows us to save lots of time and effort, compared to our previous software application.” “For our formulators, the
automatic label creation means a significant benefit. Each time they send a new recipe to MILAS, BESTMIX immediately sends along the appropriate label. While everything used to be performed manually in the past, our employees now have more time to focus on tasks with added value,” Larry Wallace Jr. says. From an operational point of view, there was also a considerable time saving. “In the past, the production department always had to review and approve new formulas and labels. It was an unnecessary step since this task is was already being performed by the formulators themselves. Now, that belongs to the past thanks to Adifo’s software, which contributes to our efficiency, of course.”
Westway Feed Products itself
Larry Wallace Jr., technical services manager at Westway Feed Products
verified how much time the different teams have gained thanks to the combination of BESTMIX and MILAS. The formulators have gained 5-10 minutes per recipe formulation. The production department registered a time saving of 3-5
minutes per formulation.
“If we convert it into the 259 formulas with Condensed Molasses Solubles (CMS) in Houston, this means a time saving of 34 hours for the formulators and of 17 hours for the operational teams. In total, the Adifo software has allowed a time savings of 51 hours, purely for the reformulation of recipes with that one single ingredient,” says Larry Wallace Jr.
The future
“Now, the reformulation of recipes is mostly performed in a reactive way,” Larry Wallace Jr. concludes. “In the future, we aim for a more proactive approach. We want to evaluate our ingredient composition on a regular basis in order to anticipate price and market fluctuations. The Adifo software offers us the necessary tools for this purpose. We want to roll out MILAS towards even more production facilities. The fact that the Adifo consultants are real partners for us during this entire process, strengthens our ambition.”
For more information, visit www.adifo.com
