Much more than just a sausage factory

Conservatively, we're looking at a three year payback, but the other way of looking at this is the business is growing rapidly and we needed better systems." So says Mark Wood, operations director at £35m Ruskington, Lincolnshire-based George Adams Pork Products, of its SSI Tropos ERP implementation and wireless RF shopfloor data collection (SFDC) system. Pork pie and sausage production have more in common with general manufacturing than you might imagine – the main differences being fresh materials and products, and some semi-continuous processes. It's a complex production planning and management problem involving multiple storage locations as semi-finished and finished goods, with important shelf-life issues – further complicated by very short lead times from the big retail chains. "So we're constantly having to run to forecast and stock," says Wood, "and with inaccurate forecasts and call-offs from our customers." Looking briefly at the before scenario, George Adams had evolved several spreadsheet-based systems for forecasting, materials and labour planning, variance management, stock control, efficiency management and monitoring asset utilisation. But data collection and representation were inconsistent. "None of the systems were integrated and they were all separately and manually maintained," says Wood. "It was becoming so complex that we had to keep upgrading PCs to cope. We built a temporary system at Spalding with an Access database, but that hadn't got the level of mixed production or complexity we have here… Ultimately, we knew we needed to capture data right through from stores to despatch and have it in real time so we could control the stock better." There were also other issues: it was difficult to obtain accurate yield figures for costing, planning and financial management. "The spreadsheets could do it, but we're in growth mode and it was becoming more difficult. Also, we couldn't work back from the spreadsheets into factory production: we couldn't see the detail of product and stock locations." Meanwhile, on the ground, he says: "The result was that all the departments were working in 'silos'. They knew the plan, but each department decided what it was going to run and when, in order to optimise their local efficiencies. But that wasn't necessarily what the next department needed at that particular time." Hence Tropos for overall financial management, forecasting, procurement and integrated stock and production control, using barcode labels to track batches in detail through the process, plus touch screen PCs and handheld scanners to gather data from the shopfloor via a new wireless RF network. Says Wood: "We had installed Tropos about six years earlier as a purchasing system, but it hadn't been rolled out any further. This time we looked at other systems but decided that, as we had already paid for Tropos, we might as well make it work even harder. Business-wide visibility Looking at top line benefits, Wood says: "Now we know exactly how much we've got of all the materials and ingredients, the products, their status and where they are – and we can plan and re-plan against that. There's no more second-guessing the stores all the time." Also, with usage via the barcodes, not only are there advantages for food audit trails – all automated and with facilities to make that paperless – but valuable analytics. "It means we can look at variances and see what's happening in detail," says Wood. There's more: "Because you can pre-program factory disciplines, the system won't allow you to use the wrong ingredients. In the past, that's happened occasionally and it would be picked up later in the process but too late to do anything about it, so the product was rejected. Now we can prevent errors – or at least pick them up a lot sooner." And he refers to the power of barcode tracking: "All products have a use-by date. If stock is at the back of a chiller with 250 racks it's difficult to see, but Tropos will know it's there and it will make sure products that are going out of life are selected first." Moving on to the front end, Tropos' forecasting capabilities are used to the full. "We can use the combined forecast and do final planning on the day to meet the changing real demand for the various products as we get real orders," says Wood. In fact Tropos production scheduling is run twice a day on a rolling 24 hour basis, re-cutting against what's in the stores at the various stages each time – and automatically taking account of shelf-life for coded material items. Then at the plant level, batch processes now run to plan: George Adams hasn't moved to scheduling per machine because the floor is too dynamic. "It's up to the guys on the shopfloor to use the system to make decisions," says Wood. "They'll know if a machine is not working or Jim's not in, and work around that." Some would argue that machine scheduling and planned recovery would be a good way forward, but he makes the point that the numbers are big and the processing times fast. Also, some of the production is semi-continuous – with runs of 400,000 pies – while other production is for just 50-off, with some hand-made. Wireless power Returning to the wireless network and scanning, Ruskington was one of the first to go all the way with this in food manufacturing, where the advantages are not only cost-cutting and flexibility, but cabling reduction, which is a factory health and safety issue. So where is the firm now? The system is moving on to material variances – for further stock control and de-stocking. "At the moment it's being used to analyse variances in the top 100 products," says Wood. "We will do more and get to a greater level of detail: we want to completely de-stock the stores, but we've got to be very confident of the forecast and the ability of MRP to deliver materials just in time to be able to do that." And when that happens: "By improving the accuracy of forecasts and enabling better production planning and process control, the system will give us a one-off de-stocking saving of £300,000 to £400,000. We will carry only what we need for the next week or so instead of the current three to four weeks' stock." And he alludes to other benefits: like no more manual counting, with everything being swiped in and out, and better reporting, which will enable managers to keep a tighter rein on the business by monitoring yields, costs and profitability more closely. He also makes the point that real-time data delivers efficiencies. "We can get a better handle on variance and do more to improve yield and reduce waste further." It's looking good. For the future, Wood sees the system potentially being expanded to provide web-based visibility for its customers of what's in the plant and the various stages of production, as well as what's been logged out onto the lorries. "We could work that back into our key suppliers so they can see the demand on us and synchronise delivery better." That visibility could also help its retail customers manage their pipelines better, making transportation, regional depots and stores more cost efficient.