Pasta Concepts to reduce overheads by 20% with Access ERP solution

Financial controller Conor McGarry says that the combination of greater traceability, improved resource planning and reduced manual processes, has already helped the company realise a 10% improvement. McGarry says the company selected Access Supply Chain because: "the consultancy was of an excellent standard; their people convinced me that they really understood our business needs." He points to the fact that, like any food manufacturer, Pasta Concepts needs to be sure that it can meet requests for detailed product information – so that it can deal confidently with, for example, product recalls or retail audits. As a fast-growing organisation, its old accounting system meant that could be a challenge. Add to that an increasing amount of regulation, the move to larger premises, and demand for ever-more sophisticated products, and you have all the key factors that prompted the move to its new ERP solution, he says. With the introduction of the Access ERP solution, all information is now centralised, creating visibility across the business and integrating, for example, hand-held barcode scanners, new product development documentation and stock data with central accounts. This, says McGarry, has allowed the business to see, in real time, any chain of events from initial order through to despatch to retailers. Says McGarry: "The challenge is getting the right products into a very small buying window. The work itself typically begins as much as two years' in advance and encompasses lots of product trials and modifications. What the new system has done is provided us with the systematic approach we needed. Access Supply Chain gives us definitive lead times so we can say with confidence that we'll deliver on time." And he adds: "Naturally, competing customers don't want the same products on the shelves [so] we never end up selling the same things twice. Previously, product configuration could take some time, as we'd have to start each order from scratch. Now I just configure new and similar products, using information that's already in the system. It's made things a lot simpler."