Wrights feeds pie manufacturing growth with new ERP

The £35 million firm, which manufactures ready meals, soups, sauces and chutneys, has doubled its turnover in the last five years, and group operations director Neville Carruthers says that prompted the change. "Previously, we had a manual system in place, which made the process for monitoring the actual quantities of stock we were using and handling across our production lines quite labour intensive," explains Carruthers. "After our recent growth, this situation had become impossible to manage… With Tropos, we now have a real-time picture of our materials consumption. Our processes have become faster, more accurate and more efficient," he adds. Carruthers also comments, that, from a customer service point of view, the system allows to provide better levels of service and quality, "by helping us to provide accurate forecasts as to when orders and deliveries can be made". Next, Carruthers says that Wrights will take Tropos beyond managing manufacturing operations, and into other parts of the business – integrating areas from sales order management to purchasing, financial control, production management, inventory management and despatch. "The system lets us see where there are variances in productivity and yield from factory to factory. We'll be able to calculate exactly how much raw material is needed for each order, how much it will cost and how much production we should expect from the ingredients available," comments Carruthers.