The right ERP for meat companies
9 criteria for successful ERP selection for meat companies
Guaranteed freshness, food safety, traceability, compliance - these topics are increasingly important for the food industry. Excellent data and process management is a precondition for staying competitive and increasing margins. Using a system for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) has become essential.
Any software that is as close to the core of your business as an ERP system must be a perfect fit. What you need is a solution that meets your specific requirements, that is tailored to your industry, and that represents all of your business processes. This is essential if you want to take full advantage of efficiency, process transparency, fast data access, and end-to-end digitalization or, more specifically, if you aim to shorten lead times and cycles, optimize product costing, protect your profit margin, increase your market share reduce your stock, improve quality, streamline retail supply,boost customer loyalty through fast and efficient responses, enhance communication, and much more.
But one company is not like the other. Certain structures like finance and accounting, controlling, or HR management exist in all companies, yet there are major differences. An international conglomerate clearly has different requirements than a regional sausage manufacturer. You also need to take account of additional functions, priorities, and industry and area specific requirements. The system landscapes vary considerably. Still, the necessary adaptation should be easy and affordable.
Which ERP system is the perfect match for your company?
We have compiled nine criteria to help you assess the offers and find the ideal solution:
- Benefit: What do I want to achive with the software?
- Scope: Which capabilities should the software have?
- Industry focus: How well does the ERP know my business?
- Modularity: What do I need and when?
- Future proofing: Will I still be happy with the software ten years from now?
- Mobility: Can data be captured and utilized on the spot??
- Security: How can I be sure that my data will always be protected?
- Openness: Does the ERP understand other programs?
- Implementation: How quickly can we get it up and running?
Criterion #1: Benefit. What do I want to achieve with the software?
The value propositions certainly raise expectations. In fact, the ERP is the heart of the business, a central nervous system where all data and functions come together. But it is precisely this expectation that often results in buying over-engineered systems. It is therefore helpful to start by defining your goals and expectations. This is not an easy task, because management and the staff in production, cutting, purchasing and lo-gistics have different priorities and wishes. Taking a strategic approach is worth the effort.
Once the goals are clear, the selection of the system will be easier: which sub-area or process step should be the first to be optimized? This will help you to assess whether a solution will bring the expected benefits. Additionally, you need clearly defined goals to benchmark the ROI of your investment.
Sopraco group: One ERP for all subsidiaries
„“We bring it all together” is the slogan of the Sopraco group. The European meat company has united its manufacturing chain under one roof and additionally joined all processes in a single system: CSB. This has improved the efficiency while ensuring structure and transparency throughout the entire business
Sopraco has a standardized system that guarantees best practices and unified processes at all of its facilities. Equally important is the traceability of all transactions. Plus, the system is future proof as it grows with the company and can easily be expanded in line with the needs of a customer or a location. “Sopraco praises CSB as its ERP system reflects the complete expertise of the meat industry,” says Mark Ameloot, Director of ICT & Technology at the Sopraco group. “The system enables us to optimize and automate our processes up to maximum capacity.
The flexibility of the CSB-System also facilitated a fast implementation of the solution in the French companies Sopraco recently acquired. “Our next step is to examine our processes for further optimization potential based on the new developments and experience CSB has gained in the meat sector in several decades,” reports Mark Ameloot.
Criterion #2: Scope. Which capabilities should an ERP software have for the food industry?
It goes without saying that the ERP software must cover all functions relevant to the production and logistics in a meat company. This is a selection of key functions:
Managing costs
Calculating the materials and manufacturing costs in the meat production has its pitfalls. The ERP system must be able to supply precise cost information for all components, such as finished products, joint products and byproducts..
Managing recipes
Input materials are expensive and optimum resource utilization is mandatory. The ERP system must therefore manage recipes in the right way. A recipe optimization procedure integrated into the software suggests the optimal composition of raw materials.
Scheduling production
After defining the optimum recipe, the next step is production optimization. The ERP system needs to access key data from production, inventory and incoming orders to contro the production while continually reconciling orders and available raw materials.
Integrating hardware
Smooth processes are ensured by integrating weigh labelers, machines and scanners into the ERP system. It must becapable of supplying all hardware components with the right information - whether master data for weigh labelers, order data for picking devices, or route information for navigation systems.
Assuring quality and traceability
Quality management is the “killer criterion” in the meat industry. Correct declaration of ingredients, traceability of their origins, and compliance with laws, directives and certifications are ever more important. Seamless traceability and quality management must be integral functions of the ERP system.
EDEKA Südwest Fleisch: No process without IT
The production facility and logistics center opened in Rheinstetten in 2011 meant a quantum leap in productivity for EDEKA Südwest Fleisch. Several locations in south-west Germany were centralized in Rheinstetten so EDEKA could reach its goal of maximum freshness with guaranteed quality and optimal goods availability at the stores. The centralnervous system of the meat factory is CSB FACTORY ERP. Combined with cutting-edge equipment and machines, the software ensures daily production volumes of up to 650 tons of high-quality meat and sausage products for about 1,150 subsidiaries.
The production facility in Rheinstetten is one EDEKA’s most efficient factories and one of the most innovative meat factories in Europe. CSB FACTORY ERP controls the entire value chain in production and logistics: goods receiving, cutting, production planning andcontrol, packaging and weigh labeling, stock entry and removal processes, picking, trolleyloading, and shipping. At two control stations, the CSB-System provides information about the current situation, the performance, and the technical state of the production andlogistics departments. A traffic light system gives a detailed overview of the processes in the warehouses, as well as in the depalletizing, picking and trolley loading divisions. In this way,around 800 single processes can be monitored online and controlled as necessary.
Criterion #3: Special industry and company focus. How well does the ERP know your business?
Stringent documentation requirements, recipe orientation with optimization of material usage, batch-oriented production processes, feedback of weighing data - the requirements of the meat industry are quite tough. You can only keep orincrease your…
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