ERP solution adds value to ham production
IT solutions from CSB-System have brought digitalisation to ‘ a new level ’ at the Spanish ham factories of international Swiss food company Bell Food Group .
The production facilities in the Spanish ham regions of Extremadura and Castile-La Mancha have been brought to an entirely new efficiency level over the past few months . Until recently , redundant work steps and incomplete information were substantial cost drivers . One of the most important requirements of the Bell Food Group was therefore to change from a paperbased data capture execution to a digital information flow in areas such as the processing of recipes , purchase orders , and traceability .
For example , at its factory south-west of Madrid , which has a production capacity of 5,000 tons of raw ham including the popular “ Jamon Ibérico ”, up to one million hams can be hanging in the warehouses for drying and aging ; and with different breeds of pigs processed in different types of ham and having different curing and aging times depending on the quality and the designated certification , the implementation of traditional methods on a large scale and in an industrial environment can be challenging .
“ In the past , the facility did not really have an exact , comprehensive overview of the production process ,” explains Sven Friedli , Bell Food Group ’ s Chief Information Officer . “ For stocktaking , for example , it took weeks to count all hams . Now , we have introduced an integrated supply chain solution that tracks the entire process , from the purchasing of the pigs up to the sale of the ham . All information and data are available in a single system across the entire process so that stocktaking is accomplished
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with a mouse-click – just like checking revenues .”
“ The quick availability of information in the ERP enables us to act much quicker ,” confirms Peter Ettrich , who is responsible for the CSB applications at 19 Bell factories all over Europe and was the overall project manager for the project in Spain . In labelling , Bell Food Group has also seen rapid progress thanks to the reduction of errors . The installation of a ham grading system has advanced the integration of software and hardware .
In addition , ERP has generated added value by optimising order picking , with digital information replacing paper forms . The use of hand-held devices not only accelerates processes , but also reduces errors and , consequently , necessary rework .
Overall , the project has been a huge success and helped Bell Spain to overcome problems in the production processes by means of technology – an achievement that was only possible , as Friedli emphasises , because the IT team and the consultants at Bell Spain devoted a lot of time to it . “ We have intensively investigated the steps in production , the type of reports required by the company , and the best ways for generating useful data from the various steps of the production cycle ,” he says .
Friedli believes that the company ’ s IT consultants need to be proficient in two worlds – both IT itself and also food processing . “ We are all in the same boat ,” he points out . “ It is therefore important to have a common understanding of the processes in food production . A mere IT specialist without extensive industry expertise could do little to get us forward . The CSB project team has brought the digitalisation at our ham factories to a new level .”
Email : info @ csb-system . com www . csb . com
All information and data are available in a single system across the entire process so that stocktaking is accomplished with a mouse-click .