Giles Foods looks for supply chain gains
business, British food group Giles Foods has been obliged to step
up its back office operations to ensure that customer service
levels keep pace with the rapid rate of expansion.
The solution, according to the company, was a TROPOS ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system from supply chain specialist SSI.
"The company has grown from zero to £17 million in the past six years. We had outgrown our old spreadsheet-based systems and we needed a new platform to support our next growth phase," according to Giles Foods' financial controller Andy Willis.
The Milton Keynes based company has already begun implementing the new system - its ledgers were fully operational within five weeks, enabling them to be ready for the start of the company's new financial year, while the sales order entry and EDI modules were also operating within the same timeframe.
Full implementation of the 30-user system, with a full range of TROPOS modules and Coda Financials from SSI, is due by mid-2004.
Giles Foods, formerly known as Farmer Giles, was established in 1977, and is one of the UK's leading manufacturers of frozen and chilled bakery products. It has four factories which produce speciality breads (Telford), puff pastry (Warminster), quiches and party lines (Milton Keynes) and pain artisanal breads (Milton Keynes).
The Tropos system was designed to achieve two key objectives: to integrate a company's supply chain and associated business processes; and to increase the velocity of that supply chain, improving asset utilisation, decreasing stocks, cutting costs and eliminating non value added activities.
SSI said that TROPOS was particularly useful for bakeries like Giles Foods because it enabled the more effective management of processing features such as rapid product changes, short process cycle times and demand-driven operations.
The company has a number of other food industry clients such as Fox's Confectionery, snack maker Kettle Produce and Scotch whisky distiller Ian Macleod.
Willis said that the TROPOS system provided "the benefits of speed and control of information. It means that I can prepare period ends in three days instead of six, which has many advantages.
"The biggest benefit for us is in the next phase when we get a more detailed view of the manufacturing operation in production variances, stock control, working capital and production efficiencies."According to SSI's managing director, Trevor Lewis, the TROPOS system allowed Giles Foods to address the requirements of the chilled as well as the frozen products sides of its business, as well as the fast-moving 'order, make and ship today' demands of the major supermarkets.
