UNIQ PLC

PMS 0024
Solarsoft for manufacturing
uniq plc
Customer Spotlight
At-a-glance
• Industry: Chilled food manufacturing
• Location: Minsterley, Northampton, Paignton, UK
Key Challenges
• Replace paper-based and bespoke
systems
• Provide flexibility in production,
without loss of efficiency
Solution
• Tropos ERP
Key Benefits
Tropos was
particularly
strong
on recipe
management,
which is at
the core of
our business.
• More control and visibility of
manufacturing activities
• Less wastage
• Faster reaction to problems
• Improved customer service, including
speedier dispatch and invoicing
• Improved traceability of products and
raw materials
• Shorter lead times
• Data sharing saves time and
increases accuracy
• Paper eliminated
And it was one of the
few packages with
strong support for the
process industry
Mike Spalding, IT director,
Uniq PLC
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In the late 1990s, food manufacturer
Unigate (now Uniq plc) embarked on a
multi-million-pound plan to update the
manufacturing and financial systems at its
UK factories.
It decided to pilot the approach at its
factory in Paignton, Devon, by introducing
Solarsoft’s Tropos. The plant produces
over one million desserts a week,
including the popular Cadbury-branded
products. Trifles are the main product,
followed by profiteroles and cheesecakes.
Uniq’s product cycle changes constantly
because of trends in food consumption. Its
retail customers often demand changes
in packaging or content within weeks. For
example, some may want more custard
while others order more fruit.
flexibility and
efficiency are crucial
“Being able to change our manufacturing
process without losing efficiency is
crucial,” said IT director Mike Spalding.
“The Tropos system we are using is very
sophisticated and reduces wastage.”
When selecting a manufacturing system,
the unique nature of the manufacturing
process at Uniq had to be taken into
account. Uniq receives orders to produce
its chilled foods and deliver them on the
same day. Orders can come in as late as
3pm for delivery before 11pm.
A large amount of guesswork went into
decisions about which products should
be made each day. As many of the chilled
products had a limited shelf life, mistakes
could be costly and result in much
wastage. Uniq needed a system that could
eliminate this guesswork.
Essential areas in the factory, such as quality
control and traceability, were controlled by
unwieldy, slow, paper-based systems.
More responsive to
customer demands
Like the other Uniq companies, Uniq was
reviewing its ways of working in order to
reduce lead times, cut costs and become
more responsive to customer demands.
Spalding said: “We looked at supply chain
systems because of the business benefits,
greater control and forecasting capabilities
they offered. However, we knew we needed
an MRP (Material Requirement Planning)
system.
“We issued an invitation to tender to 12 big
players in this area, whittled them down to
five, and then to three. There was an intense
amount of testing and checking, and we
decided on Tropos unanimously. Solarsoft
understood our business issues and showed
how Tropos would help in all the key areas.
“Tropos was particularly strong on recipe
management, which is at the core of MRP.
And it was one of the few packages with
strong support for the process industry, in
which liquids flow through pipes and go in
different directions according to customer
demand.”
Real-time information
on market needs
Tropos provides Uniq with real-time
information on changes in demand, which
arrive via electronic data interchange (EDI).
Information on products and ingredients is
available at each stage of the manufacturing
process so that changes in production
schedules can be assessed immediately.
Tropos allows for simplified despatch
routines, thus reducing delivery lead times,
improving customer service levels and
overall responsiveness.
Tropos triggers the production of invoices
as soon as items are dispatched. The
invoice information is fed into the company’s
accounting systems and is despatched
electronically to certain customers.
Visibility of the inventory, and the
management of line-side stocks, ensures
that stock levels are kept low while
maintaining the smooth running of the
production lines.
The first step in implementing the new
system was to establish stock balances.
Then, via a recipe module, lists of the
correct ingredients for each product were
set up.
staff soon competent
on new system
About half of the Paignton factory’s staff
needed training to use Tropos. According
to Spalding, this went very smoothly. “The
look and feel of Tropos seems to suit most
of our factory workers,” he said. “They are
tuned into it. Each person had two hours
of training a week for as many weeks as it
took; some had no computing experience at
all. We put terminals on the shop floor early
on so that staff could practise on them. The
staff rapidly proved they were competent
and accurate on the system.”
Uniq project manager Ian Kenworthy, said:
“The system was easy to put in place and
training took less time than we planned for
originally. The staff understand the system
and the role it plays in product traceability.”
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The ability to plan around critical
resources, such as labour, enables
measures to be taken to manage peak
periods.
product. And then each product can be
tracked down through the cooling process
and, as it goes to a lorry, for onward
delivery to customers.”
Easy interface to
other best-of-breed
applications
Speedy reaction when
problems are identified
Uniq was already using a forecasting
system and had implemented new financial
systems to suit Group requirements in a
best-of-breed approach. Tropos’s ability
to interface easily to other systems and
process control equipment was a benefit,
as it gave the company the freedom to pick
best-of-breed applications to fit other parts
of the business.
According to Spalding, one of the biggest
benefits of Tropos is that factory staff can
react more quickly when problems or
errors are identified because the system
will be quick to draw their attention to the
problem. “You don’t want to find out you’ve
over or under-filled trifles with custard
after a whole day’s production,” he said.
“With Tropos you can check much faster
that the right things are happening.
Spalding explained: “As a product is
moved around the factory, staff log activity
information into the system so we always
know where we are in the production
process.
“The system’s electronic logging means
that, if we get an inquiry on the traceability
of a product, we can find out in minutes.
Before it could take days.
“If a machine breaks down, things can be
rescheduled and a new plan implemented
immediately. The Tropos system keeps
track of any ingredient as soon as it arrives
in the factory, and it can be tracked through
the production process. Each production
line can be monitored and the quantities of
cream or fruit, for example, can be checked
to see that customers get a consistent
“We may need to know about a particular
vat of custard and which products it has
been used to make. If there’s an inquiry
about quality, we can quickly work out
where that custard ended up. Tropos gives
us instant access to that information.”
“Obviously health and cleanliness are a food
manufacturer’s primary responsibility, and
we have to be able to prove we have made
our products to the right specification. We
owe it to the consumers to do so,” said
Spalding.
Another advantage of Tropos is that
its Quality Management module, with
its capabilities in tracing ingredients
throughout the entire manufacturing
process, dramatically reduces the need for
paper. A daily schedule of about 150 batches
that used to be in paper form is now on
computer.
“Paper is a difficult medium to handle on the
shop floor, but computers can be in that area
in metal cabinets and can increase speed
and efficiency,” said Spalding.
The Tropos system benefits the company
as a whole because it is linked with head
office and gives a much clearer picture of
the production process. Spalding added:
“It helps towards the purchase of common
packaging, and the flow of raw materials into
the factory can be much better controlled.
And we’ve got more rapid awareness
of product dispatch, which assists us in
producing accurate invoices.”
Factory manager Stan Slater confirmed:
“The system reduces management time in
looking at problems. It also underpins our
commitment to ISO 9002.”
Product information,
an additional customer
service
Tropos’s Resources and Processes
module facilitates the cataloguing and
dissemination of product information,
such as its nutritional content, thus
providing an additional customer service.
CONTACT
SOLARSOFT For a
demonstration
SOLARSOFT EUROPE
+44 (0)8447 700900
SOLARSOFT NORTH AMERICA
+1 (905) 224 2222
SOLARSOFT ASIA
+86 21 6328 7596
www.solarsoft.com
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