Foodsprint Has the Problem of Batch Tracing under Control
21 March 2006
The food industry has undergone fundamental change in the last few years. Batch tracing, documentation of all processing steps, quality control and management and e-commerce capability are only a few of the issues which modern food production companies must keep in mind in order to remain competitive. This can be achieved with CSI’s qualified mySAP All-in-One solution Foodsprint.
"One of the key challenges for the food industry is integrated batch tracing", says Ian Rutherford, Industry Business Specialist at CSI. This is dealt with by a European Union Directive (EU 178/2002), which has applied since May 2003 to specific fields such as genetically modified foods and came into force, in full, from the start of 2005. "The entire food production process", explains Ian Rutherford about the situation in the food industry, "must be fully documented and traceable."
COMPLETE DOCUMENTATION AND PROCESS DATA
Documenting everything more or less from the soil to the point of sale and vice versa involves an administrative and logistical outlay which is only possible to manage using integrated IT solutions such as the qualified mySAP All-in-One solution Foodsprint. The SAP Business Partner has designed and developed the solution specifically for the requirements and demands of the food industry. "As a preconfigured ERP solution, Foodsprint features all the functions of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and thus all the stages in food production", continues Rutherford.
According to the UK IT Solutions Company, all product information from purchasing, order processing, quality control and production to finance is efficiently structured and transparent. All relevant production process data from receiving the raw materials, formula development and processing to packaging is managed and mapped in a single system in accordance with GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) and HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points).
"Our solution has completely integrated quality management", says Ian Rutheford, "and the SAP system collates and manages all testing records for raw materials from goods inward inspections to checks during the production process and final checks on the finished goods." The results of the checks can be confirmed by electronic signature using an add-on function. According to CSI, as part of the quality assurance measures, a laboratory information and management system (LIMS) can be linked to the mySAP All-in-One solution, while PC-based measuring and weighing systems can be connected via open and certified interfaces.
SPEEDING UP GOODS MANAGEMENT, ACCOUNTING AND PROCESSING
"Foodsprint brings together solutions such as goods management, accounting and production that were previously isolated, into a single, uniformed system. All procedures and processes are thus transparent", concludes Rutherford and uses an example to illustrate this. "With the 'batch cockpits' included in Foodsprint, all the relevant data on the selected batches such as material, batch, classification, inventory and best-before-date data can be displayed at the press of a button. This significantly reduces the workload of individual users because they can perform all their work from the cockpit solution".
The CSI solution also provides other functions. Using multidimensional analyses, companies can perform concrete calculations of the profitability of branches, the cost-effectiveness of a sales area with several branches, or revenue from a product group. This produces key performance indicators for production planning and control, because "the number of soups or sauces sold in a region or whether pretzel sales are better in the North or South of the country", says Rutherford, "can have a significant impact on the production processes in a company and its associated plants."
EASE OF DATA INTEGRATION
"The strengths of Foodsprint include its openness and ease of integration. This means that company data can be collated in a database", emphasises Rutherford. The solution is platform-independent and runs on a variety of databases such as Max DB (previously known as SAP DB), Oracle, DB 2 and Microsoft SQL 2000. Electronic exchange of documents via EDI and XML also guarantees e-commerce capability in the B2B sector.
Companies can expect the introduction time for the mySAP All-in-One solution to be between three and nine months, "but this depends on how complex the individual requirements are", adds Rutherford. Due to this wide time scale, he prefers not to give any precise details on the price of Foodsprint because this can vary greatly depending on the outlay involved. Though he does add: "We do, however, offer fixed price projects following an initial investigation, which can be fully funded via attractive leasing options – another good reason to get in touch with us."
ABOUT CSI
Formed in 1983, CSI is one of the UK's leading business system integrators. With over 100 staff supporting a wide range of customers, across a number of sectors, our experience and expertise can help businesses reach their IT goals. Unlike most system integrators, CSI has the in-house technical skills to develop, design and manage all aspects of networks, systems, applications and e-business solutions.
