BatchMaster: a Global System Everyone Can Use and Anyone Can Understand!
Headquartered in Chicago, USA, Newly Weds Foods is a major global provider of food services to food manufacturers. They have a presence in North and South America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific Group. With accreditations from GMP, Halal, HACCP, AIP, etc., Newly Weds Foods provides a wide range of seasonings, sauces, marinades, flavors, bread crumbs, and batters to suit every possible application.
Situation
Working in a customer-focused culture, Newly Weds Foods always strives to provide its customers with the Best Products at the Best Price. With a presence worldwide, Newly Weds Foods sources best quality local raw materials and delivers local taste, making sense for its customers to come to them. With this philosophy, they grew their customer base and thus their business, bringing about the need to standardize their software and systems. Their growing business in the Asia/Pacific Group brought about expanding databases residing on individual PCs, servers and pretty much all over. Besides consuming time, scattered information was bringing inaccuracies in operations, leading to losses. Countless activities – sales, purchase, production, planning, meeting regulatory compliance, inventory management, finance, etc. were being disposed of errors.
Inefficiencies in Legacy System and the Roadmap to BatchMaster
Newly Weds Foods Australia was using MISys integrated with Sage ACCPAC as their ERP partner, but the system did not meet the needs of Newly Wed Foods. Mr. Prasanth Gaundaur said, “There were issues with integration between Misys and ACCPAC, which restricted our ability to do real-time invoicing. We were selling without invoicing and this led to irregularities and discrepancies in stock.”
Moreover, Mr. Prasanth Gaundaur mentioned that they couldn’t take advantage of Production Scheduling because it was poorly designed. They had to rely on Excel spreadsheets and an MS Access Database outside the system for planning, which was often erroneous. Compliance issues, regulatory requirements, and allergen management are other things that were not met by the legacy system. They particularly needed to bring their BOMs and Formulas within their ERP structure.
These challenges compelled Newly Weds Foods to hunt for a new ERP system. To minimize costs and disruption, they wanted to keep Sage ACCPAC and replace MISys with a system that could seamlessly integrate with ACCPAC. With this in mind, they started their search, initially via the Internet. They browsed a few products and compared them with their business
operations. While discussing with other group companies (especially their Canada operations),they were recommended to look at BatchMaster. Finally, after doing their own deep analysis and comparisons, they chose BatchMaster.
Adding the thoughts of Mr. Marc Tremblay, “BatchMaster seemed to be the best fit for the price. Since we were not that big company (for our China operation), the pricing was flexible and based on the number of users. Increase the number of users, the price goes up”. He continued, “The choice became easy because of the smart pricing strategy and also because the software provided a full process of the business model, from sales up to production, purchase, inventory etc. all the modules were there for each department of the company thus making it possible to take everything back to one place”.
Australia was the second plant of Newly Weds Foods to embrace BatchMaster, and the joy of reaping a fast Return on Investment led them to implement it in their Philippines and Bangkok plants as well. Mr. Prasanth Gaundaur explained, “We have a company spread across four regions. We can’t standardize our process across the whole group, though there is always clarity about how people do it. And, with BatchMaster we can manage that quickly and efficiently”.
Mr. Gaundar noted that a number of localizations and workarounds were required in the system to meet local conditions, and BatchMaster accepted them swiftly. Mr. Gaundaur said, “How BatchMaster puts it is important. But we were always confident that the team at BatchMaster would be able to do it.”
Robust Solution
Ease of use coupled with immense usability were the hallmarks of BatchMaster, which instantly clicked with Newly Weds Foods. Core process software with comprehensive process manufacturing capabilities, in ® addition to being multilingual, working within Microsoft Windows, and integrating with Microsoft Office®, were other things that appealed to BatchMaster.
Inventory Control
At Newly Weds Foods, just like any other food industry, raw materials/ingredients are considered the most vital component –the lifeblood of their industry. Managing the quality and freshness of raw materials with limited shelf-life was their FIRST and BIGGEST hurdle. The fully practical yet feature-rich inventory module of BatchMaster stunned the Newly Weds Foods inventory controller with its strong ability to capture complete details about every raw material. “The business has grown three times. The raw materials we keep in stock have doubled, yet the value of the stock has reduced, which is testament to the point that we have a system in place that helps us better manage the inventory, which any other day is money for us”. Right from classifying their inventory, tracking items, providing various issue methods as well as costing methods, keeping evaluations plus status current, to maintaining storage conditions and all these for multiple locations/warehouses, BatchMaster records complete details about all ingredients and products for Newly Weds Foods, ensuring safe and fresh storage.
Formulation / Recipes and Compliance
For Newly Weds Foods, the recipe is the only source providing the competitive edge that turns high demand into large revenues. In short, the recipe is the bread and butter for their industry. Keeping them secure, consistent, yet accessible is what Newly Weds Foods strived for. But, since they export to multiple countries, they cannot produce anything that appeals to them. They must be aware of taste and consumer preferences in each market. Their recipes must follow stringent regulatory laws implied by various organizations in multiple jurisdictions. Helping Newly Weds in recipe management, BatchMaster streamlines their entire formulation process. Along with providing provision of recipe definitions with multiple ingredients, intermediates, labor, and manufacturing instructions, BatchMaster also offers complete recipe security via the provision of changing the recipe by authorized people only, tracking all versions of the formula along with reasons for change. In addition, the incorporation of the Packaging Bill of Materials module further facilitated streamlining development/innovation and the design of final products. Newly Weds Foods, along with associating formula, labor cost, overheads, and packaging materials, were also able to quickly drill to the deepest level of any finished good to view all the raw materials and intermediates used in its making.
Continuously faced with ever-changing customer demands, Newly Weds Foods must bring innovation to satisfy their customers without compromising compliance mandates. FDA, USDA,HACCP, Bio-terrorism Act, etc., all call for quick and thorough product recalls if required. Moreover, to protect consumers from harmful bacteria and allergic reactions, Newly Weds Foods needs to comply with labeling requirements that fall under the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act (FALCPA). Mr. Prasanth Gaundaur explained, “As far as food manufacturing is concerned, we have to comply with regulations. Fact is we are exporting to other countries, requiring us to be on our toes to always stay compliant”.
Offering pace with power, BatchMaster’s R&D module made innovation much easier for Newly Weds Foods. It allowed them to design recipes based on the USDA database’s nutritional values and other physical properties. To ensure safety, with BatchMaster’s help, Food Technicians at Newly Weds Foods can rigorously test their innovative recipes before release.
Keeping in mind every cGMP requirement, BatchMaster has been designed to operate by the regulatory outlooks. Inbuilt bi-directional tracking facilitates quick and complete ‘field-to-fork’ traceability of materials. Furthermore, integrated with the USDA database, BatchMaster generates precise in addition to approved formats of nutritional labels, ingredient statements, allergen declarations, and nutrient content. Mr. Gaundaur said, “Compliance was addressed by BatchMaster with unexpected ease. Allergens can now be managed efficiently. Additionally, visibility of allergens across the system is determined quite well”.
Quality Assurance
Assuring product quality is not an option but an important responsibility for Newly Weds Foods. Helping their quality manager in fulfilling responsibility with 100% assurance, BatchMaster optionally applies quality checks at every required process junction. Preventing defective items from being processed, BatchMaster not only ensured the best quality but also helped Newly Weds Foods earn greater customer satisfaction. Quality was a big concern for Mr. Gaundaur, but now he doesn’t have to worry about it – “We source raw materials out of Asia, South America, North America, UK and more. Supply is very critical for us. We have to ensure the quality of the product and determine how safe it is. How we are using and managing it is, again, critical. But important now is that BatchMaster helps in managing and working with it easy.”
Production Management
Production – the driving force turning the wheels of Newly Weds Foods. Using BatchMaster, Newly Weds Foods was able to expedite its production tremendously. Eliminating the gap between software and actual operation, BatchMaster very well understood their batch processing to support them in shaping their products. It helped to guarantee the stable and well-organized operation on which Newly Weds Foods relies. Delivering advanced features BatchMaster successfully met, indeed exceeded, the expectations and requirements for their entire production process. Providing real-time access to accurate material and labor information, BatchMaster pleased the production team at Newly Weds Foods with its strong capability of reducing waste and inefficiencies.
Growth, profitability, and reduced waste are the aims Newly Weds has always dreamt of. Unquestionably, only good planning could help Newly Weds achieve its goals. Turning their dream into reality, BatchMaster’s MPS/MRP provided the intelligence to plan production with the optimum utilization of all available resources, plan material purchase as well as production based on how much is still in inventory (stock-on-hand), what is expected to be sold (forecast), what are the commitments yet to be fulfilled (customer orders), what is already ordered (Purchase Orders) and what is under production. In addition, BatchMaster automatically generates purchase/production orders based on demand, supply, and forecast. Mr. Gaundaur’s views on BatchMaster’s MPS/MRP are as follows: “Our Production guys now schedule on a daily basis; any changes in demand are reflected immediately, and the procurement guy instantly picks it up. That’s a significant improvement which was not possible earlier. Within a couple of hours, or even quicker, everyone knows exactly what has happened”.
Acquiring materials required for production is a crucial role in production management. Preventing material shortages while minimizing the company’s capital investment in inventory was a requirement of Newly Weds Foods for any well-designed ERP system. From evaluating the best vendor, ordering inventory, and receipting to generating vouchers, BatchMaster efficiently handled and streamlined their entire procurement process. In common with easy, on-time cost-effective purchasing, BatchMaster effectively ensured the supply of required materials to production, preventing any holdups in processing finished goods.
Sales
Revenue is the oxygen for Newly Weds Foods; hence, meeting the needs of the sales department was of utmost importance for Newly Weds Foods. Understanding the importance of sales for business, BatchMaster’s sales process exactly matches Newly Weds Foods’ sales strategy. Registering complete information right from processing customer orders and shipping to invoicing, customer services and complaints recording, customer requirements, emails, and requests, everything gets effectively handled and reflected across the system. BatchMaster brought consistency and clarity to Newly Weds Foods’ sales process.
Integration
While discussing their selection criteria, Mr. Marc Tremblay said, “Basically, software having all the modules integrated on one platform ensures timely and right communications among departments and ultimately helps running the business efficiently”, BatchMaster scored fully here also as it is fully integrated, information flows swiftly from one end to other in real-time ensuring transparency. As Mr. Gaundaur shared, “We need to address a lot of questions as an industry. Customers are expecting more information from us on products or where the sources of supply are. Again, it is linked; the whole supply chain is linked; information flows from one end to the other. That’s why we needed a system that is fully integrated all the way and easily provides information relaxing us from paper shuffling. With BatchMaster, all these get addressed”.
Financial Management
Adding icing on the cake, BatchMaster seamlessly integrates with Sage ACCPAC (Sage 300 ERP), making finance handling easier yet faster. With its logical approach, Newly Weds Foods was able to properly maintain and track every AP, AR, and GL for every transaction occurring in their business. With automatic and real-time updates, Newly Weds Foods has been able to organize their finances, allowing them to push their growth with confidence.
Sampling
Last but not least, Sampling – another process Newly Weds Foods needed to handle efficiently to improve their performance. Offering a brilliantly – designed Sampling tool, BatchMaster incorporates the striking feature of tracking every sample request, thereby minimizing the company’s losses by keeping a record of samples given to customers in any given time period. The sampling module maintains sample information such as anticipated sales volume, current price, target price, base formula key, and estimated time required to produce the sample. Complete recording of the number of revisions made in a particular sample request by a customer and all costs associated with that request, BatchMaster empowers Newly Weds Foods to perform R&D on the samples and design products by customer specifications. Along with viewing and storing all the documents related to a sampling request, BatchMaster keeps track of all communications with each customer regarding a sampling request. Emails can be sent directly to the customer without opening other email software.
Re-visiting the goals
Using BatchMaster, Newly Weds Foods now considers themselves ‘ahead of the pack’. Mr. Gaundaur feels that from a customer response perspective, they are now proactive. They can put all needed information in front of a customer and guarantee several services. Mr. Gaundaur exclaims, “This is an added advantage over our competitors, and it’s helping us a lot.” Newly Weds Foods has benefited in all areas of their operations with BatchMaster, but those benefits are summarized in customer satisfaction. They have gained immense customer confidence, helping them build better relations and, of course, increased business. “We are giving confidence to our customers that we don’t need large advance stock payments from them.”
Being empowered by BatchMaster at four group companies, they can now fully synchronize these centers with the complete elimination of operational gaps. As per Mr. Gaundaur “Even though our group companies belong to different cultures and BatchMaster comes from an entirely different culture, there were no issues; we have a very good working team and relations with BatchMaster. It’s now becoming much easier to work, helping us to achieve anew comfort level. I can now rely on my people to work with the BatchMaster team without my need to get involved.”
Under BatchMaster’s reliable and disciplined environment, Newly Weds Foods have come to be proficient enough to visualize their continuous and impressive growth. “We have plans in place; business would be growing with a certain pace. We needed a partner that would work with us as we grow. And, BatchMaster would now always be a part of the growth process” – Marc Tremblay.
In addition, quick implementation with out-of-the-box documentation and intensive training was another factor Newly Weds Foods were pleased with. Mr. Tremblay and BatchMaster share the same philosophy that successful implementation is not just great communication but also hard work from both sides. He believes, “Being there when you need them is important. Thanks to the BatchMaster team for always being there and doing the work needed, when it was needed!
The responsiveness, flexibility and the software and industry knowledge of the BatchMaster Team resulted in on-time and on-budget implementations not just at one, two, but all four companies in the Newly Weds Foods Asia-Pacific Group.
Reduced overall cost, improved efficiency, shortened lead-times, better customer satisfaction, continuous business expansion are just a few of the benefits Newly Weds Foods can count immediately on their fingers. Long story short, Newly Weds Foods is more than happy with the product and services granted by BatchMaster. Hand-in-hand we are walking to explore new opportunities for this group. Overwhelmed, Mr. Tremblay says: “The relationship is growing, confidence is growing and so the business is growing. We will continue this relation with BatchMaster for years to come.”
BatchMaster ERP
From BatchMaster Software, a global vendor of process manufacturing ERP, BatchMaster ERP is an end-to-end ERP solution for food manufacturers, empowering you and your staff to make quicker and better business decisions with greater confidence. Mirroring your industry best practices for your business operations, BatchMaster ERP seamlessly integrates and offers a comprehensive range of functionality enhancing supply chain visibility that eliminates unnecessary downtime and increases efficiency
A Microsoft Gold certified partner, BatchMaster incorporates robust tools to effectively manage complete inventory, sales, procurement, formulation, production scheduling, bills of material, ingredient substitution, bi-directional tracking, regulatory compliance as well as CRM. Proficient in handling the challenges of changing customer requirements and Compliance obligations, BatchMaster offers well-planned and effective implementation, intensive training, excellent24×7 support, and continuous growth.
BatchMaster: Works the Way You Work, Thinks the Way You Think
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