Enhancing Efficiency for a UK-Based Food Manufacturer

Our clients, a company in the food industry, were struggling to meet demand due to aged management and production processes which had been in place since incorporation in 2013. Until consultation with Ammu, our client had no idea the improvements they made to their business qualified for Research and Development (R&D) Tax Credits.

Background

Our client is an award-winning UK wide company who produce natural and authentic Asian food products for the catering, retail and wholesale market. Their products are gluten free, 100% preservative free and contain no hydrogenated fats.

As their company began to grow, one area that stagnated was internal production procedures and management processes – which remained the same in 2016 as they were in 2013. In order to meet demand, they continually hired more staff which incurred greater costs and lowered staff efficiency. It was decided to invest in automating and revolutionising their processes as far as they could in order to remedy the inefficiencies across the business,

Project

The client undertook substantial research into ways of automating their processes. The key challenges were such, to name a few:

  • Developing a solution which could adequately track production issues, provide comprehensive reporting, provide real-time dashboards and alerts;
  • Ensuring an improved quality control solution to ensure consistency; and
  • Create a solution that fitted in to existing production schedules

The company employed a software-as-a-service (SAAS) solution as well as an EDI platform to enhance their processes.

The SAAS solution allowed the client to:

  • Design and develop their online inventory and order management templates;
  • Automate their purchase ordering, stock management, price list creation and product specifications; and
  • Now analyse comprehensive data in greater detail.

The EDI platform enabled the company to connect more efficiently with suppliers when processing orders, invoices and transferring data.

Furthermore, purchasing machine allowed them to further enhance their production processes including a sealing and weighing machine allowing for 80% increase in production efficiencies.

These technological advances allowed the company to experience several benefits. Not only did they enhance their production processes which allowed them to expand their product reach internationally, but they:

  • Improved and created consistency in their quality control processes procedures;
  • Ultimately reduced time to market with an increased shelf life of products; and
  • Qualified for R&D Tax Credits.

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