Patties Foods Cooks Up Benefits with Lawson ERP Roll Out
Australia (June 14, 2006) – Patties Foods, producer and distributors of savory and sweet pastries under the icon brands of Four’n Twenty pies, Herbert Adams, Patties and Nanna’s, has rolled out its new Lawson Software (formerly Intentia) Enterprise Management system project and is already reaping benefits.
Lawson (as Intentia) was selected by Patties Foods in early 2005 to implement Lawson M3 (previously called Movex) manufacturing, distribution, financials, demand planning and warehousing applications. In early 2006 Patties successfully went live with the system.
“The implementation has been a great success said Andrew Beeson, CFO, Patties Foods. “We are already seeing benefits in terms of improved reporting and access to timely information, and we are confident we can translate this into expediting our month-end procedures, as well as providing our staff with more time to analyse data and act upon it. There was considerable duplication of effort within our previous system, and we have been able to eliminate much of this in the transition to M3.
“Patties Foods is expecting to see efficiency gains across operational and supply chain processes, Mr. Beeson continued, “We expect the solution to help deliver benefits right across our business including better finished goods inventory tracking, optimisation of raw materials purchasing, promotion and handling of frozen goods in the retail chain, and increased real-time data visibility. In addition it will provide the company with the opportunity to critically review its business processes and simplify these wherever possible.
The regionally-based Victorian company, located in Bairnsdale, South East Gippsland, is Australia’s and, arguably the world’s, largest manufacturer of pies, pasties and sausage rolls. Starting out as a small hot bread shop in the Coastal town of Lakes Entrance, the business has grown considerably in its 40 year history. Its brand names of Patties, Herbert Adams and Nanna’s have gained national recognition, and its flagship brand – Four’n Twenty, enjoys unilateral support as Australia’s favourite and most recognized, pie brand. The company remains family owned, and is run by the six sons of the company’s founder.
The company’s decision to implement a new system came as a result of rapid growth over recent years – particularly following its acquisition of the Four’n Twenty, Herbert Adams and Nanna’s brands from the American-owned Simplot Australia in 2003
According to Mr. Beeson, “The acquisition meant that the Patties instantly grew several times greater. Naturally, that increased our SKU’s and the number of transactions going through the system which identified our need for better and more reliable information.
The company continued with its legacy IMAS solution in the short term, whilst concentrating on achieving the key objectives of the acquisition, but now that these have been successfully implemented, the company has been able to turn its attention to improving its information systems.
“Patties is a company which continues to seek further growth opportunities, and we are very aware that, without improving our systems, we would be unable to support this growth, said Mr. Beeson. “One particular area of concern was that our outgoing system did not support MRP which is essential for our increased manufacturing capacities and efficiencies. The solutions’ MRP capabilities will deliver better manufacturing data and reporting, and allow us to improve the visibility of our manufacturing function.
Simplifying processes
On the distribution side, the solution will assist Patties Foods to better manage its finished goods picking process, which is carried out in third-party storage locations, especially in inventory selection on a “first in-first out basis. It will also assist in establishing electronic inventory control between Patties and its cold storage providers. This will help lead to a reduction in the need for time consuming reconciliations and frequent physical stocktakes.
Patties major customers include retail chains and they are continually demanding changes such as full EDI compliance. The new solution provides Patties with a platform more readily adaptable to comply with these requests.
Across the company, the implementation of Lawson M3 has provided the opportunity to review, and improve its business process. “It is early days yet, said Mr. Beeson, “but once we become more familiar with some of the advanced features of the product, I envisage we will be able to dramatically reduce paper flow within the organization and reduce our dependence on manual spreadsheets and other manually produced documentation.
Patties also installed PACS software, which works with Lawson M3, to manage its retail discounts, rebates and promotions activities – which, like other supply partners to the major retailers, is a key part of sales administration.
“This combination has improved the company’s speed and visibility of data in this area, continued Mr. Beeson. “This area is notorious amongst retail chain suppliers for being difficult to manage and control, but the PACS/M3 solution has provided the company with a very favourable outcome and a significant improvement over the outgoing system. The PACS/M3 combination also provides our sales and marketing team with an integrated strategic planning tool to assist in managing retail strategies.
Patties reporting function has benefited from the availability of more accurate and timely corporate information. Reporting capabilities are delivered via Cognos, as part of the solution. Cognos reports have now replaced the entire suite of reports generated by the outgoing system, as well as provided additional reporting capabilities.
Smooth implementation
Patties Foods rolled out selected Lawson M3 modules at the end of December 2005, and will stage roll out of other modules as a second phase.
“This approach has allowed us to replicate the functionality in our outgoing system, and become familiar with the solution before moving on to implementation of the additional modules, once we have greater experience of using the system, Mr. Beeson continued.
“The key to the successful implementation has been the immense commitment and contribution of the internal project team, said Mr. Beeson. “We benefited from excellent project management and process owners who really understood their particular areas of the business, and what they wanted from M3.
F&B experience key
Patties Food chose Lawson over other key competitors based on its extensive, demonstrated, experience in the Australian food and beverage market, strong customer references in this sector, and proven ability to implement promptly.
“The Java technology was also attractive and provides a cost-effective option for our expansion plans, Mr. Beeson said. “We saw it as a ‘best of breed’ solution suitable for fast moving consumer goods companies such as Patties. Additionally Lawson had already completed implementations with two other food companies which had similar information needs as Patties, and were also key strategic suppliers to the major retailers.
“Overall, it came out in front of the competition, particularly its industry-specific functionality and experience that was underpinned by a Java-based platform for the future.
Looking forward
Patties Foods today is a company set to take on the future. Lawson’s Java-based platform will ensure ready scalability whilst the sophistication of Lawson M3 applications will help the business grow without necessarily adding to support staff.
“The improved information allows the company to strategically review our product range and our customer base and make better, more informed strategic decisions, Mr. Beeson said. “Through the process of business simplification that forms the second stage of the implementation, we will be able to adapt to growth by building some capacity into our IT applications and the day to day demands on our staff.
“As the solution is used by many suppliers to the major retailers, we believe this accumulated expertise will directly benefit the evolution of the software to everyone’s benefit.
“Today we are a company ready to embrace aggressive growth. Our technology platforms are sound and our ability to handle the growing needs of our customer base has been greatly enhanced due to our decision to implement the M3 platform, Mr. Beeson concluded.
Source: Lawson
