Jelly Belly Completes Implementation of Lawson M3 7.1 Applications
Lawson system helps global candy company reduce operating costs by simplifying supply chain management and providing greater visibility into organization-wide data
ST. PAUL, Minn. (November 14, 2007) – Enterprise applications from Lawson Software (Nasdaq:LWSN) are helping Jelly Belly Candy Company reduce operating costs and improve customer service by supporting more efficient management of long product lead times and complex supply chain planning. The company recently completed implementation of the Lawson M3 7.1 Application Suite, which helps companies manage their core manufacturing, distribution and financial processes.
Located in Fairfield, Calif., Jelly Belly manufactures more than 100 different types of candy, including 75 flavors of jelly beans. Jelly Belly employs approximately 600 people and sells its products in 35 countries. The company was previously relying on disparate business systems that didn’t meet its need for flexible supply chain management and real-time decision support. To solve this, Jelly Belly turned to Lawson for a consolidated enterprise software system designed for the food industry, with an intuitive user interface that would be simple for employees to learn and use.
“The Lawson solution has given us the ability to increase employee productivity by cutting through the information silos that existed in our prior ERP system,” said Ryan Schader, vice president of business development for Jelly Belly Candy Company. “We’ve been live on the Lawson M3 applications for only a month and the access to real-time transaction information has already significantly improved coordination between departments. Information transparency has immediately made the long supply chain on some of our items far more manageable for our Purchasing and Manufacturing departments.”
Jelly Belly will bring its new manufacturing facility in Thailand online during the first quarter of 2008. The Lawson M3 applications will be part of the essential infrastructure for managing the movement of raw materials and finished goods to and from this facility. “Given the 14 hour time difference between Thailand and our Bay Area headquarters, this wouldn’t be possible without the Lawson M3 applications,” added Schader. “This increased visibility has extended into the financial analysis of our business via the real-time calculation of variance from standard cost for each manufacturing order. We are now giving feedback to manufacturing on a daily, rather than monthly basis, so process adjustments can be made and variances addressed.”
Jelly Belly’s implementation is running on a high availability clustered Windows solution. The company is using Lawson Financial Management, Supply Chain Management, and Business Intelligence, along with planning applications including Lawson Demand Planner and Supply Chain Orders. The Lawson solutions are accessible to Jelly Belly employees through the intuitive Lawson Smart Client user interface. “We’ve been very pleased with the high availability and performance of the applications during this extremely busy time of year,” said Dan Rosman, vice president of IT for Jelly Belly.
Jelly Belly attributes the success of its Lawson implementation to several factors, such as strong executive sponsorship of the project and a collaborative partnership between Jelly Belly and the Lawson Professional Services team. As part of the system rollout, Jelly Belly implemented a change management plan that included employee training and ongoing communications to keep staff updated on project milestones. The company also supported employee buy-in by enlisting staff from various departments to conduct system testing and provide feedback throughout the implementation project.
“The employee user community was involved in every step of our year-long enterprise software selection process,” said Schader. “We required vendors to demonstrate solutions that addressed challenges specific to our business. This implementation was a success because the users owned the solution and had a stake in its success.”
During the next phase of Jelly Belly’s Lawson implementation, the company will roll out the latest version of Lawson Sales and Marketing Automation organization-wide. Jelly Belly will use this application to simplify its sales cycle management by improving global sales and marketing integration.
“Faced with short lead times and large order volumes, food and beverage companies need unified business systems that can simplify demand forecasting and planning,” said Vicki Griffith, marketing director, Food & Beverage, Lawson Software. “Lawson helps food and beverage manufacturers like Jelly Belly efficiently manage complex, global supply chains and enhance customer satisfaction with proven applications and services – all at a lower total cost of ownership.”
Source: Lawson
