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Love and Quiches Gourmet Inc. responds to recalls with pinpoint accuracy
Technology Category
- Functional Applications - Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP)
- Analytics & Modeling - Data-as-a-Service
Applicable Industries
- Food & Beverage
Applicable Functions
- Quality Assurance
- Logistics & Transportation
Use Cases
- Track & Trace of Assets
- Inventory Management
- Supply Chain Visibility
Services
- System Integration
- Software Design & Engineering Services
The Challenge
Love and Quiches Gourmet strictly controls its food products, generating thousands of lot numbers during manufacturing. Every item in each step of production carries full lot identification, from raw materials such as eggs, to batches of cake batter, to storage and shipment of finished products. However, the organization used various software applications to manage its highly involved manufacturing process and manual, error-prone spreadsheets to track lot numbers. The business lacked one integrated system that could process orders and track raw materials. When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a recall, manual tracking made it difficult to trace an ingredient’s origin and then identify the affected batches and finished products. As a result, Love and Quiches Gourmet chose the most costly solution: discarding any products that could possibly contain a recalled ingredient. The lack of an integrated system also hindered the auditing process and made it difficult to capture production costs. Love and Quiches Gourmet always passed its FDA audits; however, because records resided in multiple applications, the auditing process was excessively time-consuming. The same issue applied to production costing, making it difficult to aggregate the data to a granular level.
About The Customer
Founded in 1973 and headquartered in Freeport, New York, Love and Quiches Gourmet Inc. is a leading gourmet food manufacturer. Annually, the company produces approximately 18 million pounds of product and 400 SKUs, including single-serve desserts and quiches. Customers include domestic and international food service operators, retailers and distributors. The company strictly controls its food products, generating thousands of lot numbers during manufacturing. Every item in each step of production carries full lot identification, from raw materials such as eggs, to batches of cake batter, to storage and shipment of finished products. However, the organization used various software applications to manage its highly involved manufacturing process and manual, error-prone spreadsheets to track lot numbers. The business lacked one integrated system that could process orders and track raw materials.
The Solution
Love and Quiches Gourmet engaged IBM Business Partner Vormittag Associates, Inc. (VAI) to implement its VAI S2K Enterprise for Food ERP application. The system was the dessert manufacturer’s top choice because VAI performed an extensive customized analysis process that included a business requirements study, a 5-year cost of ownership comparison and a true cost of implementation quote. The system relies on IBM® DB2® Express Edition software for data warehousing and is hosted on IBM Power® 720 Express server technology running on the IBM iSeries® platform. IBM Cognos® Express software provides sales reporting, and IBM Global Financing offered the necessary funding. The VAI S2K Enterprise for Food application integrates seamlessly with Love and Quiches Gourmet’s technical modules, including inventory management, product quality and material requirement planning. The solution also incorporates sales data with cost data, providing insight into production costs. The ERP system captures and tracks lot data in a family-tree format: lot numbers for raw materials connect to corresponding batch materials, which connect to the resulting end products and shipping details. The system creates a comprehensive transaction file that Love and Quiches Gourmet can use to trace raw materials and create detailed reports for auditors. The solution also delivers an executive dashboard on which managers can view summaries for accounts receivable, accounts payable, inventory valuation, sales order and financial status.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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