Bearfields of London Information
Using traditional curing methods, Bearfields of London processes and delivers more than 20,000 pork legs every week, from their BRC AA grade accredited premises.
Determined to consistently deliver unrivalled, high-quality service to all of their customers, this award-winning gammon and ham producer constantly invests in its product and staff development, and infrastructure.
A vision for a paperless business with total stock visibility
Five years ago, Bearfields started its search for a new IT system to help future-proof its business and step up to paperless operations.
“Bearfields previous system no longer fitted their business, as it couldn’t control and provide stock visibility across its multiple units, or manage the multiple production WIP stages,” explained Nigel Cappleman, Business Development Manager at SI.
“Strategically, it made far more sense to invest in an all-encompassing solution, and one that would transform us into a paperless business.” summarised Bearfields’ operations director Neil Edwards.
100% stock transparency – delivered
Using a phase approach, the Integreater solution went live one module at a time. Starting with finished goods labelling, enabled by SI’s OCMs, within a few days after go-live, Bearfields had 100% stock transparency and reporting across its finished products.
“As soon as phase one went live, we experienced the many benefits of the SI solution,” explained Neil. For example:
- With one click, visibility across everything that’s been packed daily on the lines, rather than relying on manual reporting.
- Thanks to SI’s Sales Order Processing module (SOP) implementation, detailed KPI visibility.
- Being confident that the correct stock is allocated to the right orders.
- SOP’s detailed reporting also raises alerts for any customers at risk, by highlighting any lines that have been lost or where recent customer spend has fallen away.
Stepping up to paperless QA and traceability
Every food business understands the mountain of paperwork that has to be undertaken for QA and technical checks. For Bearfields, as some individual checks would generate hundreds of pieces of paper, Neil recognised that digitalisation would provide the way to eliminate paper-based QA and short interval controls, and eliminate manual errors.
“When I explained to the board members the scale of the problem, together with the opportunity for errors and wasted manpower, the decision to buy SI’s QA module and hardware was very straightforward.
“Now, all of our technical and QA procedures are paperless. We have real-time visibility on checks, non-conformances, short interval controls, corrective actions and more.”
Producing auditing information in seconds
Neil continued, “Now, whenever the auditors visit, they’re really impressed with the speed and accuracy of the system. Whenever they ask for a record, we can produce the information in seconds.
“Whether it’s details of packaging, labelling, or which suppliers provided our raw material, even who signed for it at goods in – it’s all there. Even these days, auditors aren’t used to seeing this level of data all joined up, totally paperless and transparent.
“If any non-conformances are uncovered, we use the SI system to improve our controls. For instance, with individual pin numbers on procedures to control operator access, we precisely know who completed the checks.”
Rationalising and improving raw material intake
“When we conducted the process review, we were also asked to review the operator ergonomics within the factory,” explained Nigel. “As an example, at intake, the legs of pork are suspended on a tree rail system approximately 25ft above the factory floor”.
“It was a two-man job as operators were required at both the printer for labelling at the carcase height, that was housed in a garage, and also at the intake screen on the factory floor. We rationalised the process, and reduced the staffing requirement to one, by enhancing our raw material intake module to print once the scale registered a steady weight.
Eliminating multi-WIP process errors
Producing hams and gammons is a multi-WIP process, and that’s where SI’s Run Manager software comes into its own. All the factory production runs are set up within the system to take account of these multiple processes, whether it’s prepping and butchering the legs, brining, tumbling cooking or chilling, forming or packing.
“To eliminate human error, the vision for the system was to display clear operator instructions on screen, on the factory floor. When we implemented SI’s Run Maintenance module, we ensured that there was just one input and one output for each stage. These step-by-step screen-led instructions tell the operators precisely what needs to be done next,” explained Nigel.
The Neil continued, “Now our operators know exactly which batch of legs next need to be issued to butchery and, if the wrong barcode is scanned, the system flags up the error.
“Once the correct batch is scanned, Run Maintenance verifies that it’s been allocated and then, when the product has been boned out, it will be weighed and labelled, and ready for further processing.”
Multi-site stock controls
For any food manufacturing business, whether you have a detailed understanding your stock position can be make or break. With stock stored across 5 sites, and without a viable system tracking the position and use-by dates, too much product was at risk of becoming waste. In addition, stock takes had revealed just how much cash was tied up in packaging. One check exposed a £30,000 stock holding for one packaging type.
Neil continued, “With our previous IT system, whenever goods were picked from stock, we were reliant on our pickers writing down all the weights from the printed labels, and then adding these numbers up to calculate the total weights for picked goods. However, as these numbers were then handed over to be inputted again by someone else, inevitably errors crept in every time these calculations were made.
“We estimated that every picking order involved 4-5 members of staff, which meant there were multiple opportunities for human error. In fact so much paperwork was being churned out every day that we couldn’t realistically assess just how many errors were being generated.
“Once the SI implementation went live and with pickers using barcode scanners, the precise location of products became available in real-time. The barcode scanner shows exactly where the product is kept and can even help to build the pallets.
“Any invoices and despatch notes that need to go with the order are automatically generated by the software. We know that it will always be correct. We now had a system that cuts out human error, didn’t make mistakes and it was a revelation.
“We noticed it at every level. With stock transparency on all finished goods, sales could see in real-time whatever was available, and all the prices. We can dissect by standard cost, average cost and see the real value. But we also uncovered irregularities in the old stock take system. The first time we compared dried goods costs, we found pricing that probably hadn’t been updated in years!
“If I was to summarise the biggest benefits we’ve realised since the implementation, it’s all about transparency, streamlining operations, working leaner and smarter. 100% transparency means that we have far less cash tied up in stock,” stated managing director Steve Bearfield.
“Our cost of service has decreased, as we don’t need as many pickers within the despatch area. In fact, the efficiencies delivered by Sales Order Processing has meant we’ve been able to reduce our sales headcount by one. Less tacit knowledge is needed, as the system curates all that technical know-how and instructs the operators every step of the way.”
“Bearfields of London is a great example of what can be achieved with our Integreater food ERP and MES solution. By stepping up to a paperless factory and streamlining processes, they increased throughput without having to invest in a bigger factory, gained 100% transparency, and are working as leanly and profitably as possible”.
Nigel Cappleman, business development manager, Systems Integration.
Delivering complete control
To provide complete control over Bearfields’ multi-stage and complicated production process. Systems Integration has been working with the company for the past three years. During this time, we’ve installed our modular software to provide our renowned shop-floor data capture across Bearfields’ end-to-end processes.
Bearfields uses SI’s POP (purchase order processing) and intake modules to expedite orders and book in all materials to stock. All goods-in and stock control processes are managed with the help of our software.
Managing yield
When the fresh pork legs are delivered each day. Bearfields decides from the fat levels, quality of the skin, leg size and firmness of the meat, what’ll be produced. Then, their skilled butchers cut and trim the legs according to the product. SI’s shop-floor data capture software picks up the yield after trimming.
Whilst the cures are all traditional, Bearfields used both technology-driven wet curing techniques and some handcrafted techniques. When the pork is issued to curing and tumbled, the brine soak means that the meat will increase in weight. At this process point, SI’s software captures the cure pick up on the weight.
After curing, each ham is formed in a traditional butchers net during the filling process. Each ham is steamed for up to 12 hours. For smoked or roast hams, the blend of the traditional methods and technological approach continues, and SI’s data capture tracks any losses resulting from these processes.
Tracking every stage of WIP
Managing the WIP stock across all these stages is particularly complex, but with SI’s software, the product codes automatically change every time it moves on a step. And for other processes, including slicing and sausage-making, our software modules continue to track ingredients, yield, giveaway and provide full traceability.
Bearfields comprehensively uses all the features within our SOP (sales order processing) software to provide greater control over sales operations and customer service. When the orders have been placed, Each and every product is checked by a Bearfields employee and processed via our picking and despatch software.
Bearfields of London is also making the most of SI’s complex reporting suite within SOP to analyse sales by product and customer and constantly review where improvements can be made.
