SI delivers 100% stock transparency at Bearfields of London
For any food manufacturing business, having a detailed understanding the stock position can be make or break.
Five years ago, Bearfields search for a new food ERP and MES system to help future-proof its business and enable the food processor to step up to paperless operations and 100% stock transparency.
After carefully evaluating the options, Bearfields selected SI’s solution as the best route to success for its digital transformation project.
With stock stored across five sites, and without a viable system tracking the position and use-by dates, a reliance on paper-based operations, too much product was at risk of becoming waste and manual errors. As Neil Edwards, Bearfields’ operations director, explained, “We were reliant on our pickers writing down all the weights featured on the labelled stock, and then adding these numbers up to calculate the total weights for picked goods. Inevitably, errors crept whenever these calculations were made and then handed over for data input into our legacy system.
“We estimated that every picking order involved 4-5 members of staff, resulting in 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.
Following the implementation of SI’s Integreater food ERP and MES, the digital transformation project has delivered extraordinary results for Bearfields of London. “If I was to summarise the biggest benefits we’ve realised since the implementation, it’s been all about transparency, streamlining operations, working leaner and smarter,” stated managing director, Steve Bearfield. “And 100% transparency means that we have far less cash tied up in stock.”
“In fact, 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!
“Our cost of service has decreased, as we don’t need as many pickers within the despatch area. In fact, the efficiencies delivered by SI’s Sales Order Processing software has meant we’ve been able to reduce our sales headcount by one. And as the system curates all that technical know-how and instructs the operators every step of the way, far less tacit knowledge is required.”
“We now have a system that cuts out human error, doesn’t make mistakes and it’s been a revelation.”
To find out more, visit https://sifoodsoftware.com/software/stock-control-and-warehouse-management/
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