Turkey technology
turkey products, is to install cutting edge maintenance and
management software at all six of its facilities in the UK. The
company has signed an agreement with technology firm Invensys to
deploy the Avantis Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) solution.
Bernard Matthews says that the purpose of implementing the Avantis EAM system is to improve equipment maintenance management and by the administrative departments to streamline corporate purchasing functions. The Avantis software will interface with the PRISM Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system previously implemented by Invensys.
"Avantis will enable us to replace three separate purchasing systems with a single solution. Avantis addresses both our CMMS and MRO material demands and meshes smoothly with our ERP system," said Malcolm Carr, director of information systems at Bernard Matthews. "As a result, we expect more streamlined and efficient procedures with significant cost savings."
Ryan Roberts, vice president and general manager of Invensys' Avantis business unit said: "The combination of Avantis' comprehensive functionality in enterprise asset management and IBM's solid AS/400 hardware suite provides a world-class solution for manufacturing companies. Bernard Matthews is joining a large and diverse customer community utilising our IBM AS/400 based offerings."
Bernard Matthews has been keen to use technology to improve efficiencies in the supply chain. "Like similar food processing companies, the drive to automate the supply chain came from Bernard Matthews' customers," said Edwin Pearson, planning director at Bernard Matthews. "However, the company not only saw this as an opportunity to improve customer responsiveness but also as a way to improve the efficiency of its steadily expanding business."
Another recent system the company has installed is the Tradanet Service from Global eXchange Services, a system that enables Bernard Matthews to exchange businessdocuments electronically by supporting electronic trade through variousstandards and communication protocols, such as XML, EDI and otherindustry-specific standards. In addition, Tradanet includes audit trails,user-controlled access and local language support 24 hours a day to helpensure business documents are protected in a secure environment.
Today, Bernard Matthews receives over 2,000 orders a week from approximately100 trading partners, which include all the major supermarkets.The orders arrive electronically to Bernard Matthews' Tradanet mailbox,which is automatically checked on an hourly basis during the day. As longas all the data is valid - that is, cross-referenced with product codes - theorders are automatically processed.
"Most of the time no-one touches them," said Pearson. This information is then sent to the customer order management database on Bernard Matthews' ERP system.Invoices are raised on confirmations from the warehouse and also sentvia Tradanet to Bernard Matthews' customers. These are preset so theyare automatically sent to customers when they are due.
Today, 90 per centof the company's business is transacted electronically via Tradanet.The company says that the benefits in streamlining its supply chain have been impressive: as the orders are automatically processed, all of its cooked meats can be stored, held and dispatched within a few hours. "Manual just meant 'onerous', with mistakes at each stage of the process," said Pearson. "Our service levels to our customers in 2002 stoodat 98.6 per cent. With 670,000 order lines during that year, it would havebeen near impossible to achieve this level without Tradanet."
Bernard Matthews Limited is the UK's leading producer and brand leader for fresh, chilled and frozen turkey products. Established in 1950, the company today has a turnover in excess of £380 million and provides employment for over 6,300 people worldwide, with 6 factories in the UK. The company has further processing facilities of a similar style in Hungary as well as facilities in Germany and New Zealand.
Invensys is a global leader in production technology. The group helps customers improve productivity, performance and profitability using innovative services and technologies and a deep understanding of their industries and applications. The company operates in more than 60 countries, with its headquarters in London.
Global eXchange Services (GXS) operates one of the largest B2B e-commerce networks in the world, with more than 100,000 trading partners. The GXS network processes 1 billion transactions annually, accounting for $1 trillion in goods and services.
