’t Stoepje makes up lost ground in IT quickly
New IT environment is springboard for ambitious objectives
Source: Elsevier Voedingsmiddelenindustrie
Text: Martijn Kregting
Bakery organisation Market Food Group, better known as ’t Stoepje, had a completely outdated IT structure. When the company regained its independence, the renewal of the IT systems became a priority. Together with Schouw Informatisering MFG succeeded completely renewing the outdated systems and transforming its IT into a strategic advantage within six months.
Being part of a large concern is no guarantee for a modern IT environment. Market Food Group BV has many formulas in its portfolio, with the bakery formula ’t Stoepje being the largest, the franchisees visiting about 900 markets each week. The supply chain is exceedingly complex. The company became independent again in June 2006, partly because it was hampered in its IT ambitions by the parent company. After the company had been under the wings of the German listed company Kamps for about three years, the Italian family-owned company Barilla took over Kamps in 2002. But Barilla didn’t consider the Dutch bakery division as a core activity.
Former owner of Bakkerij ’t Stoepje Peter Beukers, who stayed on under Kamps and Barilla as managing director of MFG, noticed that the necessary investments in the renewal of the IT structure failed to materialise. He decided to buy back MFG. He subsequently began the search for an IT company that would be able to replace the multitude of software systems with an integrated system that would provide an overview from bakery to market. The search ended at Schouw Informatisering, specialised in supplying software systems for companies in the food & beverage sector. ‘Our SI Foodware modules are solutions which, in combination with Microsoft Dynamics NAV, concentrate on the special requirements of the food & beverage sector. Our clients in this sector, and there are more than 100 of them, make sure that we keep our solutions up-to-date,’ Schouw’s commercial director Wim Jansen explains. What is the focus of these solutions? ‘Consider issues ranging from quality control in the supply chain - including tracking and tracing of products - product specifications, recipe management, purchase order procedure, to monitoring shelf life data in the factory, distribution centre and in shops.’ Or, in this case, at the market. In September 2006 MFG started its IT project with ambitious objectives. Sjacco Nel, financial director at MFG and responsible for the project, wanted to go live on 1 January 2007. ‘The system went live in week 13, due to problems experienced by both parties. We both put 150 percent effort into the project, but on the way you always encounter obstacles.’ With hindsight, both parties were in fact pleased with the delay, because it meant testing was much more thorough and teething problems and other unexpected issues could be resolved. ‘Market Food Group has complex logistics, certainly with a formula such as ’t Stoepje. That had to work properly, and the people had to get used to the new system.’
Second nature
After going live just before the Easter weekend, the follow-on phase that MFG is now in was started: the new system must become ‘second nature’ in the organisation. That takes some getting used to. ‘First of all you perform an extensive preliminary study, during which we tune the system to the organisation’s wishes and requirements. Then during the implementation project Schouw consultants are on site. But after the system goes live, the project is handed over to our own support department.’ For the time being, Schouw will continue to provide support. ‘We evaluate how the system runs - it is natural to make mistakes - and we fine tune our solutions.’ But, as Jansen states, the implementation at Market Food Group proceeded more smoothly than average. ‘They have a mentality of "rolling up their sleeves". Often, in a project like this, you notice that the people are indifferent. Here, it is part of the new marketing strategy, to support the plans for the future. We really noticed that difference in mentality.’
Sjacco Nel, CFO Market Food Group / ’t Stoepje, returned to MFG in May last year after an eight-year absence. His first project threw him in at the deep-end: renewing the information systems. The IT structure was seriously outdated. The parent company Kamps had worked with SAP, but the organisation in the Netherlands hadn’t wanted that, so the old systems remained in place. So when the company regained its independence in 2006 there was a considerable IT backlog. The improvements were given high priority. ‘In the summer we started our search for a project partner, in September we signed the contracts and at the end of October we had the kick-off. In November we started work on the actual implementation,’ Nel recalls. Why did you want to go live so quickly on 1 January 2007? ‘Because that is a quiet month and the personnel would be able to learn to work with the new system when business was slack. That was ambitious and it didn’t work out. Disappointing, but it was quite some challenge. The logistics system is complex, with two production locations, one central distribution centre and one in Bleskensgraaf (near Rotterdam) and two smaller DCs in Hoogeveen (for the north) and Helmond (for the south). The impact of the new system on the logistics processes was somewhat underestimated during the Business Process Scan (BPS) and we were constantly confronted with this shortcoming during the implementation.’
All at once
In the end we went live two weeks before Easter, with all the modules at the same time: production, logistics, administration, sales, warehouse, quality and purchasing. Nel: ‘The whole organisation made a tremendous effort and we succeeded in learning to use the new system in two weeks, so that we could cope flawlessly with the run-up to Easter, the busiest period for bakers.’ Incidentally, we did leave one module out of the system: tracking & tracing. MFG will start working on this in May. We’ll start with just a few products - of the total of 3,200 SKUs - and then expand the system quickly to include all items. ‘And we’ll do most of the work ourselves. In the first few weeks after we went live, we had some Schouw consultants here, currently we only need support for troubleshooting.’ Now that the system is up and running, we will soon be implementing an EDI platform for all internal forms of communication, from orders to invoices. In addition MFG wants to introduce voice picking later this year, that is order picking via voice commands. Also we are building a web portal where our customers can place their orders. ‘Enough plans, all of which are feasible now. Yes, we’ll always be ambitious.’
Improved management
What has changed with the introduction of the new system? It’s difficult for Nel to put his finger on this in terms of figures. ‘At Easter we achieved a record turnover, but this was not directly due to the new system. But the new system was indirectly responsible, because it gives us better support for managing the business. And now we also have much better insight into all business processes, meaning that we can manage better and improve the margin. Also important: with a single system people have become more dependent on each other. They have to communicate more; it is as if the little islands in the organisation have been merged.’ Nel is pleased with the way the project has worked out, even though the original date wasn’t achieved. ‘I think that one of the success factors was that we were working with a small team, consisting of our project manager and three people from Schouw Informatisering.’ In addition it was important that the whole organisation was convinced of the necessity to radically change the IT systems. According to Nel, the old IT infrastructure was in fact a time bomb. ‘It would only have needed a minor incident to take us off-line for three or four days. Now we have a stable, state-of-the-art system with which we can improve service to our customers and with which we can easily expand our activities in the coming years.’