Cadbury, assisted by Business Connexion, has leveraged the built-in features of its SAP infrastructure and realised a more efficient supply chain, cut costs and improved its product lifecycle.
By re-grouping materials through the supply chain around the product lifecycle, Cadbury is better able to manage the production flow. Priorities to improve service levels have been set, which has also improved the system.
"Cadbury is now operating more efficiently - from the raw material stage through to the end of the production cycle," comments Joseph Grobler, senior business advisor at Business Connexion`s Combined Design Engineers (CDE) Competency.
Rules governing the supply chain have been adjusted which allows for a better balance of supply and demand.
"We have set rules to search out exceptions across the chain. Cadbury now only has to intervene when an exception occurs. The power of the exception rule means there is room for improvement throughout the process," explains Grobler.
Using its Ongoing Value Optimisation (oVo) methodology, Business Connexion assisted Cadbury to understand and manage the SAP system in a significant move that has empowered Cadbury to use its existing functionality and deliver better results.
Many companies are re-training existing staff, hiring more staff, or acquiring add-on functionality, all in the hope of getting better decision-making data from their ERP systems. Standard reports are being replaced by custom-built reports to suit traditional management information.
Realities of running businesses in real-time require all parts of the supply chain to be up to date. The traditional method of spreadsheet management has to be altered when working in real-time. The only way around the data quagmire is to ensure that the data in the system is a true reflection of what is happening on the shop floor, in real-time, throughout the company.
"oVo has enabled us to understand the integrated supply chain, work more efficiently and to manage inside the system. Getting the system to do the work," says Andrew North, business relations manager at Cadbury.
"Cadbury met its savings target and more importantly it took ownership of the supply chain. They now understand the standard tools within SAP. If companies don`t understand the full power of the system they revert to legacy systems. oVo also allows the changes to measured from the start," concludes Grobler.
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