Process PLM Case Study | Retail Food & Food Service

Retail Food & Food Service

Business Challenge

As the competitive landscape began to widen in foodservice and food retail industries, identifying new product opportunities and delivering products to the market faster became a strategic imperative for the family-owned food manufacturer. However, the PLM system in place was outdated, unsupported, and provided no integration with the SAP foundation.

Recognizing a need to redesign its overall R&D approach, the company reevaluated its technology, business processes, and organizational structure in a single strategy to get to market faster and smarter. While migrating to SAP Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) made the most technical and business sense, multiple hurdles still needed to be overcome:

Existing workflow would be difficult to duplicate in the new system, and out-of-the-box process routes were not sophisticated enough to handle the complexity.
Data migration would be a challenge because of inconsistencies over multiple sources and formats.
Without development, product labeling would require more manual steps and additional full-time resources.
On-boarding and training were essential because the existing system had been in place for so long

The Solution

SAP PLM equipped the company with the foundation for streamlined product development with optimized processes and improved workflows. The food manufacturer relied on SAP partner Linx-AS to implement SAP PLM and use best practices to proactively address transformation challenges.

The scope of the solution included:

SAP Recipe Development with Linx-AS enhancements to labeling and workflow to overcome must-have requirements
Specifications Management
- Ingredient
- Product
- Packaging
Artwork/Label Development
The enhanced labeling functionality included logic to support intelligent authoring of ingredient statements & nutritional fact panels
Document Management System
Phased data migration using the Linx-AS PLM Toolkit for data loading
Preconfigured workflow framework: accelerated the custom development time from an estimated one year to six months

Retail Food & Food Service - sap plm case study

Business Impacts

Increased user productivity
Recognition of winning products earlier in innovation cycles
Reduced compliance risk
Products delivered to customers faster
Lower process cost
Higher revenue from new product development

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