C&D Foods Ltd

1 . Overview

C&D Foods, the Co. Longford based pet food manufacturer, has a trading history that dates back to 1969 and have built their success by a persistent focus on quality throughout their operations. As they enter the Twenty-First Century however, they face new challenges as a result of supplying into one of the most competitive marketplaces in the world and the introduction of eBusiness technologies to the supply chain within their industry.

A key part of their strategic response to this environment has been kicking off a substantial eBusiness implementation covering everything from their back-office administration processes to their manufacturing processes and their distribution and logistics relationships.

The specific business requirements laid down were in three distinct areas:

• implementation of a Web-enabled back office system
• implementation of web-based software tools to improve planning, control and category management processes
• implementation of a C&D Foods supplier extranet to facilitate production planning collaboration, and supplier performance information

C&D Foods, with the help of BSM, an eBusiness consultancy, undertook a tender process to select vendors to build the required solution. TASK and SSI were chosen to build and integrate the financial management application and broader Enterprise Resource Planning solution respectively.

To date the implementation focus has been on the installation of the Web-enabled back office system. Key learning’s to date include:

• the importance of cross-business representation on the project team to ensure capture of all the benefits and buy-in to the project objectives
• the benefit of retaining some in-house capability in IT as opposed to fully outsourcing the function and developments
• ensuring management has enough time to adequately manage the project and manage external consultants
• ensuring that all third party suppliers are of the highest quality
• ensuring a solution is designed in a pragmatic way to integrate with key customers’ existing business processes

The experience of the project to date has encouraged C&D Foods to revise the way they will manage their IT capability in the future. They have decided to split the Administration Manager role in two: Cost Accountant and IT Manager. This will enable the new IT Manager to focus exclusively on the development and day-to-day operation of the new IT infrastructure.

Whilst there is evidence of cost savings and efficiencies as a result of the implementation of the new back-office system, the benefits to date have been in improved administration processes. The next phase will see the extension of ERP system to the wider business. Over the coming months C&D Foods will be able to move from the traditional environment of bulk stock holding to a product-controlled, traceable handling of products. The new system will trace product from the original supplier, through the manufacturing process and to the final customer. C&D Foods will then possess the right platform to remain a world-class competitor in their chosen markets.