Digital solution helps bakery with comprehensive picture of production
A fully integrated ERP solution from CSB-System is delivering a complete overview of operations at Van Dijk Bakery, one of the Netherlands’ leading bakeries.
The baking company said the ERP provides a single source of valuable data, full traceability, and a high level of flexibility, all of which are helping to maximise production efficiencies.
Based in Zwartsluis, a city in the Netherlands, Van Dijk Bakery has been creating various luxury and traditionally produced muffins, cakes and biscuits since 1931. The company is a major supplier of a wide range of private-label products both in its home market and throughout Europe.
Initially, Van Dijk installed an ERP system to cope with the wholesale purchase of supplies, but it became clear that a more universal solution was required in order to help increase production.
Van Dijk was impressed by the extensive functionality of the ERP system from CSB. In particular, the system was able to meet the company’s specific requirements of ensuring that all its relevant KPIs could be gathered together in one place and easily accessed from the system on request.
The system has fully integrated all stages of the manufacturing operation – from receipt of goods, stock levels and production to forecasting and sales, and onward delivery to customers. Van Dijk now benefits from optimised planning and forecasting processes while finance and quality systems can be carefully monitored and controlled.
“We now have a much fuller and more comprehensive picture of our operations,” explained Van Dijk’s CFO Rene van Diermen. “This high level of knowledge and information means we can react more quickly to any issues that may arise, enabling us to continually maximise production and throughput. Put simply, the system has taken us to a new level.”
The hardware supplied by CSB adds a further degree of flexibility, with six industry PCs, including printers and scanners, on the shop floor supported by seven mobile scanners operated via Wi-Fi. The mobile devices in particular ensure that processes can be comprehensively monitored at all times, including regular checks of ingredient inventory levels.
Equally important, the system provides full traceability, both for the various ingredients used in each recipe and for the finished products when in the supply chain.
“Effective traceability is a vital part of our quality control procedures, helping us both to demonstrate the provenance of our own ingredients and ensuring we can deal swiftly in the event of any problem or complaint,” said Rene van Diermen.
As well as the software, the strong experience of the implementation team was also a critical factor in making sure that the system was finely tuned to Van Dijk’s requirements.
“Having the right level of knowledge of our market helped to enhance the team’s understanding of our precise requirements,” confirmed Rene van Diermen.
“Together with CSB we have been able to ensure we can maintain our high levels of quality to our customers in the long term,” he concluded. “CSB provides all the necessary supply chain management tools in a single system.”
