Confidently scaling business growth

A difficult yet promising market: starting out as the Dieck & Co. Erfrischungsgetränke family business in 1986, DICO Drinks is now being taken into the future as the market leader of the filling and refreshment beverages sector – not least through innovation, quality, and effectiveness. The enterprise based in North Rhine-Westphalia coherently pursues end-to-end digitalization. An ERP system encompassing all areas optimizes efficiency and transparency and lays the technical foundation for continued sustainable growth.

DICO Drinks operates on an international scale and offers in-house production, high filling capacities, and a wide range of all-inclusive services. What keeps them ahead of their competition is lean decision-making, advanced technology and last but not least clearly structured and highly efficient business processes. Their ERP system plays a vital role in this.

The ERP system: a powerful hub for production planning

In a market where major trading companies operate on tight margins, flexibility, speed, and transparency are essential for success. If you are producing or filling a diverse range of beverages in various formats, you need to maintain full control over your operations – from order entry and raw material procurement to material flow planning, inventory logistics, quality control, and product design.

DICO Drinks captures all operational data along the value chain. Daily data on orders, raw material supplies, recipes, and product calculations – everything comes together in the ERP system. This information is then incorporated into the short-term and strategic production planning. The CSB-System bundles, for example, orders using the same containers and optimizes the filling sequence. This reduces the changeover times and ensures the optimal allocation of the five ultramodern can filling lines (KRONES).

A key foundation for growth: centralized workflows and mobile data capture

Over the past years, DICO Drinks has increasingly invested in technology and digitalization and has grown rapidly. The former trading company has transformed into a digitalized full-service specialist that offers its customers flexibility and continually generates innovative product ideas. All this becomes possible with the in-house development, production, and an own graphics department. Their growth also necessitated the extension of the premises by over 5,000 m² of production space and nearly 20,000 m² of storage space, in line with the existing structures. Scanners now capture the data at their point of origin at the warehouse, in production, and in picking, to guarantee seamless material and information flows. Efficient workflow management allows flexible and secure data processing without any disruptions. Via the cost center structure in the ERP system, the employees manage and control the daily inventory levels. The easy alignment of stock, capacity, and requirement data enables them to process the orders much faster while stress is reduced.

Automatic pallet labeling reduces the logistics costs

In 2023, DICO Drinks’ annual production was approx. 280 million units stored at four warehouses. Labels support the optimization of the logistics processes. Using the data supplied by the ERP system, labels are generated with the desired design. Combined with an SSCC (Serial Shipping Container Code), they are then correctly placed on the pallet in accordance with GS1 requirements, and the information is returned to the inventory. In this way, DICO Drinks ensures globally valid and legally compliant labeling while improving the productivity. The automatic labeling at the production and filling lines plays a central role in capturing inventory data, organizing the internal logistics, and in picking. “The savings in time and the commercial gains are substantial,” says Stefan Aretz, Head of IT and Digital Transformation.

Optimized operational scheduling through Time Management

With the introduction of the CSB Time Management module, DICO Drinks achieved significant improvements in their operational scheduling. With staff working in two or three shifts, the company particularly benefits from the following functionalities:

• Accurate time registration: The employees can enter their working times in a fast and easy manner. This leads to a precise calculation of the working hours and labor costs.
• Flexible working time models: The Time Management module supports various working time models, for example, flextime, shift and part-time work. It can be individually adjusted to the needs of the employees.
• Transparent evaluations: Detailed evaluations provide the company with a comprehensive overview of working hours, absences, and overtime. This facilitates HR planning and cost control.
• Optimized operational scheduling: With this module, working hours can be planned to optimally utilize the workforce capacity while meeting all production requirements.

At DICO Drinks, the implementation of the Time Management module has improved the efficiency in HR management. The accurate registration and evaluation of working hours enhances the planning and control of personnel costs.

All-encompassing overview and full flexibility

All divisions at DICO Drinks are now managed digitally. This allows them to promptly respond to changing market needs and provide consistent services and quality from the idea to the point of sale. “No matter whether customers design their beverages with us or have their own products filled into custom formats – we can deliver it. The CSB-System with its all-inclusive integration has helped us achieve maximum efficiency in all processes,” concludes Aretz.