Industry: Food
Due to changing retail and consumer demands, the Managing Director of Drover Foods challenged the business to find a software solution capable of delivering full electronic traceability. Today, Drover Foods has successfully integrated this solution and is expanding its factory to accommodate increasing demand, facilitated by the robust foundation of the CSB-System ERP platform.
Changing demands
Drover Foods supplies cooked, frozen, and ready-to-eat products to the B2B market. They boast an impressive clientele, including blue-chip companies Kerry Foods and Greencore, which supply renowned names such as Costa and M&S.
With customers like these, Drover must maintain stringent control over its processes and traceability. The company is also expanding its product range to include numerous vegetarian options. To address both market growth and complex production challenges, Drover needed the support from CSB-System
Monthly mass balance required
In addition to the normal technical standards, some of their customers require Drover to produce monthly ‘back-to-farm’ traceability and mass balance reports for all meat products. With a whole month’s data to go through, this was a time consuming job with their old paper-based system.
The principle of traceability is to thoroughly record the origins and destinations of all products. However, the complexity escalates with hundreds of items and recipes, each requiring documented meat origins.
ERP from small beginnings
Drover did not have a dedicated IT department and opted for a phased implementation approach focusing on key areas
- Comprehensive electronic traceability
- Enhanced quality control
- Simplification of processes
CSB proposed a tailored system version encompassing raw material reception, inventory management, production, and quality control.
Seamless integration of hardware and software
Since CSB installed the industrial PCs (CSB Racks), printers, interfaces to scales, and scanners, the operatives at Drover can register incoming raw materials directly and immediately issue barcode labels. Ingredient movements or usages are tracked by simple scanning. Weights are directly captured from the scales, facilitating the output of labels to WIP bags or kits.
By adopting labelling, scanning, and real-time data input, Drover eliminates the need for manual record-keeping, thereby avoiding confusion, duplication, and data loss. Most importantly, when it comes to traceability reporting, what used to take hours can now be done in minutes.
Quality Control
In top-tier quality management systems, quality assurance is rooted in well-structured processes adhering to HACCP principles, where hazards are identified, eliminated, or controlled. The CSB Quality Management module, fully integrated with the system, allows Drover Foods to implement necessary tests at critical processing stages. These tests can be restrictive; meaning further processing steps cannot proceed until corrective measures are taken or an authorised manager approves the continuation. Additionally, all test outcomes are recorded within the system, enabling easy monitoring, trending, and retrieval when needed.
Allergen labelling built in
Allergen labelling is another area where Drover has benefited significantly. According to Technical Manager Lee Anne O’Keeffe, “the system helps us with allergen labelling because we only need to enter the information once against the raw material item.”
Building for the future
Drover is currently investing €4 million in a new factory extension to meet rising demand for its innovative vegetarian products. With a solid foundation already established, it is straightforward for them to integrate additional modules from CSB. By planning to install sales and mobile enterprise resource planning (Mobile ERP) systems, Drover aims to eliminate paper picking lists and transition to a system where mobile scanners display the order pick, so the warehouse operatives simply scan items to confirm. This system not only supports their growth but also expands with them as needed.