Industry: Delicatessen
One of the big players in the area of convenience products is the Sander group. In just 18 years, the company established in 1974 has grown almost tenfold in size. The ERP system has contributed a significant part to this development.
Just 18 years ago, the company employed 135 people, generating sales worth 25 million marks – today, the sales volume is 80 million euros. The tremendous growth certainly also had to be mastered in terms of technology, remembers managing director Jens Sander. “If you increase your sales like we did, this must have an effect on all areas. You need to establish a growth-promoting organizational structure, but also develop further technologically, buy more efficient plants and machines, hire more staff. We also had to make a decision with regard to the software: Should we continue with our stand-alone solutions or find a new integrated system?”
Restart in IT
Back in 2001, Sander decided to go for a radical new start. All stand-alone solutions for enterprise resource planning, financial accounting and HR management were eliminated and replaced by the integrated industry-specific software of CSB-System, initially with just a few modules. “With the basic version for goods management alone, we were able to achieve substantial optimization effects. We quickly realized that CSB thinks along our processes and that the system could increase the flexibility we need due to the short shelf lives of our products,” says Sander.
Data is captured online, enabling full traceability
Along with the growth, the potential application fields for the ERP solution expanded. It soon became clear that the software can also be used very profitably in other areas. Example data capture: Today all data, e.g. at receiving, in the inventory and in production, are either entered by scanner or on CSB-racks (special industry PCs).
This is not only more efficient, but also ensures higher process quality and more reliable information since all data immediately go to the ERP system – and are seamlessly traceable. “We can see exactly which product has been where and when, and which raw materials were processed. Of course, we also use this information for cost control,” Sander explains.
Flexible and cost-transparent production
In its own fresh produce factory, Sander produces about 2,500 different menu components in 12 product categories: From starters to main courses and desserts. Managing this level of complexity requires perfect planning of machine assignments and setup times, while incorporating reliably the raw materials stocks. The planning process is a real challenge due to the short shelf-life of about 5 days, the multi-level bills of materials and the short-term nature of many orders. The CSB production planning system therefore combines efficient scenario planning with flexible response mechanisms: In the case of short-term orders or unscheduled machine downtimes, the planning can be modified quickly.
Such flexibility enables Sander to balance large-volume industrial production and flexible “Working on call”. Individual customer requests and spontaneous orders can also be integrated into process planning economically and in the shortest possible time. The daily reports from the ERP system provide Jens Sander with an overview of all key data: “Every day I have my current profit and loss statement on the table. As soon as an order is shipped, I can check the gross margins.”
Sander continues to grow – with CSB
The success of the past few years is no reason for Sander to rest on their laurels. The company wants to grow further and has also drawn up a concrete plan for that. Their “Growth strategy 2020” comprises many measures and processes to make every single department even more efficient. This also includes optimization of the ERP software. Recently, Sander has digitalized the telephone sale: each of the 14 salespersons saves between 30 and 60 minutes every day
