Nutriblend Ltd

“On SAP, we didn’t have control. Now with Dimensions and MadiSun, my directors and I can take Nutriblend in the direction we want it to go. The new integrated system gives us all the information we need and it has improved both our efficiency and our productivity.”

Nutriblend Ltd is amongst Europe’s top three suppliers of nutritional systems – and the largest in the UK. From its Rochester HQ, the company designs, manufactures and exports custom-made powder mixes. These are used by many high profile clients to fortify a wide range of foodstuffs, including beverages, baby milks and dietary supplements.

Breaking from its parent company prompted Nutriblend to re-evaluate its business systems. At that time, a SAP solution was being used for both the manufacturing side and the back-office accounts. But this solution was clearly hampering operations, not least by making the company far too dependent on the IT department.

Bringing an end to this dependency was a major factor in choosing a replacement system, alongside faster reporting and more detailed sales analysis.

Nutriblend chose to investigate Access Accounts. Staff were already familiar with the Dimensions system, as it was being used to process German VAT (a requirement that SAP was not able to meet). Further investigation quickly revealed that Dimensions was capable of meeting all of the company’s financial requirements.

This only left one further question: how to control the manufacturing process. The answer came in the form of MadiSun, a manufacturing application (from PumaSoft) that integrates seamlessly with the Dimensions system. MadiSun provides a host of additional facilities for job costing, resource planning, works orders, stock control and locations, sales, purchasing, and European compliance.

Improved manufacturing processes

All of the information used through every step of the manufacturing process is held in MadiSun, improving workflow, reducing errors and saving time at each step. Nigel Nash, Office Manager for Nutriblend, stated, “We work to order and with almost 400 customers – including most of the industry leaders – on recipes that can range from two to forty ingredients. It is critical for us to have a system that can quickly calculate the materials and ensure deliveries are made on time. MadiSun addresses all our requirements – it is an ideal solution for food and chemical industries.”

Within MadiSun, sales orders are raised by the customer service team. These orders automatically update the master schedule, from which the production planner determines all MRP requirements. This information is then ready for the production controller, who tells the factory which materials to use. At this stage, MadiSun helps the company to complete orders on time, by automatically allocating materials to each job.

Finally, the quality controller ensures that products are properly tested and approved, within the strict guidelines placed on all food manufacturers. MadiSun aids this process by providing complete traceability of materials from receipt, through several levels of manufacturing and out to the customer.

Forward order reports are run daily. These help Nutriblend to plan production more effectively, and to smooth out the peaks and troughs in production by warning the sales team of low months well in advance.

Successful business process integration

The individual sales and purchase transactions raised in MadiSun are automatically transferred into Dimensions. Stock movements are also reconciled to the accounts automatically, on a monthly basis. Nigel Nash comments on how much faster this routine is, using the new system: “Using SAP, things were really drawn out. In the time it takes SAP to process one transaction, the Dimensions-MadiSun combination can process four.”

Improved credit control

Nutriblend was accustomed to using hand written notes for credit control. Now, with the integrated system, they have a comprehensive debtors ledger to work from. Everything is held in the system in an organised fashion, providing the company’s two credit controllers with access to full contact and transaction history. “The credit control module makes it much easier to chase accounts. The whole process is far more efficient and productive,” comments Nigel.

Faster and more detailed reporting

Improvements to data flow and data consolidation have enabled Nutriblend to produce faster and more accurate reports – and to take a much more proactive stance.

Nigel says, “With SAP, whenever I needed a report I had to draw on the resources of the IT department. It could take weeks or even months to get a response… and that put us into a position where decisions were being made on information that was out of date. Access has solved this problem and now we can see exactly how the business is developing. Within a couple of minutes, we know sales by product, by customer or by country.” This helps decisions to be made quickly, reducing costs and increasing profitability.

Nutriblend uses stock shelf life reports to eliminate the wastage caused by out of date stock. Because these reports can now be generated at will, and printed within seconds, the finance team is able to monitor stock far more precisely. As certain stock lines approach the end of their shelf life, the finance team feeds this information through to the sales team. Here, it is used to actively drive sales of the corresponding products.

The process of monthly stock valuations has also been improved. “With the old SAP system, it took me a day each month to do our stock valuations. Now with Access, stock valuations and reconciliations are automatic,” Nigel explains.