In the past 25 years, innocent has developed into Europe's best-known smoothie and juice producer with more than 800 employees and locations in 14 countries. The fact that their high-quality standards have been maintained despite the enormous growth is in part thanks to an invisible helper in the background: the OUTPERFORM Planning supply chain software solution from REMIRA.
Producing fresh smoothies and juice is challenging, as they mainly consist of perishable ingredients with a short shelf-life. To ensure that enough goods can be produced and that as few raw materials as possible spoil, the production needs to be planned accurately in response to forecast changes. innocent has been using the powerful planning software OUTPERFORM Planning from REMIRA for eight years for this very purpose. The application for automatically controlling logistics and production has grown with the company and has become an integral part of their daily work, reports Alex Wadd, Supply Systems & Process Manager at innocent.
Ensuring shelf life
The UK-based beverage production company now sells its products in 18 different countries in Europe. There are currently a total of 67 different drink mixes, which are produced and distributed in different bottle sizes. The international market results in a total of 433 Stock Keeping Units (SKU). If demand changes, the company must react immediately to adjust production and to plan blend and finished good production. The beverage manufacturer's customers expect fast and reliable delivery, explains Alex Wadd. At the same time, the shelf-life of all stock must be closely monitored to ensure that nothing spoils - one of innocent's most important requirements.
More efficient production
The OUTPERFORM Planning software from REMIRA ensures smooth production processes. The application intelligently controls logistics and production planning at several locations in Europe. OUTPERFORM optimizes stock levels and makes timely production planning suggestions to ensure the availability of goods while avoiding out-of-stock scenarios. Thanks to the software, it is always clear in which order ingredients need to be processed so that products are always fresh and nothing spoils. The application does much of the planning work in the background.
"Our production planning is much more efficient with OUTPERFORM Planning. Thanks to the software, we can react to changes much faster than would be possible with production planning using Excel spreadsheets, for example. Customer requests are usually fulfilled quickly without producing a lot of waste and our team also has more time for other tasks and doesn't have to spend hours on planning,"
adds Supply Systems & Process Manager Wadd.
With OUTPERFORM Planning, innocent can also simulate how different developments in demand would affect ordering processes, stock levels and production capacity utilization. This option was one of the main reasons why the company opted for the software eight years ago, explains Alex Wadd:
“OUTPERFORM’s demand planning and simulation features are regularly used to prepare for various scenarios and serve as more than just an analysis tool, optimizing innocent’s supply chain in the best way.”
Photos: ©innocent
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