Country Cooked Meats Case Study
Company Background
Classic Cooked Meats was a regional Victorian based company which had been around for 13 years when Scott Davis purchased it in 2007. Apart from changing the name to Country Cooked Meats (CCM), Scott worked rapidly to change the nature of the business too. From a small manufacturing driven business supplying chicken based products to a few customers, Country Cooked Meats has expanded its business into the retail end of the food industry.
Business Situation
Scott’s firmly held belief is that “it is the nature of many companies of this size that they need to grow or perish as the competitive landscape of the industry changes. For this reason we have put significant investment into marketing / branding and sales to really become a presence in the industry (which will drive the revenue growth). As a result we have become more of a sales / marketing driven company.”
“From a low base we achieved a turnover of about $3 million in 07/08 and expect to top $9 million in the next 12-24 months. We have already started moving from Ballarat to a factory 5 times the size of our current site in Coolaroo, a Melbourne suburb”.
System Issues
Country Cooked Meats were in need of a solution that could provide the following functionality:
• HACCP related traceability from raw material supplier to finished good at the customer level and any point in between
• Forecasting and actual sales reporting data so accurate purchasing decisions could be made.
• Reporting data to provide accurate production scheduling & capacity planning.
• Real time Profit & Loss data
• Mobility on the shop floor - Ability to barcode items and collect data
• Real time inventory management
• Flexible trading terms to CCM’s specification e.g. 14 days less 1 ½%
• Ability to link the accounting system with factory floor generated data e.g. catch weight from electronic scales
Scott Davis said “I believe that these good business controls and superior business intelligence can offer us a competitive advantage in such a turbulent industry.....what I wanted to avoid was the significant revenue growth leading to spiralling administrative costs whereby margins became eroded trying to control the beast”.
Hands-on Systems Solution
• Server running Microsoft Small Business Server and Microsoft SQL Server
• 3 user Microsoft Dynamics NAV license
• Implementation package including project management, business process reengineering, user testing & training
Margie Richards and Jim Blain headed the Hands-on Systems implementation team.
Margie later said that “CCM’s utilisation of Dynamics is as complex as I have seen in hundreds of other manufacturing systems implementations I have been involved with and in many cases exceeds those I have seen in much larger manufacturing companies”. “This particularly applies to the requirements for production scheduling and capacity planning”.
Dick Preiss, Sales Manager at Hands-on Systems was quoted, “the CCM type implementation is an increasingly common experience for us. We are implementing more and more manufacturing/ distribution Dynamics systems in companies with a turnover of $5 million or less and with user populations of ranging from 3 to 10 concurrent users. For their size, the functionality required in these implementations is extremely demanding and is often reflected in the need for competitive advantage to stay viable against larger organisations. Fortunately Dynamics is highly scalable (2 to 250 users), highly customisable and has ‘out of the box’ functionality – all at an affordable cost”.
Benefits of Dynamics solution
- CCM now have a better insight into their business and are able to forecast more accurately
- Streamlined business processes have given CCM greater efficiency in the organisation
- Flexibility over how they can control their inventory due to information being readily available.
- Easy transition to Dynamics due to consistent look and feel of Microsoft solutions. This saved time training staff and enabled them to get up and running on the new system quickly
- Hands-on Systems knowledgeable staff enabled CCM to maximise the capabilities of the solution
- Future requirements can be easily integrated. For example, CCM are looking to install the sales inventory business intelligence cube to give them greater visibility of their business against profitability of product lines and seasonal trends.
For More Information
For more information about Microsoft Dynamics e-mail us at sales@handson.com.au or call us on 1300 191 100
This case study is for information purposed only. Hands-on Systems makes no warranties, express or implied, in this summary