FDBusiness.com

“The administrative burden for any food manufacturer is huge these days,” says Bruce Reidford of Tunnock’s. He was responsible for choosing the Sanderson food manufacturing IT system, today known as UnityF8, on which Tunnock’s has expanded its business. “We just could not have coped without UnityF8,” he says. “It would have been impossible to manage our expansion into global markets and to manage the regulatory demands. Sanderson has understood the way we operate, our values and our needs.”

Reidford’s role sees him in charge of administration, finance and IT, and he also has involvement in operational matters within the factory.  “Without the support of sophisticated technology like UnityF8, we’d need an army of clerks running around carrying out this work,” he says. Tunnock’s uses the software to manage every aspect of the organisation, from ordering and receiving raw ingredients, to managing production and sales ledger processing, through to final despatch and distribution.

Meeting the Needs of Customers

Tunnock’s customers range from the major supermarkets to independent retailers – this diversity could pose challenges in terms of meeting the needs of customers large and small. However Reidford says “We’re able to balance conflicting requirements very easily with UnityF8. We schedule orders through the system and attach priority listings to them. This also helps us at the other end of the line, with transport scheduling and loading.”

At goods-in and despatch, Tunnock’s uses radio data terminals (RDTs) which are linked directly to the Sanderson system. All goods are bar-coded and the RDTs enable Tunnock’s to locate both raw materials and finished goods quickly and efficiently. In common with most manufacturers, Tunnock’s is continuously striving to ensure its processes are as effective as possible. A key part of this improvement drive is using UnityF8 ‘s integrated factory floor data capture functionality.

“With increases in costs such as energy and raw materials, we have to know exactly what is happening on the factory floor, where any waste is – both physical and process – and where the best areas are, so that we can learn from that. This is about reducing downtime, reducing costs and raising efficiency. We know we can be more effective by cutting waste, using labour more efficiently and automating certain lines.”

New Developments

Reidford continues: “The new developments to UnityF8 enhance our capability and ensure that we can remain one step ahead. As the regulatory demands become greater and greater, we have to look at the best way of meeting those. Often the reporting requirements and structures change, but UnityF8 means we can cope with all of that very easily. Sanderson are very responsive and an excellent business partner.”

As a specialist business management system for the food industry – or what you may call a food enterprise resource planning (ERP) system – Sanderson UnityF8 provides control and visibility across the organisation. Its inherent flexibility has proved particularly crucial to Tunnock’s, as the system has been able to grow and expand to help the business drive forward into new international markets.

“I looked at several solutions and I was confident from the start that Sanderson was the best fit for our business,” he recalls. “UnityF8 is a very effective, reliable and dependable product. But it’s not just about software. We wanted true commitment from an IT supplier to work with us to solve our business problems. That was as important as the software itself. We’ve grown with Sanderson and we’ve been delighted to have them as our business partner.”

For further information contact Sanderson on Tel +44 (0)333 1231400 or visit www.sanderson.com/food.