Faster Pasta

Emley UK - 27th June 2006 - Enjoying rapid growth, fresh food manufacturer, Ugo, is upgrading its IT system to match its newly-modernised production facility.

The Ugo Foods Group employs 80 people and uses traditional recipes coupled with modern technology to produce fresh pasta and oriental noodles for supermarkets and the food service industry. It produces its own Del'Ugo brand as well as a range of own-label products for Waitrose. The company's purpose-built factory is in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire and the current managing director, Paul Ugo, represents the third generation of family ownership - the business was started by his grandfather in 1929.

Following the complete modernisation of its factory and production processes, Ugo Foods is overhauling its IT infrastructure to support plans for further growth. Following a thorough evaluation of the systems on the market, the company is implementing a fully-integrated ERP solution from Access Supply Chain.

The Access solution, replacing Ugo's current system based on a low-level accounting package and series of Excel spreadsheets, will improve communication throughout the organisation, eliminating duplication of data processing and establishing consistency of information and reporting across the business. Facilitating the company's growth, the system has sufficient scalability to meet Ugo's needs for the foreseeable future.

Financial director, Craig Waldron: "The Access system is a strategic move for the future of the company. We experienced 43 percent growth last year as a result of the work we've done in the factory and we will be very disappointed if we don't achieve well over 20 percent this year. Without Access, our staff wouldn't cope under the weight of data and I'd have to throw headcount at the problem. The system will allow us to continue growing without having to increase staffing levels unnecessarily."

Craig says the Access system was chosen because it gave them everything they wanted in a single, off-the-shelf package, as well as providing the comfort of working with a stable company in a rapidly-consolidating market. Staff were involved in the selection process from the outset - all those whose work patterns were going to change were involved in the decision-making and the 6-person project team represents all departments in the business. Craig again: "Our people understood the need for the new system. They knew there would be a period of pain but it would be worthwhile - they're very much on board; excited even."

One of the fundamental issues was for the system to become an agent for continuous improvement in the business. "We needed to get under the skin of the information we already have; that was impossible with the disparate systems we had. With Access, we will be generating better quality information to help us understand where to focus to keep improving factory efficiency," says Craig.

The new system also includes a Wi-Fi, handheld barcoding system for stock control, providing real-time visibility of stock - previously, the recording of stock movements was dependent on manual keying and batch processing of data, leaving it at least 24 hours out of date and prone to error.

Craig also sees benefits in the area of production management, with improved planning and communications. All Ugo products are fresh (with a 15 to 30 day lifespan) and production is a hybrid of make-to-stock and make-to-order, with short term orders supplementing regular weekly output. "Information will be available via terminals in the kitchens, production rooms and packaging departments to make sure everybody is working to the same work plan - if there are any changes, the information flow will be instant. We'll also be able to get a detailed analysis of output, whether the yields are right, our usage of raw materials, individual SKU costs and so on."

The new system is due to go live in September.

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