Overview Established in 1976, Brisbane-based Continental Biscuit Manufacturers (CBM) produces baked goods for the infant and toddler market. The company’s manufacturing and financial systems were heavily dependent on manual processing so performance data took a long time to compile. With output increasing and plans to upgrade its manufacturing equipment, CBM wanted a system that would help manage planning and production and enable ready access to key business data. Gold Certified Microsoft Partner Dialog Dynamics recommended Microsoft Dynamics AX. With a single enterprise resource planning system, CBM streamlined its production processes and gained access to up-to-the-minute financial information.

“Dynamics AX enables us to negotiate more proactively with suppliers, and ensures our orders are correct and delivered on time.” Rod Bower, Operations Manager, Continental Biscuit Manufacturers

Challenges By mid-2007, CBM wanted to expand operations and upgrade its manufacturing processes, but its decade-old manufacturing management system threatened to hold the company back.

“The system was cumbersome and difficult to use, and we struggled to get our month-end financial reports done on time,” explains Rod Bower, Operations Manager, CBM. “It could take two to three weeks before we saw our finalised financials.”

Data had to be transferred manually between the manufacturing system and other finance and logistics systems. This caused delays and obscured the overall view of essential business information.

“We didn’t have an instant picture of our inventory, supplier contracts and pricing information,” says Bower.

CBM relied on manual processes to track raw materials used in production. It wanted to link customers’ forecasts of how much they wanted to buy and when with production planning, which governs the purchase of ingredients and packaging.

“We had to improve our ability to trace raw materials through more streamlined processes,” says Bower. “If a product needs to be recalled from supermarket shelves, we need to trace that product’s ingredients back through the supply chain – and quickly.”

Customer Profile: Continental Biscuit Manufacturers (CBM) supplies baked foodstuffs for the infant and toddler market. Founded in 1976, the Brisbane company employs between 30 and 40 staff.

Customer Situation: The company was growing, but its financial and production systems couldn’t manage new business processes and more complex customer management.

Business Solution: CBM implemented Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, running on Microsoft SQL Server 2008. The Dynamics AX solution helps manage the manufacturing and distribution processes.

Benefits:

On-demand access to manufacturing and financial information

Rapid tracking of product inputs Better customer management

1800 DIALOG dynamicsinfo@dialog.com.au www.dialogdynamics.com.au

Production and Finance System Raises Baker’s Customer Focus

Case Study: Continental Biscuit Manufacturers

“Dialog Dynamics Practice had experience in manufacturing and they understood our type of business. But they also took the trouble to understand what we were really looking for.” Rod Bower, Operations Manager, Continental Biscuit Manufacturers

Dialog Dynamics Practice Dialog Dynamics is a division of the Dialog Group, Australia’s leading privately owned IT organisation, employing over 1,200 consultants nationally with offices in every major Australian city, including Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, as well as an international presence in New Zealand and Hong Kong.

Having demonstrated best-in-class capability in Microsoft Dynamics AX, NAV, SL and CRM; as well as Field Service Management Solutions, Dialog has been named as a finalist in the 2015 Microsoft Dynamics Reseller of the Year for Asia Pacific. Dialog is also a member of the Microsoft Dynamics 2015 President's club, and holds Microsoft Dynamics ERP Gold Certification in Microsoft Dynamics ERP and CRM.

Solution CBM went to market in late 2007. Its goal: to find an integrated production, logistics and management system that could manage complex stock tracking in the food industry.

“We spent a lot of time looking at how different systems managed the manufacturing process, in particular our baking formulas,” says Bower. “We needed a system that could give us visibility on raw materials, blending, production, packaging and batch-tracking.”

“Dialog Dynamics Practice had experience in manufacturing and they understood our type of business,” says Bower. “But they also took the trouble to understand what we were really looking for. They listened to what we wanted, and that’s really important when you’re a family owned and operated company.”

In addition, Microsoft Dynamics AX is being used to automate a part of the production planning process that previously relied on hand-written forms. This will enable the company to electronically link customer forecasts with sales order planning. Between October and November 2008, Dialog worked with CBM to scope out their solution. Their recommendation was a gradual implementation of Microsoft Dynamics AX, because it is a modular application and it could be implemented in stages.

“This was a long-term investment for us, and we wanted to get the back-office systems right before enhancing the solution,” says Bower.

Dialog Dynamics Practice designed and implemented the solution, and by July 2009, CBM was running the Dynamics AX Purchasing, Sales Order, Inventory, Production and Finance modules.

Benefits Following its successful initial deployment of Microsoft Dynamics AX, CBM can clearly track company finances from month to month against key performance indicators.

“Instead of taking a month, compiling end-of-month financials now takes us one or two days,” says Bower. “But far more importantly, we can view up-to-date financial information whenever we need to.”

CBM can also retrieve customer and supplier information faster and track contractual agreements with greater accuracy.

“We can check multiple vendor prices quickly in Dynamics AX,” says Bower. “It enables us to negotiate more proactively with suppliers and ensures our orders are correct and delivered on time. And if a customer wants us to, we can trace the relevant production information with minimal effort.

“We can link customer forecasts with our sales order planning, and match quality-control testing with our inventory data. Matching system inventory against actual stock on hand also gives a better idea of our true financial position whenever we need to.”

Future Plans CBM will continue to work with Dialog Dynamics to develop the Dynamics AX solution. This includes deploying two new modules: materials requirements planning, and quality control.

“We’ll be able to control and fine tune our manufacturing process,” says Bower. “We have few customers, but they are very large customers and they are driven by information. This solution means we can continue to meet their high expectations.”

1800 DIALOG dynamicsinfo@dialog.com.au www.dialogdynamics.com.au