New software helps streamline complex manufacturing process
Infor, a leading provider of business application software serving over 70,000 customers, today announced that Lakeland Dairies, Ireland’s second largest dairy processing co-operative, has moved to Infor ERP System21 Aurora through Infor’s Flex program. The new software will help the business streamline its complex manufacturing process.
Lakeland Dairies is Ireland’s second largest dairy processing co-operative and operates within a 15-county cross border catchment area in the northern half of the island of Ireland.
Lakeland processes about 3 quarters of a billion litres of quality milk annually into a range of value added dairy foodservice products and functional food ingredients. There are three key business divisions: foodservice, food ingredients and agribusiness.
Lakeland exports large volumes of dairy produce to the UK, Europe, North and South America, Asia, Africa and other international markets. With a relentless focus on quality, it has become a global market leader serving over 70 countries and offering some 170 branded products to customers around the world.
Infor Flex is a program that enables qualifying customers with active maintenance contracts to upgrade to the latest version of the software via transparent, low cost implementations – mitigating the risk of an implementation that runs over time or budget.
Turlough Farrelly, IT manager for the co-operative group, joined 23 years ago when the company’s entire IT infrastructure consisted of two PCs (IBM XTs). His initial role was to ‘computerise’ the company and this led on over the years to the first interaction with Infor, then JBA, to provide the group’s first ERP solution in 1990/1991 – System21.
Infor ERP System21 is the keeper of all financial data for the entire group ever since its implementation back in 1991. Its role is to capture all data related to finance from across the multiple and varied systems including HR, milk production, distribution, payroll amongst others. It gathers inputs from low level production systems as well as highly complex processes. The financial data is then assembled, sorted, validated and compiled for Lakeland’s financials, fixed assets, cash and banking reporting.
“In all the years of operation, System21 has provided solid support for the group’s finances,” says Farrelly. “As the group has grown and expanded, System21 has provided the cement to keep the financials in pace with development. Essentially it sits at the top of the pyramid and integrates with all processes across the organisation.”
Lakeland Dairies also uses Infor ERP Protean, one of Infor’s ERP suites for the ‘process industry’, to create significant efficiencies across its complex dairy manufacturing processes. The software forces the single entry of data which eliminates duplication errors and reduces human data entry errors. The company saves considerable time and money through the correct management of information. Overall it creates a structured business environment by streamlining the manufacturing processes and final customer invoicing.
‘Dairy production can be complex,” explains Farrelly. “The use of Protean allows us to manage the complexity, create significant efficiencies and streamline the manufacturing process.”
When Lakeland Dairies was informed of the latest version of Infor ERP System21 Aurora, Farrelly recommended Lakeland review the upgrade and plan for its adoption. He was then pleasantly surprised when he sat down with the local Infor team to discover the practical implementation path provided by Infor’s Flex program.
“Typically, we work through the range of issues in advance of any upgrade, covering elements such as the size of the task, how it needs to be done, what resources are required from ourselves and from the supplier,” explains Turlough. “However, with Flex we already had a plan of action laid out with a practical structure and competitive pricing.
“As a customer, this is music to my ears,” he says. “We have already bought the software and we pay for ongoing maintenance. The last thing we want to do is to pay for costly upgrades. Flex is a powerful program and we greatly benefited from it, especially down to saving us time and hassle.”
The upgrade to Aurora is now complete and while Farrelly does not see significant differences in the core functionality, he can see benefits in the new modules, most notably the new Workspace user interface.
Lakeland Dairies and Infor have a long standing business relationship based on quality products, a committed local team and an ability to draw upon IT excellence from within the wider Infor organisation. Farrelly is very pleased with local support, as he says ‘people not products deliver’ but he is also aware that Infor’s broad set of products and deep corporate knowledge also benefits his organisation.
“During the Aurora implementation, we were able to avail of a wide range of experts from Infor and this made a significant impact on the positive outcome of our implementation,” says Farrelly.