Jelly bean manufacturer Jelly Belly recently licensed a full suite of Movex applications, including the Movex Business Engine, Advanced Planning Tools, Plant Maintenance, Sales and Marketing and e-Sales, from Intentia, which provides software for the manufacturing, distribution and maintenance industries.
"We looked at what we had and what we saw was a lot of patched together applications that were missing functionality essential for a modern business," says Ryan Schader, vice president for business development at Fairfield, Calif.-based Jelly Belly. "We were throwing a lot of people at processes we thought should be done by computers. It became clear that it was time to update our ERP system to meet the needs of our complex manufacturing process."
Jelly Belly makes 50 flavors of its signature Jelly Beans, as well as numerous other confectionery products, at two U.S. plants. In 2007, the company will add another production facility in Thailand. Two warehouses provide distribution.
The process of manufacturing a Jelly Belly jelly bean varies in length from 14 to 21 days. This combined with the long lead times for some raw materials, and more than 1,500 different finished good items, makes for an extremely complicated supply chain.
"We are a mid-sized company that competes against some large companies," says Schader. "Some of our customers are large retailers who levy fines if our shipments are late or incomplete. Expedited freight deliveries and moving candy between distribution centers, what we jokingly call 'product frequent flier miles,' reduce profitability. A few of our customers are leaders in logistics management and they have absolutely no tolerance for failures in the management of our supply chain."
To update the company's technology, Jelly Belly began a 12-month evaluation that would include 35 managers from all aspects of company operations.
"We used a 10-flavor mix of Jelly Belly jelly beans to evaluate support for our process manufacturing operations when we looked at potential solutions," says IT director Dan Rosman. "We were looking for a solution that was very strong in process manufacturing, and beyond that requirement it had to be an integrated solution with one database and one interface on a single platform. Movex was a great fit for supporting our manufacturing operation and also for associated applications such as order entry and warehouse management."
David Rode, president and CEO of Intentia Americas, says, "Intentia, with strengths in process manufacturing, offers food and beverage makers functionality tailored to fit their needs With our industry-specific focus, Intentia provides mid-sized manufacturers an ideal solution."
Visit www.intentia.com or www.jellybelly.com.