Millennium Foods finds recipe for success with Sage PFW
For Millennium Foods keeping secrets is the key to its business. The company develops, refines, and perfects proprietary seasoning blends, sauces, and marinades for various restaurant chains and food manufacturers across the United States. An essential ingredient in Millennium Foods’ accounting and process manufacturing operations is Sage PFW ERP.
"It’s not going too far to say that we could not run or grow this business without Sage PFW,” says Zia Loghmani, president of Millennium Foods. “Without it, we’d be doing nothing but paperwork.”
Order the Right Solution
Four years ago, the company relied on an assortment of software and databases to track formulas and batch production, and used a separate accounting software package to manage its financials. “We had no reliable way to determine what we had on hand, what was committed, and what we needed to order,” recalls John Rake, director of operations. “We’d heard about Sage PFW-that it was designed for the kind of batch manufacturing we do, and called Sage to find out more.”
Sage referred Millennium Foods to a local Sage Business Partner specializing in Sage PFW. “They gave us a demonstration and right away we knew it was going to work for us,” says Loghmani.
Keep Inventory Lean
With the old system, the company frequently over-ordered to avoid potential shortfalls. “Since we didn’t have a clear picture of what we had and what we needed, we tended to stock too much,” says Loghmani. “We’re operating leaner now. Sage PFW gives us the visibility into our operations we need to make better buying decisions.”
“We’ve increased our inventory turns by 20 percent - representing a significant savings,” says Rake. Loghmani points out an additional benefit, “Our ingredients are fresher as a result of the more frequent turns, and that helps improve the overall quality of our products.”
"It’s not going too far to say that we could not run and grow this business without Sage PFW. Without it we’d be doing nothing but paperwork.”
Both Rake and Loghmani praise the end-to-end functionality of Sage PFW. “Having one database containing both our production information and our accounting and customer data is a real advantage,” explains Loghmani, “We’ve seen communication and cooperation across our departments improve and greater efficiency as all our data is available to those who need it.”
Use Purchase History to Best Advantage
Millennium Foods uses the purchase history tracked by Sage PFW to negotiate better pricing from its vendors. “We can negotiate larger discounts based on past purchase volume,” says Rake. “We didn’t have that kind of information before.”
Millennium Foods also uses its purchase history to price its finished goods. “We’re now able to accurately track the cost of our finished goods, based on the cost of all of the ingredients,” says Rake. “When costs increase for an ingredient, we’re able to go to the customer and renegotiate our pricing.”
Streamline Compliance
As a food manufacturer, Millennium Foods must comply with a myriad of governmental regulations. Sage PFW eases the compliance burden through its comprehensive lot tracking capability. This enables the company to quickly trace a lot back to the individual suppliers that provided the raw ingredients. “We used to keep this information in spreadsheets,” recalls Loghmani. “It was time consuming and tedious to maintain.”
Automate Warehouse Activities
Millennium Foods invested in a comprehensive warehouse management system (WMS), that integrates with Sage PFW. The WMS automates shipping procedures by allowing staff to scan a bar coded product number and lot number as an item is being packaged. “It’s vital that we record that lot number accurately,” says Rake, “and bar coding minimizes the opportunity for errors.
Work With Insight
Millennium Foods prides itself on the personalized service it provides each customer. The Sage PFW Customer Insights module helps the company deliver on its service promise. Customer Insights provides one comprehensive, easy-tonavigate screen that the Millennium Foods staff uses to confidently communicate with customers. Staff can view address information, credit, customer pricing, open orders and quotes, order history, shipments, and more. With ready access to this data, they can provide quick and effective responses to customer’s inquiries.
From the high-level overview, staff can drill down and even edit
open orders or invoices and record notes of each conversation.
Strategic Planning
As Millennium Foods works through the process of perfecting a formula, lab personnel can quickly perform what-if scenarios
and analyze how changes in the formula will affect the master. Ingredients can be changed and quantities adjusted to
meet specific targeted prices set by its customers. Sage PFW gives us 360-degree visibility into our operations,”
concludes Loghmani. “Using the information we now have, we’re able to be proactive, rather than reactive.”
Printable version