How a Food Manufacturer Transformed
Production Efficiency with Dynamics 365 BC
Client Background
A mid-sized US food manufacturer with more than 120 employees produces ready-to-eat meals and packaged food products for grocery chains, health-care institutions, and regional distributors. With multiple production lines operating daily, the company handles a high volume of perishable ingredients and must comply with stringent USDA/FDA food safety regulations.
Despite its growth, the organization relied on disconnected systems: QuickBooks for accounting, spreadsheets for production planning, a standalone WMS for inventory, and paper-based processes for quality checks. Each team worked in its own silo, and aligning daily operations required manual verification, data exports, and constant communication.
As order volumes increased and retailer requirements tightened, leadership recognized that scaling operations on top of spreadsheets and disconnected tools was no longer possible. A unified, real-time system was needed to connect production, planning, inventory, quality, and finance.
The Challenge
Before implementing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, the food manufacturer faced several operational challenges:
- Manual data re-entry between systems: Production, quality, purchasing, and finance tracked the same data separately, causing inconsistencies, delays, and increased compliance risks.
- Lack of real-time batch visibility: Supervisors used static spreadsheets, which made it challenging to understand ingredient availability, production capacity, and batch scheduling in real-time.
- Ingredient shortages caused frequent production stoppages: Without FEFO automation or accurate replenishment, production lines would stop when key ingredients or packaging materials were unavailable.
- No accurate insight into yields or production losses: Actual ingredient consumption and waste were not accurately measured, making recipe cost control difficult.
- Compliance and quality documentation fragmented: Paper logs slowed down audits and made traceability time-consuming and error-prone.
Why They Chose Glorium Technologies
The client partnered with Glorium Technologies for our:
- Deep experience in manufacturing and project-driven businesses
- Phased implementation approach focused on quick wins
- Expertise in integrating Odoo with existing tools
- Commitment to long-term scalability and growth
The Solution
After a detailed discovery phase, Glorium Technologies recommended Odoo ERP as the foundation for digital transformation, complemented by custom modules and automation extensions tailored to the automotive sector
- Finance & cost accounting
- Batch production & recipe management
- Inventory & ingredient control
- Purchasing & vendor management
- Warehouse operations
- FEFO and expiration tracking
- Quality & compliance logging
The company transitioned from using spreadsheets and isolated tools to a connected system, where every ingredient, batch, and order is visible in real-time.
Features
- Batch & Recipe Management: Standard and variant recipes with yield tolerances, allergen mapping, and multi-step routing.
- End-to-End Traceability: Ingredients tracked from receiving → prep → cooking → packaging → finished goods.
- FEFO Warehouse Automation: Ingredients and packaging are automatically picked based on closest expiration dates.
- Vendor Lead-Time Tracking: Purchasing reliability improved through real-time monitoring of supplier delivery performance.
- Quality & Compliance Logs: Temperature checks, sanitation records, and nonconformance reports captured digitally.
- Yield & Waste Tracking: Actual consumption compared with recipe standards to identify efficiency gaps and cost deviations.
- Dashboards & Reporting: Real-time visibility into batch status, ingredient aging, yield trends, and production scheduling.
Implementation Approach
Phase 1: Core Rollout
- Mapping of production, inventory, finance, and quality processes
- Setup of core BC modules
- Data migration from legacy systems
- Initial implementation of FEFO, BOMs, recipes, vendors, and SKUs
Phase 2: Industry Enhancements
- Yield tracking
- Waste measurement
- Supplier performance scoring
- Batch-level quality checkpoints
- Expiration and shelf-life logic
Phase 3: Training & Optimization
- Role-based training for production, quality, warehouse, and finance
- KPI dashboards for leadership
Continuous improvement workshops
Results
These results are industry-aligned and realistic for Business Central in food production:
- 25% Reduction in Ingredient Waste: FEFO automation, accurate expiration tracking, and real-time stock visibility reduced spoilage and write-offs.
- Scheduling Time Reduced by 40%: BC automatically generates batch production orders based on demand, ingredients, and capacity.
- 98% Traceability Accuracy: Full forward/backward traceability now takes minutes—critical for audits and recalls.
- 30% Higher On-Time Delivery Rate: Production and inventory are fully synchronized with customer commitments.
- Real-Time Batch Cost Accuracy: Actual yield variances and labor inputs now feed directly into costing.
- Compliance Reporting Time Cut by 60%: Digital logs and automated batch documentation simplified audits.
Business Value
Predictable OperationsIntegrating production, purchasing, and inventory eliminated disruptions and stabilized throughput.
Lower Production CostsImproved replenishment, reduced waste, and accurate yield tracking boosted margins and reduced ingredient losses.
Full TransperanceAll departments now operate in one unified system, providing immediate visibility into batch performance, inventory aging, compliance data, and financial impact.
Certifications
