The right mix: Juice maker finds recipe for business growth with process-oriented ERP system
By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 1/23/2008 12:11:00 PM
Juice Harvest, a San Bernardino, Calif.-based maker of fresh juices, cut fruit, and vegetables, is reporting better lot traceability and improved costing accuracy after adopting an ERP system tailored for food & beverage manufacturers.
Juice Harvest's legacy ERP system was unsuitable for process manufacturing and unable to handle the large volume of data Juice Harvest processes daily, so it set out to find a replacement solution from a vendor with a strong background in food & beverage manufacturing.
Juice Harvest purchased the Ross Enterprise applications from CDC Software in December 2005 and went live on all core ERP modules in September 2006.
"Our Ross Enterprise for Food and Beverage solution is engineered to solve the business and regulatory challenges that processors such as Juice Harvest face every day," says Beth Berndt, director, Industry Solutions, CDC Software. "This expertise in the food and beverage industry enables our customers to help take full advantage of their IT investment, offer the highest-quality products and improve the way they do business."
Juice Harvest is now experiencing 25 percent annual sales growth and recently added one of the world's largest national retailers as a new customer. "We believe this is business we would absolutely not have been able to secure without the Ross Enterprise system," says Ricky Reves, Juice Harvest's CFO.
"We were recently audited by a firm that conducts fresh juice audits for some well known national retailers,” Reves adds. "We received a 98 percent score, which is outstanding."
Using the Ross Enterprise applications, Juice Harvest is performing mock recalls in less than an hour, whereas previously, it took five to seven senior managers almost an entire workday.
Additionally, Juice Harvest notes that product cost accuracy has improved dramatically—enabling better decision-making and new business growth. With Ross, Juice Harvest has more recipe management flexibility and can store alternative ingredients and multiple versions of the same recipe, allowing the shop floor to make instant ingredient adjustments or substitutions.
Juice Harvest plans to expand Ross Enterprise beyond its core ERP functionality with Ross Data Collection, Sales EPM (enterprise performance management); Finance EPM; and Demand Planning. "The Ross Enterprise system has provided us with a solid foundation for continued success," says Reves. "As we continue to grow, it's good to know that the Ross Enterprise family of complementary applications from CDC Software was built from the ground up to work together and be deployed rapidly."
