Improving Business Performance in Food and Drink Industries

Tropos is developed by ERP vendor Solarsoft. We have been developing and implementing business computer systems for manufacturers and distributors of food and drink since 1990.

Tropos has been developed for regulated, short-cycle demand-driven manufacturing. This makes it ideal for food processors and packers, particularly those supplying the major retailers or those distributing short shelf-life products. Tropos is widely used by manufacturers of chilled, frozen and ambient food products, and includes features that make it particularly applicable to a number of key sectors within the food and drink industries.

The Tropos system has specialised functionality for food and drink manufacturers and distributors. The majority of ERP products were designed around discrete manufacture, Tropos is unusual in that it was originally designed for process manufacture. In collaboration with our customer base many new functions have been added to drive value from the computer systems. This modular ERP package extends beyond Materials Requirements Planning (MRP) and MRPII to meet the needs of process manufacturers.

Features and Benefits

Key Benefits

• Increase business performance and profitability
• Ensure full traceability
• Reduce wastage
• Maximise shelf-life with faster through-put
• Improve customer service by improving on-time, in-full deliveries
• Reduce errors and penalties
• Improve visibility of operational activities leading to more pro-active management
• Reduce cost and delay caused by reliance on paperwork
• Improve efficiency by collecting and using real-time information
• Automate processes that were previously reliant on local knowledge
• Improve responsiveness to customer changes

Tropos is a powerful and flexible ERP system, widely used in the UK food and drinks industries. Tropos has been developed for regulated, short-cycle demand-driven manufacturing using the process model. This makes it ideal for food processors and packers, particularly those supplying the major retailers or those distributing short shelf-life products.

Tropos features that support the manufacture of short shelf-life food products are ideally suited for processors and packers of fresh produce. In addition, Tropos supports the additional requirements of these processors: 

• Consignment costing
• “Day one for day one” order and delivery processing
• Multiple product attributes and grades
• Retailer-specific packing and labelling
• Produce industry-specific quality management
• Integration with agronomists’ systems

The buying power of the major retailers has resulted in a small number of key produce processors acting as consolidators, sourcing packed produce from smaller operations. Tropos supports the triangulation of order management and documentation where orders are taken by the consolidator, goods are shipped by the supplier to the RDC, and invoices are raised and processed by the consolidator.

Detail

The process manufacturing solutions Solarsoft deliver can be divided into the following business functions:

• Sales Management
• Planning
• Operations
• Technical & Regulatory
• Finance & HR
• Tools & Technology

Sales Management

Sales order processing whether telesales, EDI or through a web-portal needs to be fast and effective with accurate pricing and backed up by customer relationship management (CRM) to provide a high level of service beyond simple product delivery.

Many industries are reliant on accurate Forecasting and Inventory Optimisation, feeding through to the Demand Management process if the right goods are to be delivered on time in full.

For international sales the correct Export Documentation is essential. Producing these yourselves can give significant savings compared to agents fees.

Sales Management Products:

• Tropos Sales Order Processing
• Tropos CRM
• Forecasting and Inventory Optimisation
• Tropos Demand Management
• Export Documentation

Planning

If the problem is long term strategic planning, or a medium term tactical plan, or a detailed schedule for today then Tropos has the tools to support decision making. With Rough Cut Planning and Scheduling to full Graphical Planning with balancing and optimisation between lines. Traditional MRP / MRPII still has its place but no longer should these processes dictate the pace of the business. The Tropos Process and Materials Planning Module raise the pace with on-line, dynamic materials control.

For the specialist niche of Whisky blending Solarsoft have developed the Whisky Workbench to optimise this process.

Planning Products:

• Tropos Scheduling
• Tropos Visual Planner
• Tropos Process and Materials Planning
• Tropos Bulk Whisky Workbench (for distillers and blenders)

Operations

Many systems fail to deliver where the battle is lost and won - in operation. The cycle of material movement and adding value from Purchasing and Goods Receiving through Production , with support from Warehousing and Inventory Control , feeding into the Distribution chain.

For fresh produce the supply chain can be extended back into the field with field based data capture, auditing and consolidation software for the agri-food industry. The high utilisation demanded from plant and equipment can only be ensured with effective Planned Plant Maintenance.

Operations Products:

• Tropos Purchasing
• Tropos Production Monitoring
• Tropos Warehousing and Inventory
• Tropos Sales and Distribution
• Tropos Plant Maintenance

Technical and Regulatory Products

A fully flexible system for developing BOMs, Formulations and Recipes, with multiple units of measure, by- and co-products together with an accurate model of the Production Processes, provides the backbone of the ERP model. When supported by practically unlimited Product Attributes, with flexible processing significance even difficult products can be accurately represented.

Quality Management should not be separate to the core business applications, so Tropos was designed with Quality at its heart. Without this it would not be possible to control the quality of the other processes in the business.

In environments where the materials are hazardous it is important to keep track of documentation such as MSDS and TREM and ensure that the necessary warnings and instructions are present. The Tropos Hazards Management Module provides these facilities.

The New Product Development process (NPD) has special requirements when supplying the major multiples, so a high level of integration has been developed.

When managing Customs & Excise duties in a bonded warehouse environment subject to HMC&E controls the Tropos Customs & Excise facilities provide the facilities to support compliance with the statutory notices.

Technical and Regulatory Products:

• Tropos Bill of Materials
• Tropos Process Definition
• Tropos Attributes
• Tropos Quality Assurance
• Tropos Hazards Management
• Tropos Customs and Excise

Finance and HR

Tropos has a full suite of Financial modules, and is fed from a Product Costing module to support accurate financial management of the business. If managing major projects in the business the Tropos Project Planning and Control module allows projects to be defined with work breakdown structures and the progress and costs controlled.

As well as managing the financial elements of a business the Human Resources are key to delivering profitability, managing time and attendance.

Finance and HR Products:

• Tropos Financials
• Tropos Costing
• Tropos Project Planning and Control
• Human Resource Management and Payroll

Tropos Tools and Technology

Tropos is built on a technical architecture that is scalable in size and sophistication. Tropos clients can be browser, PCs or mobile devices. Data integration tools are supplied with every systems and the Application Designer enables developers to extend and enhance Tropos without affecting core program integrity and support. Workflow is set-up and managed with the Tropos Active module, reducing errors and speeding activity through the business. EDI integration is enabled with standard tools. Printed Forms can be customised and the database design means data can be accessed for reporting and analysis with a wide range of standard reporting software.

Tropos Tools and Technology Products:

• Tropos Technical Architecture
• Tropos Web Client
• Tropos Role-Based Applications
• Tropos Application Designer
• Tropos Shopfloor Data Collection
• Tropos Reporting and Business Intelligence
• Tropos DataMart
• Tropos White Paper Printing
• Tropos Data Integration
• Tropos Intranet

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