Case Studies > Bakkavör Improves Food Service Operation with Manhattan Warehouse Management Solution

Bakkavör Improves Food Service Operation with Manhattan Warehouse Management Solution

Company Size

1,000+

Region

Africa
America
Asia
Europe

Country

Belgium
China
Czech Republic
France
Iceland
South Africa
Spain
United Kingdom
United States

Product

Manhattan Warehouse Management
LXE MX2 Hand-held Scanners
LXE VX1 Truck-mounted Scanners

Tech Stack

Microsoft-based Architecture
Radio Frequency (RF) Technology
Windows 2000

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Cost Savings
Customer Satisfaction
Productivity Improvements

Technology Category

Functional Applications - Warehouse Management Systems (WMS)

Applicable Industries

Food & Beverage
Retail

Applicable Functions

Logistics & Transportation
Warehouse & Inventory Management

Use Cases

Inventory Management
Supply Chain Visibility
Warehouse Automation

Services

Software Design & Engineering Services
System Integration

About The Customer

Bakkavör Group is a leading international food manufacturing company specializing in fresh prepared foods and produce. The Group operates 66 factories and employs over 20,000 people across ten countries, including the UK, Iceland, France, Belgium, Spain, South Africa, China, the Czech Republic, and the United States. The company generates 88% of its revenue from customers in the UK, 10% from Continental Europe, and 2% from the rest of the world. Bakkavör Group produces over 6,000 products in 18 product categories, primarily developed and sold under its customers' brands. The company has seen significant growth, outpacing the market, and has become essential to improve its supply chain systems to maintain and advance its market-leading position.

The Challenge

Bakkavör was experiencing rapid market growth and faced challenges due to a lack of coordination and integration among its systems and facilities. The company's order processing and transaction systems were minimally integrated with its existing warehouse management software, necessitating a paper-based system for orders, picking, dispatching, and reporting. Additionally, multiple Bakkavör food companies operated from various factories on the same site, feeding into seven different warehouses. This situation required the company to consolidate its operational facilities and apply a single system for managing and fulfilling orders. To maintain its market-leading position in the fresh food market, where short production cycles and order accuracy are critical, Bakkavör needed to implement a new and unified Warehouse Management system.

The Solution

Bakkavör chose Manhattan Associates to provide a Warehouse Management system to integrate all its systems and streamline distribution center processes. The company centralized its fulfillment operation in a new distribution center in Spalding, Lincolnshire, and replaced its manual paper-based environment with a paperless Radio Frequency (RF)-driven operation managed by Manhattan's Warehouse Management solution. The project, including the design and construction of a state-of-the-art chilled facility, was completed within six months. The Manhattan solution now manages the distribution of Bakkavör's salads, soups, sauces, dips, dressings, and ready meals to major stores throughout the UK and Northern Europe. The implementation of the new system allowed Bakkavör to achieve total visibility across the supply chain, increase customer service levels, reduce distribution center space needs, and enhance productivity.

Operational Impact

Bakkavör achieved increased space and labor efficiency, requiring only two-thirds of the space occupied by the same volume of products in the old warehouse.
The company experienced higher levels of service to customers, with a 99.97% level of service achieved for Tesco since the implementation of the new solution.
The new system provided flexibility to handle fluctuations in demand, managing production requirements over a perpetual seven-day cycle and handling massive peaks during the summer and Christmas periods.
Visibility across the supply chain improved tremendously, with the ability to manage a tightly controlled short shelf life inventory and track lot and date information throughout the entire supply chain.
The use of LXE MX2 hand-held and VX1 truck-mounted scanners integrated with Warehouse Management provided real-time data communications, leading to a change in culture at Bakkavör and driving the speed of the outbound operation.

Quantitative Benefit

The new distribution center requires only two-thirds of the space occupied by the same volume of products in the old warehouse.
A 99.97% level of service has been achieved for Tesco since the implementation of the new solution.
The cut-off time for completing dispatch-ready consignments was reduced from four to two hours.