Kenandy > Case Studies > Big Heart Pet Brands: A business which, while medium-sized, now really knows no bounds

Big Heart Pet Brands: A business which, while medium-sized, now really knows no bounds

Company Size

1,000+

Region

America

Country

United States

Product

Kenandy ERP cloud
Salesforce1 Platform

Tech Stack

Cloud Computing
ERP Systems

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Cost Savings
Productivity Improvements

Technology Category

Functional Applications - Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP)
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing

Applicable Industries

Consumer Goods

Applicable Functions

Discrete Manufacturing
Procurement

Use Cases

Inventory Management
Supply Chain Visibility

Services

Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
System Integration

About The Customer

Big Heart Pet Brands is the largest standalone producer, distributor, and marketer of premium-quality, branded pet food and snacks in the United States. Their industry-leading products include such perennial pet favorites as Milk-Bone®, 9Lives®, Gravy Train®, Kibbles ‘n Bits®, Meow Mix®, and Natural Balance®. The company has annual sales of $2.3 billion and offers a variety of products and lines of business. Big Heart Pet Brands was formerly known as Del Monte Corporation and is now part of the J.M. Smucker Company.

The Challenge

Big Heart Pet Brands, the largest standalone producer, distributor, and marketer of premium-quality, branded pet food and snacks in the United States, was finding it challenging to run its increasingly complex operations on the company’s existing ERP systems, which were both cumbersome and costly to upgrade. The company needed a more agile, state-of-the-art system that could not only help them cost-effectively simplify their current systems’ complexity, but could also automate manual processes and better accommodate corporate plans for growth. They were looking for a flexible system that easily adapts to business changes, such as new acquisitions, while also offering enterprise-class capabilities.

The Solution

Big Heart consolidated some 90 legacy applications onto the Kenandy ERP cloud and the Salesforce1 Platform. They are now running their entire operations on the new cloud system, including their corporate financials, five manufacturing facilities, and 11 warehouse operations, as well as connecting directly to more than 20 co-packer facilities and Big Heart customers across the country. Following an agile implementation methodology, with Kenandy and Big Heart teaming to progressively configure the system in functionality-focused “sprints”, the transition to Kenandy was not only remarkably smooth and efficient, it also was on time and on budget.

Operational Impact

In addition to lowering costs, Kenandy has enabled Big Heart to automate a wide array of critical tasks and processes, dramatically increasing speed, accuracy, and time-to-value.
Touchless processing now prevails, improving accuracy while speeding operations.
The mass of Excel sheets that used to maintain pricing have been replaced by a simple, user-friendly interface that provides automatic updates and audit controls.
Built-in lead-time and transit optimization features are now automatically integrated into the supply chain, producing on-time orders.
Significantly improved visibility across the company means that better business decisions can be made by all users, all the time, delivering far better business results.

Quantitative Benefit

Consolidated some 90 legacy applications onto the Kenandy ERP cloud and the Salesforce1 Platform.
Automatically process hundreds of sales orders, purchase orders, production orders, shipments, receiving, internal transfers, and all accounting functionality from day one of the transition.