Through innovation and diversification, the family run business has developed four strands: commodity food ingredients such as glycerine, MPG and glucose; food flavours; food colourings; and co-packing for some big brand names and retailers.
In the last two years Blends has doubled its manufacturing facilities on Knowsley Business Park to two 35,000 sq. ft buildings and has recently invested £500,000 in a new 15,000 sq. ft extension.
The extension houses three new development labs, which illustrates the direction the business is going in. Blends continues to grow in both turnover and staff numbers.
Blends was established in 1997 by Mike and Ann Rowark and sons Michael and Phillip are continuing to push the business forward with fresh ideas. They both recognise the major barrier to growth is its reliance on outdated, paper-based systems.
It has set its sights on adopting Industry 4.0 technologies to make it more efficient and boost productivity.
The Challenge
Blends uses various basic software to process data for sales and purchases, generate quotes and invoices, and process recipes and orders.
It is also reliant on spreadsheets to monitor and process new product development, meaning the business is sometimes slow to react to opportunities.
Meanwhile, data used in the technical and quality control systems is processed manually which is time consuming and can be prone to duplication and human error.
Michael said while functional, none of the software solutions communicate with each other.
“We’ve been growing the business gradually to ensure reliable service to our customers and not overselling our capabilities,” he explained. “But we are walking around with scraps of paper recording information and typing it into spreadsheets.
“We’re now at a crucial point when we need to eliminate those flaws and become more streamlined and efficient. We need the software to do much more – and quicker.”
The Solution
With the help from Made Smarter Blends has devised a project to use a combination of food industry specific manufacturing and supply-chain management software.
The cloud-based solution will enable real-time and remote analytics and monitoring by the management and executive team.
Michael explained: “The ERP software system we have chosen will replace our disparate systems to manage all our recipes, production, supply chain, traceability and reporting. Our finance software will also be integrated within the system.
“This first step into digitalisation is going to make a significant difference to our entire operation and enable us to be more transparent in all aspects of the business.”
The Benefits
Michael believes that by channelling the manual and duplicated tasks of data recording into a single operation will improve efficiency by 50%.
Michael said: “By eliminating the labour currently devoted to the process of working around those software flaws – which is one full time employee – we will be significantly more efficient. That role would move into sales, giving us more opportunity for growth.
“The elimination of paper, spreadsheets, clipboards and pens will have a major impact on our workforce. It will remove frustrations, delays, uncertainties and the opportunity to be blamed for errors. More technical skills and training in our new software will really enhance job satisfaction.”
The new software will give Blends access to new data, which Michael believes could reduce packaging waste by 25%.
“Ultimately it will massively speed up processes in the factory and form the backbone for future digital expansions,” he added.
The project is also expected to benefit the region’s GVA increasing by £1.5M over the next three years.
The Future
The new system is designed to allow for the extra capacity as the business grows and becomes more sophisticated.
Michael said: “This new software gives us the confidence to drive the business forward.”
He adds “Our plans for the near future are further investment in areas such as refurbishment of our sites and an additional canning line, for the ever increasing demand in this sector.”
