The subsidiary of the Cadbury-Schweppes group, confectionery leader in France, has relied on the SKEP® solutions by DynaSys throughout its operations of external growth, in order to support the evolutions of production planning for confectionery, chocolates and chewing-gums. For Cadbury France , this long relationship with DynaSys solutions is based on the fact that they ensure industrial planning with added value, in accordance with the evolution of the group’s organization, which has been taking place in a progressive way. This strategy of continuous improvement, which has been experienced with DynaSys for ten years, also guarantees a tangible return on investment with the accomplishment of very concrete objectives, like the increase of the customer service quality and the reduction of stocks.

The choice of the SKEP® solution

In 1993, Cadbury France decided to adopt the SKEP® solutions by DynaSys. On every step of the company’s external growth, the reliability of the DynaSys solutions has been confirmed compared to other systems on the market, but also at every technological turn taken by the production management field. The latest example: during the adoption of the integrated software SAP in 1999, when Cadbury France decided to adopt SKEP® by DynaSys for Supply Chain Planning. ’In the process industry with finite capacities, we have to plan under the constraint of quite detailed modelling of our production lines. SKEP® and its interface certified by SAP constitute the ideal tactical alternative to the global Supply Chain Planning solutions, in order to carry out what-if scenarios under constraints, but without becoming involved in huge, long and costly projects’, estimates Bruno Berton, Supply Chain Director at CadburyFrance.

The challenges

With the acquisition of Hollywood , Cadbury France decided to create a centralised planning cell. From a technical and functional point of view, the DynaSys solutions have gone much further than the simple planning of several production lines. ‘With the DynaSys solutions we have moved without any problem from one-site management, with a single family of products, to a complex environment with four production sites, a warehouse, co-manufacturing, outsourced packaging and various sub-contracting purchases, all that with a high level of customer service‘, summarises Paul Courtet, Systems & Networks Manager and witness of this progress as well as of the very first steps of the corporate planning.

The same applies to the transfer of production from one industrial site to another. The anticipation of the stocks needed, going with the changes of the item codes between both sites as well as a detailed management of the production capacities (progressive load of the machines and precise transfer of manpower to other production lines) are constraints used by the Cadbury France team in order to reach its main objective: a high quality customer service level.

Easy to implement

Without minimizing the importance of these unfixed strategic simulations allowing quick decision-making when faced with unexpected events, the most interesting aspect of this project has been the implementation managed internally from A to Z by Emmanuel Fermaut, "Process and Project Development" Support Manager, and by the Planning team. The Cadbury France Supply Chain team has assimilated the transferred knowledge and has been able to use it successfully very quickly!

‘Indeed the fact that at any level we have hardly needed support from DynaSys to deploy SKEP® is a positive sign’, confirms Emmanuel Fermaut. ‘The strong point of a modelling tool is how easy it is to use by taking into account the organisation of the company and of its production processes.’

'‘In 1999, when our system for computer integrated manufacturing management was not passing the year 2000 and as SAP users hardly began talking about advanced planning on APO, the decision to carry on with DynaSys and the stage crossed by parameterising SKEP®, based on the description of the processes on each site, have reinforced our idea to go further into the use of data centralisation’.'

Paul Courtet, Systems & Networks Manager at Cadbury France

Measurement of the Supply Chain performance

In 2002, the Cadbury France team got interested in the multi-dimensional analysis potential of SKEP® eXtended Scoring, the solution for Supply Chain performance measurement by DynaSys.

At the beginning, the Scoring Project was only intended to follow up the reliability of sales forecasts and demand management at a weekly bucket. Nowadays SKEP® eXtended Scoring allows the implementation of performance indicators for the whole logistics decision chain called "Supply Chain KPI’s" (Key Performance Indicators) of Cadbury France. SKEP® eXtended Scoring is a tailor-made solution for all Supply Chain decision-makers: in fact it enables to check at any time the used capacity compared to the forecasted load or to know instantaneously the forecast inventory level.

SKEP® eXtended Scoring targets immediately the respect of the stock policy and possible stock-outs by a manipulation of the multi-dimensional analysis cubes which allow information display at different levels of the customers-items hierarchy.

Proven benefits

Implemented in 1993 at Cadbury, that is to say for already 10 years, the assisted planning with the SKEP® solution by DynaSys has permitted significant profits within one half-year (since September 1993):

• Reduction of backward and forward inventory levels without compromising the quality of the service.
• Saving of a refrigerating warehouse, representing a profit of € 76,500.
• Better growth management.
• Reduction of the finished products inventories by 5 days.
• Quick return on investment.

Integration to theIT system

SKEP® eXtended Integration, the Data Hub used for the automatic feed of the DynaSys Data Warehouse with data flows, is the pillar of the Business Mapping SAP/R3 (certified SAP interface). It allows the storage of data originated from and destined for several softwares involved in Supply Chain Planning.

‘'Counting entirely on the integration of SAP with SKEP®, we nowadays have a coherent and complete Supply Chain management and monitoring solution, because it is adapted to the Cadbury France situation from demand management to the storage of finished products, and capable to ensure the quick return on investment we expect’'

Bruno Berton, Supply Chain Director at Cadbury France.