Sweet Jubilee – Perfectly Positioned To Grow with National Retailers with ERP Software

Sweet Jubilee Gourmet – Customer Profile

Sweet Jubilee’s handcrafted sweets, treats and snacks are where fancy meets fun for every-day indulgences and special, seasonal occasions.  To grow its business, Sweet Jubilee Gourmet turned to Mar-Kov to deliver the Safe Quality Food (SQF) compliance and EDI integration that is a must-have for national retailers.

Results:

·         EDI integration

·         SQF compliant traceability

·         Accurate inventory counts and control

·         Automatic data entry into Quickbooks

A boutique, artisanal confectioner, Sweet Jubilee knew its error-prone, time-consuming pen/pencil system would never provide the accurate traceability so many of its customers needed. As importantly, Sweet Jubilee had to eliminate the raw ingredient and finished product stockouts that negatively affected order delivery and customer satisfaction.

A Mar-Kov project manager’s site visit and process review helped Sweet Jubilee map and restructure complex production steps. As a result, standard operating procedures now ensure products end up in the right seasonal variety packs with the all of the necessary sprinkles, decorations and coatings.

“The onsite visit was very helpful to ensure smooth roll out. It helped tease out all of our requirements and ensured the project was a success.”

Sweet Jubilee consistently meets production and delivery targets and aces audits with the help of barcode scanning that monitors raw materials and finished products and automatically creates an end-to-end traceability log.

Because Mar-Kov monitors exactly how much of each ingredient goes into every batch, Sweet Jubilee is in control of everything from inventory and related costs to product quality and consistency.

With sophisticated, but user-friendly inventory control, MES and MRP capabilities, Sweet Jubilee is perfectly positioned to produce, distribute and sell its tasty treats, snacks and sweets to national retailers.

Food Manufacturer 24-Hour ROI & Return to Profitability with Vittles’ MRP

Chinook Seedery – Customer Profile

Chinook’s tasty, healthy sunflower seeds are available nationwide on Amazon, Shopify and from 3,000 retailers. Chinook became a sustainable business with consistent profits and satisfied customers 24 hours after the seedery implemented Mar-Kov’s MRP software.

Results:

·         24-hour ROI, immediate return to profitability

·         Founder/sales manager free to focus on sales instead of admin

·         Accurate, on-time deliveries and invoices restore customer confidence

·         Instant access to precise, real-time digital records

·         Fully integrated with QuickBooks

·         FDA  and FSMA compliant traceability

“Chinook now has the real-time, accurate information we need to make crucial business decisions and run the company more efficiently and cost-effectively,”

Kraig Schexnayder, COO, Chinook Seedery.

Mar-Kov’s batch control software delivered an extraordinary 24-hour ROI because it immediately replaced the part-time employees that had manually created and managed Chinook’s paperwork. The management team also leveraged Vittles’ cost-of-goods reports to price products to maintain margins and ensure long-term sustainability. At Chinook, raw ingredients account for about 33% of total costs and managers expect costs will drop as they use Vittles’ data to plan bulk orders and negotiate volume discounts.

The MRP software seamlessly matches raw ingredient requirements and schedules production, packaging, order assemblies, shipping and invoicing based on customers’ orders. As a result, consumers, distributors and retailers get exactly what they ordered delivered within an acceptable timeframe.

Consumers with a passion for super healthy sunflower seeds now get the great taste they expect every time because all of Chinook’s recipes are carefully recorded and instantly accessible in Vittles. Before Mar-Kov, the lead mixer relied on his experience and intuition to create each batch of perfectly seasoned sunflowers. Vittles also stores every detail pertaining to Chinook’s ingredients, production and shipping data which ensures FDA Food Safety Modernization Act compliance.

“In 24 hours, Vittles put Chinook back in the black and helped us revolutionize the way we manage our business,” says Kraig. “Mar-Kov gave me a crash course in everything that’s unique to food manufacturing.”

Mar-Kov Helped SDB Meet Pandemic-Fueled Demand for Hair Care Products

SDB – Customer Profile

Contract manufacturer produces 600+ mass market hair shampoos/conditioners (90%) and body lotions for 25+ customers on 4 production lines.

Results:

·         Scalable, flexible, user-friendly software supports double the production

·         Accurate, real-time material resource planning

·         Precise, current tracking of 800+ ingredient inventory

·         Transparency with traceable, trackable tests, formulas, packaging

Thanks to Mar-Kov, SDB easily doubled production and inventory to meet the pandemic-fueled demand for its shampoos and conditioners. 

“There is no way we’d have been able to handle the volume increase without Mar-Kov and its ability to adapt as our priorities shifted,” says Beth Parsons, senior project manager, SDB Products.

The scalable, flexible batch control software also provides the accountability, traceability and transparency SDB’s customers need. SDB uses the LIMs module to monitor and record micro-test results that confirm bulk chemicals and compounds meet specifications.

“Customers insist on the documentation – it’s mandatory, not optional, because recalls are hideously expensive and bad for the reputation – ours and our customer’s,” says Beth.

SDB recently ran a mock recall that took less than an hour with Mar-Kov. The software tracked every lot for every chemical, where the finished product was shipped and when it arrived at its final destination.

“Doing it manually is overwhelming, error-prone and incredibly inefficient,” says Beth. “Without Mar-Kov, we’d have to hire a fulltime employee for that role.”

Mar-Kov manages orders and checks customers’ recipes against SDB’s 800+ raw ingredient inventory. When employees need ingredients, the software directs employees to the correct warehouse, aisle, shelf and the section on that shelf. Without Mar-Kov, it could hours or even days to find an ingredient because SDB has 82,000 sq. ft. of production and warehouse space in two locations.  Mar-Kov also saves every recipe, tracks who made each revision and adds a time stamp.

When SDB first started production back in 2019, the company’s owners and senior leaders had no idea what lay ahead. The pandemic hit in early 2020, and Mar-Kov helped make SDB’s rapid and unexpected growth possible.

“Mar-Kov adapted with us as our regular summer to early fall business season became 12 consecutive months of busy,” says Beth. “With Mar-Kov, we’re prepared for whatever comes next.”

City View Green Cuts Time to Market by 8 to 12 Months with Mar-Kov’s Batch Control Software & Support

City View Green – Customer Profile

City View Green makes and bakes up to 280,000 CBD- and THC-infused cookies, chocolates, gummies and mints per shift at its 52,000 sq. ft. facility in Brantford, Ontario. The company has 10 core and up to 40 flexible employees.

Results:

·         Process Manufacturing Software with controlled substances, pharma and food manufacturing expertise/experience
·         Provider understands controlled substance licensing requirements
·         Batch control software that meets cannabis/food security requirements
·         Zero wait time and 80% cheaper than custom software
·         Mar-Kov handles implementation, ongoing maintenance and updates

When City View Green chose Mar-Kov and its off-the-shelf batch control software, the company slashed its time to market by eight to 12 months because Mar-Kov understands controlled substances, food manufacturing and licensing.  

City View Green and Mar-Kov knew that every Health Canada request for more information and clarification could delay the licensing process by at least 10 days. They also recognized the potential impact on City View Green’s finances and employee morale could be catastrophic.

As a result, Mar-Kov stepped up to help City View Green’s application meet Health Canada’s stringent standards the first time around. Start to finish, City View Green’s 10-section application was completed and submitted in five not 18 months as had become the norm with applications for other firms.

“Mar-Kov gave us a programmer and a documentation expert that created a working document that we included in our Standard Processing License application to free up our resources and save us valuable time,” says Randy Macleod, COO, City View Green.

City View Green also saved time and money because Mar-Kov’s off-the-self batch control software already had the crucial security, activity and ingredient tracking and weight and bar code capabilities. As required by regulators such as Health Canada, Mar-Kov tracks employees’ access to the cannabis and their use (weighing, measuring, mixing) of all of the ingredients. It also sets out and records good production practices (GPP), standard operating procedures (SOP) and the preventative control plans that protect the cannabis and food from contamination.  

“Mar-Kov’s batch manufacturing software does everything Health Canada, CFA and HACCP expects of us every single shift,” says Randy.

Fulcher’s Current Staff Doubles Production with Mar-Kov Batch Control

Fulcher’s uses 450 to 500 ingredients, raw materials and more in the 40 to 60 prepared seafood meals it manufactures and sells to consumers through retailers and restaurants. 

Results:

•             Double production without hiring new employees  
•             Accurate, real-time inventory enables on-time production & delivery
•             Stress- and hassle-free food safety audits
•             8% drop in overuse and more accurate costing boost margins

When the pandemic first shutdown restaurants, Fulcher’s sales and production doubled in just three months.  Rather than hire five new employees to handle the admin overload, Fulcher’s scaled up with Mar-Kov batch control to manage everything associated with twice the production.  

Mar-Kov was the only option when the alternative was hiring, onboarding and then training five fulltime admin [clerical] employees as Fulcher’s ramped up to 10/11 weekly shifts from six.   

When Chaz Fulcher and his sister/business partner Christina Fulcher-Cahoon launched their prepared food business in 2016, they relied on the pens and spreadsheets that had served the family business so well for generations. As the business grew, Chaz needed instant access to accurate, current data to order raw materials and ingredients, schedule production and meet food safety compliance requirements.  

HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point), FDA FSMA (Food Safety Modernization Act) and SQF (Safe Quality Food) certification are mandatory from a regulatory perspective and a pre-requisite with 80% of Fulcher’s customers. 

Every year, Fulcher’s Seafood faces eight scheduled audits as well as random audits. Fulcher’s team uses Mar-Kov reports to get the detailed data they need in minutes instead of hours. The reports tell them which company supplied an ingredient, when it arrived, which batch it went into, when the finished product was shipped and to which customer.  

Instant access to precise, detailed information is crucial because if auditors identify an issue, companies like Fulcher’s have three to seven days to resolve it, otherwise their certification may be pulled or the plant could be shuttered.  

“Thanks to Mar-Kov’s detailed tracking, we also decreased overuse by 8% - which allowed us to maintain our margins without increasing or prices with gives us a competitive edge with customers,” says Chaz.

Please click here to read the full success story.

Traceability and Recalls Should be Easy

Keeping lot and traceability records, and maintaining the ability to perform recalls is really hard on paper – it’s time to consider a system designed for this purpose that will make the task simple and easy.

You know that in today’s regulatory environment, you need to be able to perform recalls quickly and accurately. If you have tried keeping lot and traceability records on a paper and by using an excel system you probably think it’s difficult and time consuming.

Does the following sound like a scary but familiar process?

• Dig through receiving records to locate the date of when the recalled lot was received.

• Dig again through production records starting with the date receipt and by pulling all the batch records impacted by that lot.

• Scrambling to figure out  what was the last batch created using that lot, and whether there is still any on hand. Run out to the warehouse and search for it.

• Dig yet again through your shipping records to figure out  which customers you shipped to. If you are a pick-and-pack operation with thousands of shipping records this becomes a nightmare.

• Sort and organize all the customer shipping records by customer. Make a list for each of them of the potentially impacted batches.

• You are finally ready to start calling/emailing, filled with uncertainty that your lists are complete and accurate.

All of the above assumes that you actually recorded lot numbers on your batches and shipments. If not, you are left to make assumptions based on the range of dates the product was used, and when you produced the product you shipped to your customers.

You will know, if you have tried this, that for an organization of any size and complexity it is impossible to do this in the limited time required by the FDA and other auditors.

The good news is that a bit of timely record keeping and a system designed with traceability and recalls in mind can make this process completely painless, and can take under 60 seconds (if you don’t believe it fill out this form and we will be happy to show you). The best part? This is a seamless side-effect of keeping your regular receiving, manufacturing, and shipping records.