Cumberland Packing Corporation
Case Study: Cumberland Packing Corp.
Solution: Infor Adage ERP
Industry: Food and Beverage
Country: U.S.A.
About the company.
Cumberland Packing Corporation, a privately-owned Brooklyn-based manufacturer, sells billions of Sweet'N Low® packets to the retail, food service, and warehouse club markets in the United States and throughout the world each year. Along with Sweet'N Low, the leading sugar substitute in the US grocery market, Cumberland manufactures and packages popular products such as Sugar In The Raw, Butter Buds®, and Nu-Salt®.
The Situation
Cumberland decided to replace its 20-year-old manufacturing system with a fully integrated ERP solution. The company had been using a custom-built system that had no support for production processes and had limited general ledger functionality. In addition, system users had to call on the increasingly backlogged Information Services department for even minor reporting changes. After years of using and supporting a “homegrown” system, Cumberland wanted a system that empowered users, ran on an industrystandard platform, and allowed for continued growth. Along with Cumberland’s need to improve system functionality and support, it was necessary for the system to be running within months. To achieve such a quick implementation, it was essential that the chosen solution require little customization.
The Solution
After a thorough evaluation, Cumberland selected Infor™ ERP Adage. Because this Infor solution is designed specifically for process industries, it met Cumberland’s unique needs with minimal customization, and Cumberland was able to go live on the new system in just five months. “We needed manufacturing software that could not only be implemented quickly, but that had been designed for the special requirements of the food processing industry,” says Dave Gordon, Cumberland’s vice president of operations. “We selected Infor ERP Adage because we knew that it would be a 99 percent perfect fit, requiring little or no customization. The other packages we looked at had shortcomings in distribution functionality and seemed weak in managing inventory costs.
Benefits and Results
Within just a few months of deployment, Infor ERP Adage was delivering a significant return on investment. Cumberland has been able to reduce inventory by roughly 15 percent, or approximately $1.5 million. Gordon reports, “Just a few weeks after going live, we used most of MRP to plan our inventory. With Infor, we have been better able to plan and forecast demand, reducing inventory and production costs.” Cumberland has also been able to shorten delivery lead times, improve customer service, and cut production costs.
Additionally, Infor ERP Adage has improved costing, which was previously calculated with a manual ledger and spreadsheets, and has equipped Cumberland with the ability to measure product waste something it was unable to do before the Infor implementation. Cumberland has been extremely pleased with the relatively small amount of maintenance the Infor ERP Adage solution requires. “The ease of use and administration of the entire network is remarkable,” says Gordon. “It’s been really effortless.” In addition to handling production, distribution, and bookkeeping for the main division in Brooklyn, the Infor application is also being used by four of Cumberland’s contract packers.
According to Gordon, the scalability of the Infor solution has been a great advantage. “Our database has grown significantly since deployment, and I haven’t noticed any response problems in the system.” And having realized benefits in the form of increased efficiency and an improved bottom line, Cumberland is confident that they can count on Infor.
