Irca
PLM
The company
Irca specializes in the production of ingredients and preparations for all professional B2B channels, from artisanal pastry chefs and bakers to large food industries. The product spans a wide range of categories: from mixes for bakeries, to confectioners’ creams, various types of chocolate and swirls for gelato.
Strong growth, internationalization and expansion through acquisitions characterize the last years of Irca. Today the group is owned by the US investment fund Advent International and has six plants around the world: in Italy, Belgium, the United States and Vietnam.
Requirements
International growth and organizational complexity also due to acquisitions – the Belgian Dobla, in 2018, and the US In2Food, in 2021 – have forced an evolution of information systems.
In 2020 Irca implemented Infor CloudSuite food&beverage. In 2021 it became necessary:
- a review of the product technical data, to optimize the use of the ERP system in production;
- a solution to manage product development processes, compliance, data and metadata.
The need was also to get the project started quickly.
Approach
Sinfo One implemented the cloud-based solution Infor PLM for Process (Optiva).
The data analysis and updating phase, essential for critically evaluating existing processes and helping the company adopt best practices, took place from April to September. We then moved on to system configuration and data migration, transferring around 800 raw materials and 2,500 formulas.
Lastly, adjustments were made on the basis of Irca’s specific needs.
The go live was in December 2021 and the solution became operational immediately. In 2022, further efficiency was achieved and some features were relaunched, such as, for example, the calculation of nutritional tables for the various markets (EU and USA).
RESULTS
The cloud-based solution makes the system intrinsically secure and also available outside the organization and allows integration between the different company functions.
Infor PLM for Process (Optiva) has greatly simplified the management of raw materials, recipes and compliance.
Sharing information allows everyone to have complete visibility, which is essential for a company that operates in different and geographically distant locations.
The management of multilingual entries, with translations provided automatically, allows for optimization of processes.
More generally, the project has led to advantages in terms of both efficiency and costs and, as an indirect but fundamental effect, greater responsibility for people.
For the future, the use of the solution is being expanded, adding:
- the management of the characteristics of the production plants and therefore their usability for specific recipes;
- approval of packaging prototypes.
