September 20, 2024

Tailor-made app streamlines Ardo’s production and quality process

Food quality and safety are undoubtedly the No. 1 priority for every food company. But how do you engage operators in your quality management process? Frozen food expert Ardo found the secret ingredient: an intuitive app that is accessible right from the shop floor’s kiosk computers.

The tailor-made app helps operators log goods, receipts, create batch numbers and check quality samples – all in a few taps. Behind this lean MES system is Flexso – together with Fiori Elements.

Established in the 1960s, Ardo is a global market leader on a mission to ensure the freshest, juiciest frozen vegetables, herbs, and fruit. Since the family business set foot in the US in 2019, it has been flourishing and expanding more than ever. Every year, a staggering 1,000,000 tons of frozen fruit and vegetables leave one of Ardo’s 15 production, packaging and distribution sites destined for more than 100 countries around the world.

Ensuring quality and productivity

The key to managing that growth? Innovation and technology, among other things. In 2023, Ardo started replacing the many different ERP systems in use at its sites with SAP S/4HANA. The starting point was clear: centralize and standardize as many processes as possible, keeping the S/4HANA core clean, and integrate existing systems or build extensions to support more specific processes.

For example, the existing Manufacturing Execution System (MES) and Warehouse Management System (WMS) work seamlessly together with SAP S/4HANA in Ardo’s larger, complex plants, like the one in Ardooie (Belgium). “In smaller production units such as those in Spain and the UK, a MES would be overkill,” says Koen Vereecken. “Still, ensuring quality and productivity are just as important here. That’s why we decided to automate some basic processes like goods receipt, quality inspection and the creation of batches, with a tailor-made application as an extension to SAP S/4HANA.”

The case for keeping the core clean

The SAP S/4HANA core consists of several key components, including standard configuration, predefined business processes, and a data model that supports modules like finance, procurement, sales, and manufacturing. In fact, there are over 800 features to choose from!

Keeping that core clean means sticking to these out-of-the-box, standardized components, avoiding customization in order to:

optimize system performance: less complexity, faster data processing
upgrade, maintain, adapt, and scale the platform with ease – and speed
save costs, thanks to the trouble-free support and maintenance

Flexso: master chefs when it comes to new tech

While Ardo had chosen a big business consultancy group to implement SAP S/4HANA, they chose to rely on Flexso experts to co-create the ‘light’ MES system. “Flexso had developed an extension for us to follow up sales orders and we were impressed with their hands-on, agile approach and deep know-how of new technologies,” Koen explains “We were sure they’d deliver the same level of expertise for this app.”

Speed, budget, and usability

With a tight budget and a race against time, Flexso recommended using SAP Fiori Elements as a template-based accelerator to streamline application development.

SAP Fiori would also ensure the user-friendliness that was one of Ardo’s main requirements, says Koen: “Ensuring ultimate usability was indeed key for us. Our blue-collar workers, charged with registering the materials, setting quality parameters, and logging batches in S/4HANA aren’t SAP experts. We needed straightforward navigation that required a minimum of clicks, easily accessible screens, and even large buttons. So, before the project kicked off, the project team created detailed mockups, reviewed them with business stakeholders, and finetuned them to ensure everything was spot-on.”

Cutting the mustard

The smart technology choices that Flexso made and the smooth collaboration between the Flexso and Ardo project teams led to success: the app was delivered within scope, time (2 months!), and budget. There was even budget left to add some extra ‘nice to have’ functionalities.

While Ardo is still in the midst of the roll-out, Koen and his colleagues are confident that they will soon reap the benefits of the new app. Being so user-friendly, it allows the operators and quality managers to log and check all the required data in just a few clicks. Thanks to the integration of the app into S/4HANA, all details will immediately be available in the core too – guaranteeing production and quality optimization.

Ardo’s recipe for app success

Foster close collaboration between your IT partner and your team.
Keep your S/4HANA core clean, to build a strong IT foundation, yet make sure the new app is easy to embed in your S/4HANA architecture.
Use SAP Fiori Elements to create an intuitive interface.
Add SAP Fiori Elements template accelerators to the mix to keep the project on track, within both budget and time.
Rely on Agile/SCRUM methodology to keep the team focused and efficient.
Incorporate a large scoop of knowledge transfer for long-term success.

Next on the menu

While Ardo is still migrating to S/4HANA in its sales office around Europe and rolling out the light MES in several production sites, they are planning to add extra functionalities to the app in the future, like barcode or QR-code scanning. New applications that will drive closer collaboration with the farmers who deliver the vegetables, herbs, and fruit, are on the wish list too.

“Our supply chain digital roadmap is ambitious, and that’s a must as our sector is facing quite a few challenges. More than ensuring operational efficiency, traceability and sustainability are key for Ardo as a food company. Every single automation step we take helps us deliver the high-quality, healthy, sustainably sourced vegetables, fruit, and herbs that consumers expect, in a (cost-)efficient way.”
Koen Vereecken - Enterprise Architect at Ardo