Scope
CRM and Sales Management
Accounting and Finance
Inventory Management, Purchase and Logistics
Manufacturing, Quality and Maintenance
Project Management
Human Resources (HR)
Marketing
Helpdesk and Customer Service
Document Management
Industry
Manufacturing
Size
11-50 Users
Countries
Germany
Netherlands
Website
Smart formulations and seamless inventory management - Breatec's success story with Odoo Experts
The people behind Breatec all have a baking background. But no bread rolls off the line in Nieuwkuijk, Brabant. Active enzymes do. With Odoo Experts, they have succeeded in keeping them exactly under control in inventory.
“Make a dough from flour, water, yeast and salt, and put it in the oven,” says Frank de Goeij, RD&A Director at Breatec. “After an hour you have a freshly baked loaf of bread. After a day you have a brick. With our bread improvers, the bread stays fresh.” Breatec is a specialist in bread improvers for the bakery industry. The company is active worldwide for all bakery products you can think of. The improvers consist of various components whose specific composition ensures that the product stays fresh longer, has more volume, or a finer structure, to name just a few improvements. “Enzymes account for 80 percent of our daily business,” says Frank de Goeij. “Nothing scary, really. Enzymes are also in your body. They ensure that your body releases the molecules needed to make energy. We apply that technology in the bakery industry.”
Continuous testing
“Every company active in the food industry works on the basis of a certain formulation,” Frank de Goeij explains. “That formulation consists of different percentages of components. The composition of those percentages is always the same and together they make up 100 percent. We use enzymes to make an improver, but those enzymes do not always work the same way. The activity of an enzyme varies, and we have to take that into account in our formulation. Our customers want one dosage, one formulation. So behind the scenes we must continuously test how active an enzyme is and what percentage of the other components we need to add for an optimal and standardized end product.”
Excel was the previous solution
“Previously, we solved that with heavy Excel sheets,” Frank de Goeij explains. “These sheets were not linked to current inventory. So when preparing a formulation, you had to take the current inventory into account, in addition to selecting the products with the right activity. This task is critical for our company and makes us unique. It was necessary to organize this process more efficiently. On the one hand, we save time, but it is also fundamental because everything still has to keep going right!”
“We have been working for years to get this off the ground, so the fact that it has now succeeded is not only a huge relief for us, but for the entire Brain Group”
Enormous impact
“What we have now achieved with Odoo Experts is everything in one system, one inventory management system and one place to reserve. If the inventory is accurate, then it does not matter how many components the bread improver consists of, because we can create the recipe in fifteen seconds to a minute. The IT solution from Odoo Experts has an enormous impact for us. We have been working for years to get this off the ground, so the fact that it has now succeeded is not only a huge relief for us, but for the entire Brain Group, the German biotech company we have been part of since last year. A lot of time goes into creating recipes. It is amazing that this could be built in the Odoo ERP package. It may not sound that complicated, but it is unique that this is possible in a software package. A system that continuously, in real time, keeps track of inventory in a process where inventory reservations are constantly moving in all directions.” “We knew it would be difficult,” says Erwin van der Ploeg, Senior Consultant Odoo Experts. “We succeeded through close collaboration with Breatec. They immediately understood that you cannot expect to understand everything from day one. You have to give trust and tackle it step by step together.”
Getting even more out of Odoo
“I always use the example of the bicycle repairman,” says Frank de Goeij. “He can manage very well with the standard Odoo package. He takes two wheels, a saddle and a frame, and then goes on to make and sell a bicycle. In the food industry, we are dealing with different requirements. We have various checks that we need to perform in all kinds of areas. So the formulation calculation part is fantastic, but we notice that we are still missing things in Odoo if we want to put all our administration into Odoo, such as access rights and certificates for our customers. Those are the next steps we are now working on to get even more out of Odoo.”
“Odoo is not a niche package,” Erwin van der Ploeg explains. “At Odoo, 400 programmers are working on the development of functionalities. With Odoo, you choose an ERP package that continues to develop strongly, and you have to create the niche yourself. But then you get it exactly the way you want it.” “Whether we have found our IT partner for life with Odoo Experts? Frank de Goeij repeats the final question. “That is certainly how it feels. Odoo is an ideal package to start with. It works very intuitively. Just look at how it looks. That gives me energy without even needing an enzyme.”
