Efficient business processes are key to success: Kräuter Mix GmbH implements ERP and SCM solution with Microsoft Dynamics ERP

The company's purpose is to manufacture, process and retail air-dried food produce (such as vegetables, herbs, spices and mushrooms), phytopharmaceuticals, as well as herbal and fruit teas, all of which is supplemented by a fourth business area, that of contract work. Kräuter Mix GmbH therefore supplies products to more or less all well-known food manufacturers, meaning that everybody in Germany has probably already come across Kräuter Mix products indirectly.

Batch producer with precisely defined specifications

In order to maintain its hold on the market, Kräuter Mix settles for nothing less than the highest level of product and service quality. As such, the company offers an extremely broad and comprehensive product range, along with optimum product safety, guaranteed by means of an integrated HACCP system. High product availability and speed of delivery also lend the company a competitive edge, while the company's continuous growth over the years proves that Kräuter Mix is on the right track.

Even before the year 2000, Kräuter Mix opted for Microsoft Dynamics NAV and today implements this ERP Suite in all areas of the business. "We have acquired a high level of expertise, which puts us in the perfect position to carry out necessary adjustments to our extremely specialized processes, both quickly and securely", states Peter Arndt, Head of IT at Kräuter Mix. "If we need to carry out major adjustments, we can always rely on the extremely competent employees at YAVEON, who have provided us with support over the years".

IT needs to assist users in an increasingly complex world

Kräuter Mix places great importance on developing a homogeneous and largely standardized IT landscape, in which "a higher degree of process complexity is possible at the same time as operator ergonomics", says Arndt.

"We are therefore implementing Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Dynamics and Microsoft Sharepoint Server in all core business areas", adds Arndt's colleague, Jürgen Köstner.

In addition to pure product business which, with its high specification requirements, extends far beyond usual practice in the food industry, Kräuter Mix provides an increasing number of product-related services. In this way, the company works as a contract manufacturer in the sterilization and protection of stock, as well as developing whole packaging and logistics concepts. Doing so often involves very different worlds being harmonized, from the simplest structures in producing countries, to highly integrated Supply Chain Management concepts for major customers.

Electronic data exchange to become a popular task

"We are continuously developing as an information logistics provider and are automating the supply chains across market boundaries", says Arndt. This can only be achieved on a permanent basis for international business relations of Kräuter Mix through state-of-the-art means of communication.

For some time now, the new YAVEON ProE-SCM communication and data exchange platform for Microsoft Dynamics NAV has been helping Kräuter Mix achieve its goals.

Their key purchasers are becoming ever-more reliant on electronic data exchange for order processing and have partly outsourced the issuing of invoices. Kräuter Mix can, for example, send its invoices for a key purchaser electronically to the "OB10" Clearing Center.

This can be done with ease, as through the use of both the Microsoft Dynamics NAV system and YAVEON's ProE-SCM integrated EDI enhancement, the electronic invoices required can be generated and sent in the desired data format. YAVEON ProE-SCM independently gathers the posted invoices in the system every night for these customers, creates the PDF files, signs and encodes them, sending them at 07:00 the next day.  At the start of the working day, employees in the accounting department find the status message regarding the sent invoices.

"YAVEON ProE-SCM is truly a luxury", Köstner enthuses. "The work is completed without anybody in-house having to worry about sending the invoices". Since its installation in July 2009, the add-on module has been operating without a single fault occurring. "Software could not possibly function any better". Thanks to clear parameter assignment, it will be possible to easily connect more customers on the same interface.

Automating the supply chain

Because of the positive experiences of working with YAVEON ProE-SCM, Kräuter Mix is now considering taking advantage of the further benefits of this communication platform. Such benefits include the fact that files cannot only be sent, but can also be correspondingly archived. Kräuter Mix's next project will therefore focus on the production of revision-proof TIFF files from the documentation and delivery to the WinDream archiving system. An already long-standing, far-reaching supply chain integration will also be standardized with another partner on this interface.

"The security and quality of data is always of paramount importance to KräuterMix, meaning that all technical innovations and requirements from specialist departments are specifically checked for this quality. Only in this way can we maintain the high quality standards of our business processes, which account for an essential part of our success", states Arndt in relation to the future challenges facing his IT department.