Zetes helps Premier Foods Hovis Division find recipe for supply chain improvement

Zetes, a leading systems integrator specialising in goods and people ID, has won a significant contract with Premier Foods Hovis Division to provide a traceability solution to improve its manufacturing and distribution processes. If fully implemented after a successful pilot phase, Zetes solution will enhance Premiers SAP warehouse management solution with the integration of over 500 barcode scanning devices to track and trace the movement of goods across Hovis manufacturing and distribution centres.

Zetes completed the integration of mobile devices with Premiers SAP system using its SAP toolkit, MiNetConnect. As a rapid application development solution, MiNetConnect provides a direct link between SAP and mobile or fixed scanning devices to capture, validate, and process transactions faster, in real-time and with increased accuracy and system reliability.

With a dedicated UK competence centre, Zetes is the leading integrator specialising in wireless and mobility supply chain solutions for SAP users which are implemented directly inside the SAP application without the use of middleware. For the Premier Foods project, Zetes has also developed an additional component that enables the SAP system to receive data from fixed scanners. Zetes capability to complete a direct integration with SAP was a key requirement for Premier, because this ensured both that a technically complex project could be simplified as much as possible and minimized the numbers of suppliers involved.

Currently, scanners have been installed in three facilities to ensure that automated processes can be implemented to enable business controls, product visibility and traceability across the supply chain, at the same time as maintaining responsiveness to time-critical events. Subject to the success of the initial pilot phase, Hovis will consider a full roll out of the traceability solution to all 23 of its UK sites during 2010.

We are pleased to be working with Zetes and look forward to continuing our relationship with the roll out of what will be a transformational project, says Phil McCallum, Director of IT and Infrastructure at Premier Foods. The traceability solution we are piloting with Zetes will, we hope, solve long standing issues our company has faced within the Hovis bakery supply chain.

James Hannay, VP of Northern Europe for Zetes commented, Improved traceability is important for Premier on many levels, enabling better management of product supply into the marketplace and more accurate stock replenishment. This translates into a better service to retailers and greater consumer satisfaction.

He continues, Technically the Premier Foods project was very challenging because it required integrating both fixed and hand held barcode scanners in a high volume manufacturing and distribution environment. Enabling this directly inside SAP without the use of additional middleware is complex and few people have both the deep understanding of supply chain processes and the SAP toolkits to do it properly.

Anthoula Madden, Vice President for Consumer Products are Capgemini said This is a very important project for Premier Foods, introducing full track and trace capability across their primary and secondary distribution supply chain at Hovis. The benefits to the business are considerable, both in terms of tangible savings but, more importantly at the customer end, improving order fulfillment and improving customer satisfaction. Bringing together the right technical solution has required strong supply chain expertise and SAP capabilities and we have been working closely with Zetes to make the solution work end-to-end in an integrated manner to deliver value to the client.

About Zetes

ZETES INDUSTRIES (Euronext Brussels: ZTS) is a leading pan-European company in the sector of value-added solutions and services for the automatic identification of goods and people (Goods ID and People ID). These solutions use mature and emerging technologies (bar codes, voice recognition, RFID, smart cards, biometry) and Solution Architecture Frameworks to optimise the performance of the activities of private and public clients in many sectors of the market.

Zetes solutions are implemented in many areas of activity: manufacturing, transport, logistics, distribution, health care, finance, telecommunications and public services. The Zetes Group, whose registered office is in Brussels, has subsidiaries in Belgium, Germany, Denmark, France, Ireland, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK. Zetes at present has more than 800 employees and achieved a consolidated turnover of 178 million Euros in 2008.