As one of Scandinavia’s most beloved bread producers, Pågen’s bakeries are running 24/7 to make sure everyone can enjoy their favorite bread or pastry. Using carefully selected and mainly locally produced ingredients – without preservatives – has allowed their business to grow to a turnover of 280 million euro.

Successful implementation of Adifo software at Pågen AB

Based in Malmö, Sweden, Pågen AB has an impressive market share of 37% in their home market and distributes Swedish specialties to over 40 countries around the world. As one of Scandinavia’s most beloved bread producers, Pågen’s bakeries are running 24/7 to make sure everyone can enjoy their favorite bread or pastry. Using carefully selected and mainly locally produced ingredients – without preservatives – has allowed their business to grow to a turnover of 280 million euro.

Supplying such an enormous market with high quality Swedish specialties is a real challenge. To assure the availability and quality of their products, Pågen is closely involved in grain purchase management and invests a lot of time in the cooperation with farmers, agri-processors and users of agricultural products.

Assuring availability and quality …

In the beginning of 2015, as part of a re-modelling of the business, Pågen decided to enhance their ERP system. One of the main criteria was an easy integration with Microsoft Dynamics AX.

“Since the grain purchase business is so specific, we couldn’t find a ready-made solution within our corporate level Microsoft Dynamics AX ERP” says Christina Bengtsson, Head of IT at Pågen AB. “Instead of developing a customized solution in AX ourselves we came across Adifo, a feed and food industry specialist that has developed sector-specific modules within their MILAS AX software”.

 

… with Adifo

Christina Bengtsson explains they decided to trust this important project to Adifo Software because of our:

• Proven and future-proof solutions for grain handling
• Ability to model the complex business processes in the system
• Ability to evolve the business within the grain processing industry
• Experience in the nutrition industry

After carefully weighing the different options, Pågen and Adifo decided to assure availability and quality by building an integration between MES and MILAS AX; and to integrate MILAS AX with BESTMIX Quality Control, Adifo’s quality assurance software.

The Adifo software also interfaces with Pågen’s web portal to ensure easy access to important information for farmers and suppliers and to allow the entry of call-offs, etc... 

As an extra challenge,  all of the implementation and training had to been done before harvest time, within 5 months of starting the project.

MILAS AX and BESTMIX LIMS: implementation within 5 months

Assuring the availability and quality of the end products in a complex business such as Pågen’s was only possible thanks to the close cooperation between the 2 parties. 

Both MILAS AX and BESTMIX Quality Control were implemented and integrated with one another and with Pågen’s web portal and the MES software. All within the set timeframe of 5 months.

The MILAS AX add on for Microsoft Dynamics AX manages:

• The purchase contracting
• The entire logistical process from call-off to financial settlements with the grain suppliers
• The classification process calculates the quality and weight corrections based on imported quality information from BESTMIX LIMS

BESTMIX Quality Management software manages:

• All contracts with grain supplier farmers
• The publishing of intake information with analysis results on the web portal
• The sample generation

Philippe Snoeck, ERP Project manager at Adifo Software explains:

“Upon harvest the supplier enters the call-offs in a web portal for the grain contracts. Based on this entry:

• the expected grain intake is instantly available in Microsoft Dynamics AX;
• a sample is automatically created within BESTMIX LIMS;
• the expected intake in the control system - which manages the inbound loading process- is updated.

During the intake, MILAS AX automatically receives the intake figures from the MES software and quality data from BESTMIX LIMS. Based on this information the contract is updated, quality adjustments are applied and the net weight is calculated. Later in the process MILAS AX also takes care of managing the financial settlements (invoicing, post payments, etc…). “

The results: better procurement in time for harvest

“While our controls were always top notch, the improved utilization of Microsoft Dynamics AX through MILAS AX, the integration with the grain intake equipment and BESTMIX Quality Management, helps us assure the availability and quality of our products. In the entire flow, manual input is minimized thanks to the countless integrations. Our new solution makes our administrative effort accountable and transparent.” Says Helene Sollerhed, Purchasing manager grain at Pågen AB's milling company, Farina AB.

Since Pågen started using the new system for harvest they have already experienced benefits such as:

• Improved flexibility in the grain handling processes
• Improved business partner management
• Better management information availability and transparency in the grain handling processes
• Robust integration with MES and Quality assurances system
• Reduced reliance on IT specialists
• Lower Total cost of ownership

Adam Sneep, CEO at Adifo Software, is proud to say that: “The praise we received from Pågen after a smooth go-live (with minimal support) is a re-confirmation that we have developed a reliable, easy-to-use and futureproof solution for the feed and food industries. A solution that can be easily integrated with other software and that is built through the expertise of a dedicated team of consultants and developers.“