By turning to third party ERP support, he firm has found the “right cake” (improved productivity) and can eat it, too

Producing over 600 products for people young to old, Standard Foods Corporation (SF) aspires to help consumers achieve optimal health.

Founded in 1986, the Taiwanese food manufacturer started out producing oat-based products and infant formulas. Over the years, they expanded to producing dairy products, cooking oils, other oats and grains products, as well as health and nutritional supplements.

On 27 Sep 2024, the firm was announced to have selected a support partner to manage its mission-critical enterprise resource planning (ERP) system in order to have better control of support quality, IT resource allocation and various maintenance and upgrade costs.

In integrating AI with real-time data, SF has been enhancing its decision-making quality across its supply chain. However, the firm’s Director of IT, Jerry Lee, noted that it “sometimes took weeks” before his team received help from the ERP vendor as part of the support plan. He contrasted this to the new support partner’s guaranteed 24/7 support with two-minute average response times. “The combination of fast response and expert solutions has allowed us to increase our investment in AI and ML but with fewer staff needed to keep those systems running at full speed,” he said.

Predicting how much to order is an ongoing challenge for manufacturers, and a misstep in calculations in the supply chain can impact profitability, Lee noted: “By running various models with real-time data and AI tools, we can both refine order recommendations and improve procurement processes.” This approach in SF’s IT roadmap requires strong ERP support as a foundation, and the firm has taken care of this critical aspect. Annual ERP support costs have been halved, while the system has been running better than before.

However, since the firm is using parts of a modular ERP platform, its current contract stipulates that it will no longer receive vendor support  past 2027. Yet, with the appointment of the abovementioned certified third party support vendor, Rimini Street, SF has already circumvented the issue.

According to Tyler Munger, Vice President of Analytics, Rimini Street: “”Many of our manufacturing clients partner with (us) to direct resources towards investing in AI-fueled improvements that help with their top and bottom-line goals.”