Case Study:
SpecPage Supports
World foods producer Santa Maria with product development and information.
SE,UK
SpecPDM, GDSN Guide, Supplier’s Guide
>2,000
It all started in Gothenburg in 1911 when Frans Leon Berg opened up a small tea and spice shop. He ran the shop until his death, when the families Nordlund and Falk took over and renamed it to ‘Nordfalks’. In 1946, Armin Mattsson and his colleague, Hugo Lundgren, purchased a share in the company and laid the foundation for what Santa Maria is today. Nordfalks grew, and over time, became the largest spice company in Sweden.
In 1968, Matsson’s son, Lars Olof Mattsson, took over and led the company to achieve a turnover of €854,000 through its sale of spices. When he resigned as CEO 36 years later, Santa Maria generated more than €214 million per year. There were many high points during that period, the introduction of Santa Maria Tex Mex during the ’90s being the most important of all. When Santa Maria introduced this concept, the market for Mexican food in Sweden was rather small. At the time, Swedes ate roughly €7.5 million worth of Tex Mex food per year – a value which today is at €132 million in Sweden alone and €296 million in the Nordic region.
To manage information related to recipe and product development as well as quality control, Santa Maria was using a mix of software tools, an internally-built system as well as Microsoft Office applications. Product data was also handled in different languages to support the local requirements for all target markets, which made it difficult to update and share information internally and externally. For a major producer like Santa Maria, maintaining product data in different departments can result in time-consuming manual processes and limited traceability.
Therefore, Santa Maria recognized the need to make better use of know-how and resources to manage product development, and was looking to identify a single solution that can be implemented across all World Foods & Flavouring Division sites. The decision was made in favor of SpecPage, a global provider of product development and information solutions for the F&B industry and leader in this field.
The SpecPDM application platform from SpecPage offers Santa Maria a single database for raw materials, formulas, packaging, labeling and specifications, and a tool to standardize internal approval processes. At any point of time, the latest information about all products is available allowing Santa Maria to react to market demands in a faster and more flexible manner by leveraging existing resources. Thanks to SpecPDM, we now have a central system for all product data, says Anette Zetterquist, Taste Development Specialist at Santa Maria. The workflows throughout our division have also been simplified and improved.
As a result, we are developing our products more efficiently and have eliminated laborious paperwork. The SpecPDM software not only assists Santa Maria in managing data for recipes and specifications, calculation and reporting modules have also been implemented. SpecPDM enables us to simulate recipe variations with different ingredients and nutritional values, providing realistic price calculations at the same time , Zetterquist adds.
Santa Maria’s Microsoft Dynamics AX has been integrated with SpecPDM via a standardized middleware interface to exchange master data, prices and recipes bidirectionally. SpecPDM’s information protocol makes any data accessible through the interface making the integration very flexible and easy to maintain. SpecPDM is also linked with Santa Maria’s web platforms to ensure product information is kept up to date. Modifications and extensions, as well as further connections to other applications, can be arranged regardless of release updates of the SpecPDM or Microsoft Dynamics solutions.
It is important that we can utilize our expertise and resources across the World Foods & Flavouring Division. This is why identifying a product specification and development software that is compatible with our existing ERP system was a key factor», explains Zetterquist. The latest product information is now consolidated and readily available in appropriate departments to increase productivity.
System integration and data consolidation share common goals: they aim to eliminate multiple data entry and unnecessary errors, simplify internal processes and improve cross-functional transparency and traceability. Bringing together robust PLM and ERP solutions improves corporate productivity and gives manufacturers such as Santa Maria a competitive advantage in the long term.
There is no doubt that an implementation project and data consolidation can bring their own challenges, however, when product development and information solutions are well integrated they provide a quick return on investment. When overall efficiency and data quality are improved, food producers can drive innovation and profitability ensuring long-term success.
As with any technological project, much work went into migrating data from our four previous systems from three different countries, as well as data cleaning. We’re glad to have all information in one place now, allowing us to focus on delivering high-quality flavors and seasoning to our customers, concludes Zetterquist.
“With SpecPage’s GDSN Guide, we have a valuable tool at hand that facilitates direct communication with our customers and trade partners”
Anette Zetterquist,
Taste Development Specialist, Santa Maria
