Toms Fabrikker A/S

EDI reduces the packaging inventory value for Toms by DKK 9m

EDI communication via Evenex creates an electronic platform for the Toms Group information flow in the value chain from production to sales, inventory, transport and consumer purchase in the store and back. The EDIMAN EDI solution automatically integrates EDI shipments with the Toms SAP system, securing Toms a fast and reliable servicing of customers. At the same time, the company saves resources for manual entry and fault processing.

When customers in Denmark put a "Holly Bar," a "Giant tortoise," a "Gajol," or a "Plum in Madeira" in their shopping basket, there is a direct connection to Toms' co-operation with Evenex. Shop sales of Toms products, e.g. of Coop Danmark, Dansk Supermarked, Supergros or Lekkerland, creates orders to the central warehouse of the retail chains, which in turn sends orders on to Toms.

The orders generate pick and ship notifications to the Toms storage hotel for finished goods outsourced to DFDS and invoices back to the customer. This takes place as EDI transfers, i.e. automatically generated electronic messages from system to system, with systems automatically returning acknowledgements, thus ensuring all parties the information flow is operating as planned. Human interference is only necessary in case of problems.

"And that happens very seldom. The operation stability of EDI shipments via Evenex and our EDIMAN integrating the EDI communication with our SAP system is very high," says SAP consultant Janne Kappel of the Toms Group and adds:
"And that's a vital condition for us; otherwise we cannot service our customers as quickly as we do. In some cases, the customers receive the ordered goods within a few hours after the order."

Logistics under control

The Toms Group is a supplier to the perhaps most difficult and demanding group of customers across all industries, i.e. the large convenience stores. This forces Toms to be at the forefront when it comes to efficient supply chain integration. When Toms receives an order from e.g. Dansk Supermarked at 10 a.m., the order must be ready for collection at 2 p.m. on the same day. That makes it imperative to have control of the inventory and the processes for both speed and quality to keep up.

"The average level of service of the Toms Group – a measure for how often Toms lives up to the delivery contracts with the customers – was 98.6 percent in all of 2003. And that is without increasing the inventory value," says Supply Chain Director at Toms, Lars Kyed, who also tells that the Toms packaging inventory value from was reduced by 17 percent from DKK 53m to DKK 44m between 2002 and 2003.

"One of the reasons is our establishment of a forecast group working systematically in developing our forecasts in close co-operation with our customers. That has really paid off," Lars Kyed says.

Fewer errors and saved resources

For many years, Toms has worked with EDI, and since the middle of the 1990's, the company has gradually increased the number of customers communicating with Toms through EDI.

"Today a very large part of our turnover runs via EDI and Evenex," Janne Kappel says.
Last month, Toms received and shipped approx. 3,000 orders through EDI distributed on purchase orders from the large chain central purchasing and orders directly from shops. Toms sent approx. 1,400 EDI invoices and exchanged approx. 16,500 pick, ship and basic data transfers with the outsourced finished goods storage in Tåstrup.

"The advantage of EDI is the automatic electronic transfer from system to system giving fewer errors and saving both us and the customers a lot of resources to be used on funnier and more value-creating tasks. Ultimately it results in a faster, more faultless and thus more value-creating supply chain," says Janne Kappel.
Perfect operating stability

"We are very satisfied with the uptime and operating stability of the Evenex servers and we experience a co-operative and competent operation service," Janne Kappel says.

Toms will increase its use of EDI communication with foreign customers, primarily in Sweden and the US, and here Evenex plays an important role as consultant on formats and technical setups. Today Toms delivers to more than 40 countries on five of the world's seven continents. Market outside of Denmark currently create almost half of Toms' turnover.
 

2010-06-02