Info "gateway" smooths Vlasic's supply chain operations
Pickle provider Vlasic International (Cherry Hill, NJ) is better managing its worldwide payroll operations thanks to a new electronic payment system.
Vlasic International is a Fortune 700 company, with 1998 sales of $1.5 billion, 21 plants in five countries and over 9,000 employees. The company's products include Swanson frozen foods, Vlasic pickles, and Open Pit barbecue sauce, as well as food products in the UK, Germany, and Argentina.
According to Jim Petragnani, Vlasic's Manager of Supply Chain Applications, the varied product line means dealing with many vendors - some EDI enabled, some requiring purchase orders in non-electronic (paper) form.
In an effort to simplify the transactions conducted with suppliers, Vlasic is channeling its enterprise resource planning (ERP), electronic commerce and payroll/HR functions through a single output stream.
Vlasic uses System Software Associates' BPCS ERP package to manage its manufacturing and distribution supply chain, financials, and electronic commerce systems. Data to be used in vendor checks, invoices, purchase orders, and bills of lading are downloaded from the BPCS-generated spool file to Bottomline Technologies' PayBase 32 system. PayBase acts as a gateway for faxing, mailing or electronically transmitting the documents to Vlasic's suppliers. For Vlasic's French-speaking Canadian customers, documents are also passed through a multilingual invoicing application.
The new system lets Vlasic transmit documents as E-mail, faxes or in hard copy, ensuring "a clear and error-free communication pipeline with suppliers, uses existing resources wisely and helps us meet our production goals," according to Petragnani.
Phase one of the installation was completed last month at Vlasic's Michigan, Delaware and Canadian production facilities. Currently being added are the Swanson Frozen food division (with plants in Nebraska and Arkansas), Vlasic Farms (Pennsylvania) and the company's New Jersey corporate headquarters.
Upon full deployment, 7 Vlasic sites in North America will produce 54,000 A/P checks, 10,000 invoices, and 10,000 purchase orders per year. The system will also interface with Vlasic's PeopleSoft HR package to produce 250,000 annual payroll checks.
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