We Invested in the Future with caniasERP

Lider Petfood, one of the leading companies in its sector, continues its rapid growth with a capacity of 30 thousand tons. Company exports its products to 52 countries while making production also for the big chain-markets in Turkey. Telling the story of the company's rapid growth, Lider Petfood General Manager Murat Tarhan said, “The market has great potential and our company is growing rapidly. In this process, our needs often change. We wanted to invest in the future by using software that is open to development, forward-thinking and flexible like caniasERP. On this journey, we walk together and develop. We can easily plan the next step with caniasERP, which offers us traceability, speed and freedom of movement. ”

Can you tell us about your company?
Our brand was established in partnership with Tavas Pet and Sera Pet, with well-established and successful history companies operating in almost 2000 sales points of the country with almost 2000 different pet products. Our company, which continues to grow with a rapid acceleration, today produces an annual capacity of 30 thousand tons in a total area of 11 thousand square meters, of which 5,500 square meters is covered. We also have the opportunity to stock up on 10 thousand pallets. As a company that attaches importance to technology investments, it has been designed according to the latest technology so that our products produced in our facility can be delivered to the end consumer in a quality manner, protected from environmental conditions. We carry almost all sales to supermarket chains in Turkey. Besides, our actual export to 52 countries continues.

How did you start the digital transformation process?
Before the ERP system, we were using software that we run only accounting. Our rapid growth made the need for tracking in logistics and storage areas much more important. Too many shelves, too much stock ... We have an average stock of raw materials. We started to have a hard time following this stock. We knew that we needed to digitalize to manage these processes in a healthy way. We also met IAS while doing research on the subject. We made on-site inspections on reference projects before making a selection. As a result of our reviews, we decided to work with IAS. In fact, when we first started, our goal was to manage only our warehouse and logistics processes. However, now we manage all our business processes with caniasERP.

TROIA Brought Freedom on Our Movement

What was your criterion when looking for ERP software? Why did you decide on caniasERP?
The most important feature of caniasERP for us is that custom development is easy. TROIA development platform, which is offered to customers by caniasERP with open source code, was the determining factor for us. When we examined the packaged programs in the market at that time, we observed that there were deficiencies in development. If we were to choose software that cannot be stretched or developed, it would not be able to fully meet our needs. We are growing every day and our needs are constantly changing. We needed software that could keep up with us on this journey. If we wanted to invest in the future, we had to use software that is open to development, forward-thinking and flexible like caniasERP. Growing has been our goal from the very beginning and as we grew up we wanted software that would evolve with us. We have seen that caniasERP can easily take us to the next step.

How was your transition to live use? What did you experience during the adaptation process?
In the first phase, we commissioned the modules related to logistics and warehouse processes. It took us like three months. At the end of a year, we had included all our processes, including accounting, in the ERP system, we started using caniasERP with full capacity in two phases. Except for the Quality Management (QLT) module, we use almost all the modules in the standard of caniasERP. Our adaptation process was also very fast. Our management was extremely determined in this regard and strict priorities were set. All necessary equipment investments were made and trainings were supported. Simple interfaces are used to minimize the margin of error of the operators in screens developed specifically for us in the caniasERP standard. We also had a good process thanks to the correct guidance of the IAS consulting team in the initial setup. We have seen how important it is in this process to give the materials the right codes and create the articles correctly. The process went well by itself, since we did it right from the beginning and were guided correctly. In this sense, we thank IAS consultants. 

Besides the standard applications of caniasERP, what kind of special improvements have been made for your company?
Our industry needs process management systems slightly different from others. At this point, the flexible structure of caniasERP, besides its standard modules, allowed us to make special developments easily. We are a produce to stock, rather than produce to order company. Therefore, we need to act on our planning screens according to our own setup. Accordingly, various screens were designed specially for us. Again with the support of the development and consultant team of IAS, pallet tracking systems and traceability systems have all been customized according to our way of doing business. In addition to this, a system was created to control our errors in logistics, to follow loading procedures, to automatically arrange processes such as dispatch notes, and to enable us to use hand terminals. To summarize, thanks to the interfaces developed with the support of IAS, we had previously produced a product and just put a batch number on it and palletized it. After caniasERP, we have been able to follow the statuses of all those palettes through square codes. This gave us the freedom to move and traceability very quickly. We can reach which raw material was used in the product, which operators worked, the actual cost incurred, the raw material cost used at the moment and the final product costs. In the past, all of these things were extra cost to us, we got rid of them. Now we can give much more accurate prices and stay ahead of our compettitors.

What's the vision of Lider Petfood? What are your goals for the next step? 
Over time, our needs are ever evolving. New requirements are shaped according to these needs. We have always gone from macro to micro in processes. We aim to make more detailed reports in all business processes. For example, in logistics, we were tracking by the lot number, but our goal is to go by the pallet or even the package. We want to get detailed information from the batch number of the package to which palette and even who takes part in its production. In addition, we plan to commission the Quality Management module in 2020.

Speed and Data Analysis is Everything

What has changed in your company since you started managing your business processes with caniasERP?
Whether it is caniasERP or not, Lider Petfood would draw a certain growth process. But could we manage this growth process correctly? This is a big question mark. caniasERP has become critical for us at this point. It allowed us to take the right steps to manage our growth. The market had a demand, and our industry was growing rapidly. Luckily, we started to take the right steps with caniasERP in terms of responding to this growth. Because we really needed an ERP to communicate with our customers, applications, and requested data. Both financially and in terms of production. The fact that caniasERP contained such a wide spectrum of data also gave us a great advantage. We see everything from the product collected in the warehouse to the variety, quality, error rate and employee efficiency, and we can reliably protect all data. This situation has brought us a lot not only in production but also in managerial sense.

Why digital transformation is important for companies?
The most obvious thing we see when we compare the past with our present day; overall speed improvements. It is vital that companies have quick access to all data and their details. For example, one of our customers says, "How many products you have in your stock, if you give me that information today, I will buy it." The number mentioned is around 10 trucks. When you think that each customer has different types of goods and the company has 300 kinds of products, it should be very fast to find the product group of that customer, to take stock, to price and present it. All these processes can be handled in 15 minutes thanks to caniasERP! If we go back to the past, companies that cannot respond to this will either stop growing or lose after a point, even if they will still grow. Now speed and time are very important. You need to take quick action and examine the data very well.

caniasERP Brings Advantage

Would you recommend caniasERP?
Of course I recommend caniasERP. With its flexible structure and ease of use, it allows you to easily manage your business processes. Thanks to its speed, it helps you stand out among competitors, while allowing you to create time for different projects. However, I should add that; The companies that decided to switch to the ERP system should focus on this project with the full participation of all their employees. Otherwise, the project will fail. I definitely recommend it for companies that have the power and ability to do this.