An IT solution from CSB-System is enabling leading fish processing company Norfisk handle sales and logistics for Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Czech Republic – some 40,000 pallets annually – from a single operation in Wismar, Mecklenburg.
The system is providing full traceability as well as ensuring compliance with EU food information regulations. It covers the entire operation from goods and stock receiving through packaging and labelling to final shipping, including invoice management and evaluation, such as gross margin. Other benefits include a reduction in both buffer storage requirements and error rates during picking.
Norfisk is a brand of Suempol, one of Europe’s top ten salmon smokeries, based in Bielsk Podlaski in Eastern Poland. As part of the company’s own IT system there, all product details are recorded and linked to a lot number, which is subsequently visible on the packaging as a barcode. This enables full traceability of goods throughout the production and distribution process.
At the Wismar cold storage warehouse, the use of scanners for picking means that errors during the customer-specific collection of items are now virtually zero, as are incidents of loading goods with an incorrect sell-by date. Electronic delivery notes indicate if anything is missing.
The system also supports a differentiated purchasing strategy, with sales statistics provided for items, periods and customers, and optionally for a specific segment or product range. This enables Norfisk to carry out more accurate planning and forecasting.
“In the past, we had a product buffer of 30 to 40 percent,” explains sales manager Günter Rees. “These were the goods that we had to have on stock. Now, we have reduced the buffer to five percent. Thanks to the CSB-System, 90 percent of the products are just-in-time goods that we produced no more than 24 hours ago.”
As a result, Norfisk can supply product to food retailers on a daily basis, with an order lead-time of two days.
Via interface converters, Norfisk’s IT system is also connected to the IT systems of its retail customers. This makes information such as incoming orders, outgoing invoices, delivery and goods received notifications easily accessible, and simplifies work flows. Delivery data is supplied to the logistics company the day before, and incoming goods inspection at the customers is also carried out electronically by scanners.