Amy’s Kitchen Sustainable Supply Chain Planning for food production on a global level

Defined by the three Fs of family, farm and food, Amy’s Kitchen combines the time-honoured values of community, sustainability and dignity with the latest trends in food production. The company is also a pioneer in organic food production, having been around even before there was an industry.

Amy’s Kitchen is privately owned by the Berliner family to this day. Not beholden to shareholders, the company continues to provide wholesome, nutritious food to the world in a way that respects and protects its customers, employees and the environment.

Amy’s Kitchen is a major player in the food manufacturing industry with over 250 products sold in 30 countries, and over 1 million meals produced each day. It is also the second-largest tofu producer in North America, producing over nine metric tons a day.

With Scope comes Complexity

It hasn’t been an easy road for Amy’s Kitchen. Quite the opposite, in fact. The Berliners have very strict, self-imposed standards of quality for their food. After all, the brand carries their daughter’s name. They also have a reputation among farmers for being too picky. These exacting standards have resulted in supply chain planning challenges that, if left unattended, would be impossible to manage in the long term.

“Our goal is to make the most delicious food with the best quality ingredients, and this brings complexity into our supply chain.”

— Nigel Batchem, Senior Director of Planning, Amy’s Kitchen.

The Berliners’ insistence on using fresh produce for their recipes means that as much as 60% of Amy’s Kitchen’s raw materials come from contracting growers. It can be a tense and risky game, in which sourcing crucial ingredients can be difficult. Sudden changes in weather can destroy as much as half of a contracted crop volume. All these disruptions would profoundly affect any production schedule, never mind one that has to account for 330 suppliers, 1,687 SKUs, 61 processes with 78 ingredients and 37 inventoried WIPs — per single product.

At the time, Amy’s Kitchen was still using Excel spreadsheets, which were becoming more ineffective with each passing day. Response times were too slow to meet changes in demand, and worse, monthly planning cycles could take as long as six weeks to complete. Amy’s Kitchen’s systems were simply unable to cope with the rising level of complexity. If there’s one thing that passionate people with big dreams hate, it’s getting tripped up by the little things that keep them from focusing on the real priorities. Sub-optimal planning processes were now actively holding Amy’s Kitchen back from further growth. It needed a better solution, and fast.

The Solution: Innovating Amy’s Kitchen’s Supply Chain Management with DELMIA Quintiq

After a business discovery session, it became clear that the DELMIA Quintiq solution would be perfect to help Amy’s Kitchen solve its challenges. DELMIA Quintiq could model its business processes and provide an end-to-end platform that would scale well into the future. The choice was as easy as homemade, organic, vegetarian pie.

The solution was implemented over several phases. At first, they tested the waters with a small pilot project, before proceeding to roll out the DELMIA Quintiq system which would allow them to lay the groundwork for future improvements and transform their entire planning methodology in the process.

“We required a supply chain planning and optimization platform that could accommodate our intricate scheduling requirements, which stems from our unique approach of assembling and cooking products simultaneously. DELMIA Quintiq has an outstanding track record in the industry and its software platform will enable us to maintain the high quality and fulfillment standards our customers have come to expect.” – Andy Berliner, CEO, Amy’s Kitchen.

Discover how DELMIA Quintiq could help you revolutionize your value network

DELMIA Quintiq provides companies with solutions to model, plan and optimize their business operations from concept to delivery and reuse, enabling the circular economy. The DELMIA Quintiq solutions are used to plan and optimize complex production value networks, optimize intricate logistics operations, and plan and schedule large, geographically diverse workforce.

Key capabilities include:

• Predictive and prescriptive data analytics
• Forecasting
• What-if scenario planning
• Collaborative decision-making
• Disruption handling
• Production planning and scheduling