Avondale Foods is one of the UK’s leading manufacturers and suppliers to the biggest supermarket and retail brands across Britain and Ireland. Its bagged salads, side salads and vegetable accompaniments, along with a range of soups and sauces, are made in its state-of-the-art food production facility in Craigavon, Northern Ireland, where the company employs 365+ people.

The company had developed its own business management system that was starting to show its age after many years of service. Paper-based processes that connected the office to the production line were ripe for improvement. There was no real mechanism for materials requirement planning, scheduling or management of the production process. While a paper-based traceability system was rigorous and worked fine there was recognition that an automated process might be less time consuming.