Competition is brewing in the beer industry, with more manufacturers entering the market and sales declining by around 5% a year. To maintain its position as market leader, Danish brewery giant Carlsberg has improved efficiency and productivity by upgrading its ProMark shopfloor data collection system, installed by Mark Information, and extending it to tie in with logistics and supply chain management. Such are the latest improvements that the upgrade is expected to pay for itself within 12-18 months.
A dedicated system
Covering 1900 employees at Carlsberg's Denmark plant, ProMark integrates with the SAP human resources/payroll system which is used throughout the Carlsberg group. Previously, this system was used to monitor the hours worked in the production department but Carlsberg needed a solution with greater functionality and a higher degree of user-friendliness than the SAP system provided.
Says Lasse Geelmuyden, Carlsberg's salary manager who implemented ProMark: "Although Carlsberg is a large production company, it needs to respond to a dynamic and competitive market and that means being flexible. To achieve this, we needed very strong overview and planning capabilities, as well as the ability to automate and structure production processes according to demand."
He adds: "We needed a dedicated system for production planning that would enable us to collect and analyse data in a simple manner. Large ERP systems can be complicated to work with and often require a technical expert to carry out the adjustments. ProMark gave us the flexibility we wanted."
The ProMark system was initially installed in 1997 at Carlsberg's Coca Cola bottling plant in Fredericia, Denmark, which will soon be the only Carlsberg production facility in that country. The system will ultimately be rolled out to similar plants in Sweden and Norway.
clock-on, click-in
Staff clock on using a ProMark terminal or 'click in' using terminals installed directly on to PCs when they come to work, as well as when they start up new jobs and when they leave. This enables the company to collect employee and production data that can be analysed and used to speed up decision making processes. The data highlights bottlenecks in production and shows how employees spend their time. This is essential information if the company wants to operate at maximum efficiency.
Before the ProMark system was installed, production team managers didn't have reliable data on which to base their planning or to monitor productivity and efficiency. Not only did this increase the likelihood of incorrect decisions being made but it also made it very difficult for the company to implement its strategy of continuous improvement.
Says Lasse Geelmuyden: "Because ProMark is integrated with the SAP human resource system, the production team managers have easy access to data on working hours and assignments for individual employees, including competency profiles. Armed with this data, they are now able to plan much more effectively and to be more flexible."
He adds: "The better we are at managing employees' time, the more efficient will be the production process. ProMark is a very valuable tool because it enables us to make sure the production equipment is used as optimally as possible.
"We are confident that in ProMark we have chosen a solution that meets our requirements and that, due to its user-friendliness, is appreciated by everybody in the company."
Simplified wages
Another benefit of the system is in how wages are calculated. There are no simple wage slips at Carlsberg, with the company operating various collective agreements and several local agreements. Previously, calculating wages for those working on a group contract basis was complex and time-consuming. Thanks to the integration between ProMark and the SAP payroll system, the process has been simplified considerably, with all the working time data transferred automatically to the wage system without the risk of human errors.
This not only means that wage slip data is calculated correctly but it also reduces administrative tasks and makes wage slips easier to understand, giving workers a snap-shot of working hours, time in lieu, holidays, days off and so on.
Paul Doherty, Managing Director of Mark Information UK Limited, says: "The Carlsberg installation is a superb example of the power and flexibility of ProMark. Even if someone already has an ERP system, ProMark can offer them capabilities of data handling that would otherwise simply not be available."
