Business Excellence at The Wrigley Company using BPCS software

by Phil Robinson (BPIC) - Comments to : phil@bpic.co.uk
URL : http://www.bpic.co.uk

As manufacturers of a wide range of products, including chewing gum, Wrigley is a name on everyone's lips. Yet when they outgrew their computer system they also discovered a chance to improve the way they ran their business at the same time as implementing BPCS from SSA. Andrew Ogle, Wrigley's Finance Director, was appointed Project Manager. He understood some of the problems they were facing: "Different parts of the company often worked to different forecasts," he explained. "For example, the sales people would ask for more than they needed from the factory to provide a cushion for errors. In turn the factory thinking that the sales team would never sell that much, produced accordingly. We needed to get everyone working together".

Jargon Warning If this case study uses terms with which you are unfamiliar, you can look them up in the Jargon Buster at http://www.bpic.co.uk/jargon.htm. For more details see Business Excellence (ISBN 0-952-8885-05) by Phil Robinson.

It was decided outside help was needed and MRP Ltd were called in. By bringing to bear more than 40 years experience in all aspects of manufacturing industry, they were able to help the Wrigley's team to examine their operations and target areas for improvement.

The process began with external education for the project team. The implementation of Business Excellence was then spread internally to all levels with varying levels of intensity and scope. Through these, the workforce gained the confidence to take part in the decision making processes. For the first time they understood not only where their company was going, but also their place within it - The 'It's not MY problem' attitude simply evaporated.

Managing Director Phillip Hamilton was delighted by the change this made to his role. "The Introduction of Sales and Operations planning gradually eliminated recurring problems and with them my role as a firefighter". Many other senior managers also found themselves with more time to make more use of their creative skills and take advantage of market opportunities.

When only two years into the process the changes were dramatic. Greater accuracy of forecasts means that Wrigley were able to reduce raw material safety stock levels. This in turn enabled them to improve quality control of goods from suppliers. Thus costs were cut while customer satisfaction levels rose.

At the heart of the Business Excellence principles is the philosophy of continuous improvement.  At Wrigleys the pace of the improvement process continues to drive the company to higher levels of achievement.  Recent improvements include continuing to drive up customer service by, for instance improving their ability to forecast, the extensive use of bar codes to improve inventory record accuracy and so on. Phillip believes everyone is proud of their excellent results.

Although it has been hard work, the process has been simple. Together MRP Ltd and the Wrigley team took a critical look at where they were (Company I), identified its strengths and weakness and built on them to create Company II - exactly where they want to be.

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