Industries
For 175 years, Royal Steensma has been a reliable supplier of a wide array of bakery products. Their unique accumulated industry knowledge enables them to offer each of their clients the right service. Royal Steensma’s flexible approach and tailor-made products support their clients’ production processes and help them achieve the best possible return.
Royal Steensma has been working with Adifo’s BESTMIX® for over 10 years, and the ideal moment to reflect on this cooperation. We visited the Royal Steensma headquarters at Leeuwarden in The Netherlands and talked to Wessel Wubs, Plant Manager, to find out what effect BESTMIX® Recipe Management and BESTMIX® Quality Control have had on their production.
Royal Steensma’s software requirements
Royal Steensma requires logical and user-friendly software solutions that are continuously supported by a reliable provider who offers further assistance when necessary. Additionally, a company such as Royal Steensma needs a general application. This way it receives complete freedom to use all available functionalities, allowing them to create a wide array of products for different industries. Another benefit is that new functionalities become available for all users directly upon release. Furthermore, these functionalities are continuously improved based on input from the market.
With these requirements in mind, Royal Steensma started its search for a software provider about ten years ago.
The need for a solution
A little over 10 years ago, Royal Steensma and Wessel Wubs decided to look for a package that connected well with their ERP package and greatly facilitated data transfer and such. At that time, the need also grew for a package that could be used by both the QA department, to create correct specifications in a cost-efficient way, and the R&D department, to quickly and efficiently develop and adapt high-quality recipes, but also to make a quick cost-price analysis.
After an initial test phase with a few packages, Royal Steensma’s choice fell upon BESTMIX Software's BESTMIX® Recipe Management as it facilitated those needs in the best way possible.
The need for BESTMIX® Quality Control on the other hand was created by Royal Steensma’s continuing growth. As the number of facilities increased, the company looked for uniform ways to process all this data from the different facilities, from analysis and labs but also to create uniform CoAs (Certificate of Analysis). BESTMIX® Quality Control offers a single method of composing certificates, raw material analysis, etc.
A personal service
At BESTMIX Software, we value our clients more than anything else. We always try to extend that feeling to our customers as well. That’s why we make sure that we have a customer service desk available for technical issues and functional support. The project leader, who is involved in the implementation from the start, will also be the client’s designated Adifo contact who offers advanced functional support and guidance.
Wessel Wubs echoed that belief when he mentioned how nice it was that whenever they needed to get in touch with BESTMIX Software they reached the same consultant every time. This way they are ensured that they are talking with someone who knows the company and who will solve the current problem in no time.
Competitive advantages
When asked whether Adifo’s software solutions have offered Royal Steensma a competitive advantage, Wessel Wubs looks at it from another point of view:
“A competitive advantage is hard to point out. For a company such as Royal Steensma, it’s crucial to have a software package installed that can deal with the large amounts of raw materials and manage the multitude of recipes for all the different markets we supply. These large amounts of data turn Royal Steensma into a very complex company. It’s of the utmost importance that we have software solutions in place that can deal with all this complexity and offer a clear overview to us.”
The competitive advantage of the several BESTMIX® solutions lays in their all-encompassing approach for everyone involved in the entire industry. Rather than offering a direct advantage, it unburdens food producers and allows them to do what they do best: produce high-quality bakery products.
What does the future hold?
No software package is ever complete. Upcoming challenges in the foreseeable future ensure that Adifo constantly has to find ways to guarantee future success.
For Royal Steensma, the biggest upcoming challenge is creating data links through a portal or website so the communication between Royal Steensma and, for example, an external laboratory happens smoothly and without intermediaries. Another aspect to improve upon is data accessibility for account managers and others who visit customers on-site. Giving them direct access to the data they need through a tablet or laptop would save even more time while continuously increasing efficiency.
With these upcoming challenges in mind, Adifo hopes to remain Royal Steensma’s trusted partner for the decades to come.