magine...not having to trudge through the usual paper !swamp" while carrying out your daily compliance - no writing,

printing, typing, filing, storage. Picture... having instant access to all your quality data just by hitting a key, data that"s accurate, up-to-the-minute and clear. Well, for Dorset Village Bakery - better known as Fudges - this dream has become a reality!

Fudges, an award-winning baked goods producer, are based in Stalbridge, in the heart of Dorset. Local Baker, Percy Fudge, founded the business way back in 1926 and today the firm is still family-run under the capable leadership of a third generation Fudge - Managing Director, Steve Fudge.

Nowadays, Fudges employ 170 dedicated staff and produce in excess of 140 product lines - a somewhat bigger operation than back in Percy"s day! You will find the Fudges brand on all the top retailers" shelves including M&S, Waitrose, Tesco and Morrisons...plus, a host of quality country farm shops and garden centres.

So many checks, so little time...

With the amount of biscuits being made exceeding 3 million cartons per year, the amount of compliance & quality

paperwork being created had reached an all time high. In addition, the number of customer audits (planned & drop-in) and standard industry assessments (BRC, EH, HACCP) had increased. The man hours spent completing, chasing-down, filing and retrieving paper was getting out of hand.

It became clear that a more effective method of data collection, recording, archiving and retrieval was needed.

Operation Paper Cut!

The Fudges team set out to find a technology-

based solution that would replace all the existing paper, whilst still maintaining the high standard that has won Fudges many awards.

They were originally introduced to the Ranger system by another food producer

in the Dorset region, who is having great success with the system. A demonstration was set-up at the Stalbridge site and after thorough research, the Fudges team concluded that Ranger ideally suited all their requirements.

Susan Werro, who leads the Fudges" Technical Team, said, “It was clear from the start that Ranger fitted our needs well due to its flexibility, features, support structure and affordability. The Ranger team have a deep understanding of how a food company think and operate. We made the right choice.”

Show me the money!

After Ranger was installed and the technical team fully trained-up, there was a brief period of running the new system in tandem with the old paper-based process. But it wasn"t long before the new system replaced the old and Fudges started to see some tangible results from their new purchase.

"From the first week, we started to save time across all our routine quality tasks. Glass checks alone used to take us at least 4 hours a week. That!s not including typing all the data from the sheets into the computer. Now it!s all done in just 40 minutes flat! That adds up to a lot of saved

Ranger in action on Fudges factory floor

I

From the first week, we started to

save time across all our routine

quality tasks. Glass checks alone

used to take us at least 4 hours a

week. Now it!s all done in just 40

minutes flat! That adds up to a

lot of saved time over the year

Peter Williams,

Process Technology Manager

”

Dorset Village Bakery, better known as

Fudges, are an award-winning Luxury

Baker based in Stalbridge, Dorset.

The family business, founded in 1926,

employ 170 staff and produce in

excess of 3 million cartons of biscuits

per year. The Fudges client list

includes Marks & Spencer, Waitrose,

Tesco and Harrods.

The Company

Due to increased business levels the

time, costs & hassle administering the

paper-based compliance & quality

function had increased exponentially.

It was time to replace the current

!paper! system with a more efficient

method.

The Need

Ranger: A paper-free compliance

system for the food industry that

monitors audits and procedures via

easy-to-use portable barcode

handsets and flexible control &

reporting software.

The Solution

• 40% savings in time & costs with

compliance and quality tasks.

• Quicker, accurate, more efficient

data collection and retrieval.

• At least 45 man hours saved a

month across all audit functions.

• Greatly reduced pre-audit prep

times. Fast data turnaround on

recall !drills".

• Improved quality control over all

processes and corrective actions.

The Results

Ranger Case Study

“

Fudges New Paper-free Process Makes Compliance A Cake WalkBakery cuts the cost of compliance by 40%

!

time over the year." reports Peter Williams, Process Technology Manager.

Even though great time savings have been made on general audits such as scales, probes, glass, metal detectors etc, one of the best areas for efficiency has been the !Product Taste" tests where recording and documenting 144 lines was taking about 12 man hours a week. Using Ranger, they have now got that down to just 2 hours a week! This improvement alone has saved Fudges on average 40 man hours a month.

Control Freaks

A feature that has proved a big hit with the team at Fudges is the !RAG" alerts. RAG (stands for Red, Amber &, Green) alerts clearly highlight on the computer display, in real-time, all corrective actions and

process issues that need attention, and the !state of play" with each one. This allows the team to take action in a controlled, timely fashion and to easily monitor progress.

“Another crucial improvement over our old paper system is that all the information is there the moment I need it. The on-screen reports and alerts make sure I always have my eye on the ball. Nothing slips through the net!” commented Susan Werro.

When it comes to assessment-preparation, again, Ranger comes into its own. It has saved the Fudges team many hours as the information needed for any audits is readily available, no hunting down forms and files then cross checking etc. Also, the team find !Recall drills" easy to respond to for the same reason - the

data is always there - fast turnaround, no delays.

Yet another Ranger feature that Fudges are making good use of, is the flexiblilty to create their own checking & auditing procedures with just one or two clicks of the mouse. Peter Williams, explained, “We don!t need to call the Ranger people in every time we want to alter audit sequences or types, we can set-up our own in minutes...”

He added, “The support from the Ranger guys is good. They respond quickly and have worked with us tirelessly to make sure Ranger fits our processes and operation like a glove. This has made Ranger a very easy system to learn and use.”

!On a Roll" - What"s next?

The Fudges Operations team are currently working with Ranger to implement a full Stock & Production control system that will again take advantage of Ranger"s portable handset technology. This will involve a further benefit that attracted the Fudges team to Ranger - the ability to seamlessly link to the firm"s existing manufacturing software from Sage.

Once the Stock system is fully operational, they are eager to take on Ranger"s Tracker module, which will give them complete forward-backward traceability for any item or batch produced. It will display all historic data on any of Fudges" 140+ product lines, right down to the time, date & source of any of 500 different ingredients used, all with a simple scan of a barcode.

Sage advice

The final word came from Werro, “As with most food companies, we!re always looking for ways to improve efficiency and reduce costs, especially in these challenging economic times. We!ve always run a very streamlined operation, but going "paper-free! with Ranger has clearly allowed us to take that much, much further…”

In conclusion she added, “If any firm in the food industry is serious about improving efficiency in their compliance or production processes, I recommend they talk to the Ranger people soon” !

As with most food companies, we!re

always looking for ways to improve

efficiency and reduce costs, especially in

these challenging economic times.

We!ve always run a very streamlined

operation but going "paper-free! with

Ranger has clearly allowed us to take

that much, much further...

Susan Werro,

Technical Manager

“

”

Ranger Food Systems Ltd. (“RFS”)

have been providing portable data

capture solutions for over 10 years.

With an impressive portfolio of blue

chip clients already to their name,

RFS originally developed Ranger

as a custom project for a food

producer/grower client. It soon

became clear that Ranger would

greatly benefit any firm in the food

industry that was using pen & paper

to record BRC, HACCP, ISO, EH,

Client et al. compliance data.

In consultation with clients and

partners with extensive food

producing and manufacturing

experience, RFS have designed

flexible, low-cost, paperless tools

that streamline quality, compliance,

traceability & production

processes, but more importantly

save time and money within a few

short months of implementation.

Contact

Fudges of Dorset, Home of Baked !Luxury"

Ranger Case Study

QA Team recording CCP data. Look, no paper!

Ranger

: 01761 408174"

: www.rangersystem.co.uk#

: Info@rangersystem.co.uk@