How a food co-packer cut admin work and hit 100% EDI compliance.
“We only pack other people’s brands. ShiftERP is the first system that understood that.”
2
FTEs saved per plant
Eliminated manual data entry and spreadsheet reconciliation
5
Weeks to deployment
From contract signing to full production use
100%
EDI compliance
Zero chargebacks since go-live
Real-time
Production visibility
Live dashboards replaced end-of-day reports
The challenge
a Midwest food co-packer in the Mountain West was growing. Spreadsheets and a desktop accounting tool were not. Several plants packing for retailers meant more volume without more visibility.
Legacy system limitations
The plant ran QuickBooks, Excel, and paper production tracking. That worked at a smaller size. Order volume exposed the cracks:
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Manual EDI processing
Staff keyed retailer orders from EDI into spreadsheets. Errors and delays. Each chargeback cost $500 to $2,000.
-
No real-time visibility
Production status only at end of day. Customer calls meant walking the floor.
-
Inventory discrepancies
Physical counts regularly off records by 10 to 15%. Stock-outs and rush material orders.
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Growing admin burden
Two full-time people per plant on data entry, reconciliation, and reports.
“We were spending more time managing our systems than managing our operations. Something had to change.”
CFO · food co-packer
The search for a solution
They looked at SAP Business One, NetSuite, and industry packages. The pattern was the same:
- - Implementation timelines of 12 to 18 months
- - Costs from $500K to over $1M
- - Software designed for brand manufacturers, not co-packing
- - EDI requiring a separate system and consultants
A 4 to 6 week implementation sounded optimistic. Purpose-built co-packing workflows and native EDI made it worth a closer look.
The solution
ShiftERP deployed a complete plant system in 5 weeks. Faster than they expected.
Implementation timeline
-
01 · WEEK 1
Discovery and configuration
Mapped plant workflows, product hierarchies, and customer-specific requirements.
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02 · WEEK 2
Data migration
Imported customer data, the product catalog, and inventory counts. Checked them against source systems.
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03 · WEEK 3
EDI onboarding
Connected EDIStack to major retail partners. Mapping handled document variations automatically.
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04 · WEEK 4
Training and parallel run
Team training. Ran old and new systems together to check accuracy.
-
05 · WEEK 5
Go-live
Full production. Legacy tools retired. ShiftERP became the system of record.
Key capabilities deployed
Production management
Real-time line tracking, production scheduling, and changeover management across lines.
Inventory control
Lot tracking, expiration management, and live quantity updates with barcode scanning.
EDIStack integration
Automated EDI for purchase orders, acknowledgments, ship notices, and invoices.
Quality management
In-process quality checks, hold and release, and customer-specific specs.
The results
In the first month they saw movement on every metric they were tracking.
ADMINISTRATIVE EFFICIENCY
4 FTEs → 2 FTEs
Two admin seats per plant came off data entry. People moved to customer service and operations.
EDI COMPLIANCE
85% → 100%
Zero chargebacks since go-live. Documents processed automatically with 99.5% first-pass accuracy.
INVENTORY ACCURACY
85% → 99.2%
Live inventory tracking closed the gaps. Stock-outs dropped about 90%.
PRODUCTION VISIBILITY
EOD → Real-time
Live dashboards replaced end-of-day spreadsheets. Customer questions answered immediately.
“We cut a lot of admin work and finally have a live view of production. That is the whole reason we wanted a system.”
Plant operations · food co-packer
Bring a week from your plant.
We will put it on the board so you can see whether this is the same kind of fit.