Success Stories

Compatibility and Enhancement of the Infinium ERP System
One of Three Key Benefits in Lakeside Food's Decision to Choose Viewpoint for Infinium

From the humble little pea, a new idea took root one hundred and nineteen years ago on the shores of Lake Michigan. When he moved from Pennsylvania to Wisconsin, with the intention of expanding the East Coast seed producing business to the Midwest, Albert Landreth had no idea the new direction the family business would take.

A new idea began to germinate shortly after Landreth witnessed the quality of pea the rich Wisconsin soil could produce from his seeds. From the kitchen of a small Manitowoc hotel Landreth began canning the high-quality peas. The success of his canned peas was such that in 1887 Landreth built Wisconsin's first commercial canning company, the Albert Landreth Seed Company, adjacent to the hotel where it all started. Since that time, the company has grown from just an offshoot to Lakeside Foods, one of the largest food-processing suppliers for the MidWest.

Lakeside may not be a recognizable household name, but the company's business focus on private labels has made them well known within the food wholesale, distribution, and retail industries. Their list of customers is as long as, their diverse line of nutritional food products that includes canned and frozen vegetables, canned dry beans, jellies and preserves, frozen and shelf-stable meals, canned meats and stew, organic products, health beverage supplements, non-dairy frozen dessert toppings, salsa, and other sauces.

As well as supplying the US Midwest, Lakeside exports to customers in fourteen countries including Norway, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Guam, the Philippines, Tahiti, Samoa, Puerto Rico, and Mexico. With so many customers relying on their quality products and ability to deliver on time, Lakeside 's experienced executives recognized the benefits a data collection system would bring to their operational efficiencies and business successes.

According to Laurie Schad, an Accounting Manager for Lakeside, "when you produce millions of cases you have to be able to keep your inventory as tight as possible". After reviewing a number of vendor solutions to improve the accuracy and accountability of their inventory, Lakeside chose Nutech Systems' Viewpoint for Infinium solution. Lakeside based their decision on three key Viewpoint benefits - compatibility with and enhancement of the Infinium ERP system, strong serialization feature, and reporting flexibility.

Infinium Compatibility and Enhancement .

Having invested in a number of Infinium modules, Lakeside was not interested in a data collection solution that would require serious modification to their Infinium ERP. Nutech's Viewpoint for Infinium does not interfere or change the ERP system in any way.

Users will collect data using Intermec CK61 hand-held devices and newly released SR60 multi-range scanners. The Intermec devices will be installed with Infinium Views, designed by Nutech. Having Views with the look and feel of Infinium will help Lakeside employees become proficient, in a very short time, with the Viewpoint data collection system - the typical learning curve is one to two weeks.

Operating behind the scenes, Viewpoint will use the barcode information captured by the devices, to complete various procedures. In comparison to having employees enter the scanned data, Viewpoint will complete the transactions faster, more accurately, and in real time. Viewpoint's ability to manage the data in different ways will also be highly beneficial .

For example, Infinium summarizes Lakeside 's lot information; Infinium just wants to know the total number of cases of peas produced. Whereas Viewpoint's strong serialization feature, will let Lakeside track their inventory at the pallet level from production, labeling, to finished product. While managing this level of detail, Viewpoint will also feed the data into Infinium in a summarized format - just the way Infinium likes it.

Viewpoint's serialization feature is also designed to track inventory at the unit, pack, and pallet-level using either barcode or RFID tags.

Serialization Feature

Being able to track the different lots and quantities at the pallet level will give Lakeside a great deal of real time detail and accurate information about their inventory. Viewpoint's serialization feature also makes it RFID-ready. If Lakeside decides in the future to move from barcodes to RFID tags, Viewpoint can help them make the transition. The third key feature in favor of Viewpoint is its ability to interface with different software solutions.

Reporting Flexibility

At Lakeside, Viewpoint will seamlessly interface with their report writer. With the new level of detail available through Viewpoint, Lakeside's reports will provide valuable real time visibility to help ensure their business continues to be successful and to bring a new level of customer satisfaction.

Lakeside Foods is where they are today because they are the best at what they do. The role of the Infinium ERP system is to manage, efficiently, many of the manufacturing processes. Nutech's Viewpoint is there to help Lakeside take it all to the next level.