First Milk streamlines its supply chain with IFS

Shiraz Lye Manager Sales and Marketing-South Asia IFS Research and Development

Britain’s largest UK- farmer-owned business First Milk, has selected IFS Applications the global enterprise applications company, to provide full integration of all critical business processes and optimise production across its cheese division sites nationwide, according to IFS officials.

Shiraz Lye Manager Sales & Marketing-South Asia IFS Research & Development said that this is a deal worth US $3million and IFS Applications will be deployed in the eight creameries and packing plants over nine months.

“IFS will integrate First Milk’s formerly disjointed business systems and processes, including warehouse management, financials, forecasting and payroll, enabling centralised control of operations and providing a new level of visibility across the entire enterprise and supply chain. Real-time reporting on cheese production, maturation, packaging and dispatch will also enable First Milk to respond with much greater agility to inevitable variations in milk supply and customer demand—ensuring business performance is consistently at an optimal level,” he said.

As for the IFS Applications which is on its seventh generation (IFS Application 7), more than 70 percent of the product development is been done in Sri Lanka. Lye said that the same solution now could be implemented in similar companies in the region. “Having a tested and time proven solution is very easy and fast to implement, and easy to use as most of the issue areas are been addressed and corrected.

Since IFS Applications are developed in Sri Lanka, it would be an added advantage to IFS customers in the region as the companies would be directly communicating with the source of the ERP, not third parties,” he said.