A Sweet Solution

Perfetti Van Melle USA (PVM), a subsidiary of Perfetti Van Melle S.p.A., manufactures candy and gum, including Airheads and Mentos. PVM is gearing up to produce three new spinoffs of the Airheads brand: Airheads Cotton Candy Bubble Gum, Airheads Extremes and Airheads Fruit Spinners. To enable brand growth, PVM is expanding its Kentucky operations.

Consolidating & Cleaning

Keeping product data accurate under normal circumstances is no easy task, which is why Dave Hoffmeister, CIO of Perfetti Van Melle USA, sought out a trusted data synchronization partner to clean up current operations while keeping an eye on future growth.

The quality and organizational structure of data at PVM before it embarked on a data sync strategy was less than desirable, according to Hoffmeister. Multiple departments kept their own product databases to meet their own unique needs. The ERP material master database should have been the common source for product information, but that was not the case. Quite often, product specifications change during development stages. When this happens, the department familiar with the change updates their own records, without updating the ERP system. "Specification changes would not always be communicated to everyone who had a need to know, and bad information may then be communicated to our customers," says Hoffmeister.

Consider the Source

PVM chose TIE Commerce as its data sync provider and relies on its E-Vision translator software for EDI processing. Even thought PVM is still in the early stages of its data sync initiative, the project is expected to eliminate data redundancies, simplify communication of product data to business partners and improve product data accuracy.

"Perhaps the most important step, and one which many folks would take for granted, is to establish clear ownership and accountability for master data," says Hoffmeister. "Unfortunately, it's one of the most difficult hurdles to overcome." In response, PVM is creating a data control function that has complete responsibility for all aspects of product data, removing material master create/change capability from all other users. The next step is to kill redundant databases. The third step publishes new data to PVM's business partners whenever a master data change is made. The TIE Catalog Manager provides this functionality. It also provides robust reporting tools to keep track of changes and how they were communicated.

Perfetti's Data Sync Future

Since data sync is a vital step to help enable success with RFID, PVM feels it is right on track, even though RFID is not something it will embark on in the immediate future. "We plan to continue to use them as our primary EDI partner and for our data sync initiatives. I have confidence that we will continue to rely on them as our needs in these areas change or grow," says Hoffmeister.