New Software Introduced for Tobacco Manufacturing and Packaging

Apriso, a leading provider of adaptive software solutions for global Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM), has announced a new software and services solution that addresses the unique material flow management and regulatory compliance issues of the Tobacco manufacturing industry.

This industry solution leverages FlexNet's production, inventory, quality and containment management capabilities to cost effectively improve operational performance, lower manufacturing costs and maximize quality to ensure consistent brand integrity. According to the company, FlexNet enables comprehensive traceability to effectively address the industry's evolving regulatory compliance and tax authority demands.

"One of the major benefits of implementing our FlexNet solution comes from improved integrity and quality control," said Rustam Sanaev, IT operations manager at BAT (British American Tobacco). "By this, I mean ensuring that the right material goes to the right product. When we had only 20 SKUs, this was not an issue. Everyone knew which materials went where. With 200 brands, it's quite different. Many of our customers are very discerning, and they count on us for accuracy and consistency. FlexNet allows us to keep them happy, and thereby outflank our competitors."

Faced with consolidating operations to improve efficiency, serve broader markets and offer expanded products, Scandinavian Tobacco turned to Apriso to solve their complexity challenges with manufacturing and distribution processes. As a platform-based operations management system, the Apriso solution supports both high volume / low mix or high volume / high mix production, offering manufacturers enterprise visibility, global collaboration and comprehensive traceability from "leaf to carton," addressing the challenges associated with this type of transition.

According to Apriso, the system's flexibility allows it to be deployed first where it is needed most, be it in primary manufacturing (conditioning, blending and flavoring), secondary manufacturing (synchronizing paper & filter with production, packaging and labeling) or warehouse and distribution operations. Deployment can then proceed to other operational areas, based on each factory's unique implementation objectives.

"The Apriso solution manages raw material receipt to storage, synchronizing tobacco feeding, paper, filter rod production, packaging, labeling and quality inspection processes seamlessly for each brand," states Rick Gallisa, Industry Director Consumer Goods at Apriso. "As a result, a comprehensive collection of data on materials and processes is captured, which can then be used to address compliance reporting and support Continuous Improvement initiatives, such as Lean and Six Sigma, across departments and locations."

Source: Apriso