Anglo-French transit packaging group Linpac Allibert is relying on a modular ERP system to integrate two radically different business models and help it transform from a plastic box manufacturer to a full-service provider to global supply chains.
The next time you pick up fresh vegetables from Carrefour in France or bread from Tesco’s in the United Kingdom, or change a part on your BMW, Ford Fiesta, or MG sports car, the chances are they will all have traveled along their supply chains in plastic containers manufactured by the same company -- Linpac Allibert.
With more than 140 million packaging units now in circulation, Linpac Allibert boasts the largest range of returnable transit packaging products in the world. Part of the €1.3 billion, privately owned Linpac Group, the company’s aim is to make the transport and storage of products along the supply chains of industrial, automotive, and retail companies and the European agriculture, food processing, and beverage sectors more efficient and more sustainable.
That ambitious strategy is the result of a fundamental transformation at Linpac over the past two years, sparked by the merger of the U.K.-based company’s transit packaging division with French competitor Allibert Buckhorn in 2007.
It was a good market match. The merger doubled the size of the business and combined complementary product lines. But the merger also created a massive organisational challenge for the new company -- how to combine two radically different business models and market approaches into a single, integrated process flow.
Two Business Models
“We had two completely different sets of processes and systems,” recalls Andre Ertel, Linpac Allibert’s IT programme manager. “The biggest challenge was getting the two business models of the different companies into one process flow in the same system, and to have the right touch points for everyone.”
Linpac’s traditional business focused on a large-volume, make-to-order process with a limited number of major customers and a heavy emphasis on product development. It had moved from its own bespoke system to an IFS ERP system three years earlier. Allibert, meanwhile, specialised in make to stock, offering multiple product lines to a host of smaller customers. It was running an Oracle JD Edwards system based heavily on forecasting.
“The strategy of ERP implementation was fundamentally different between the two companies,” Ertel adds.
After a rapid technology assessment, Linpac Allibert decided it needed a modular approach that would support both sets of processes but still provide a unified view of the company. It chose to upgrade its IFS system to the 7.3 version and roll it out as fast as possible across the whole company, initially in its four major production facilities in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Spain, followed by sales and distribution centres in eight other European countries.
Creating Unity
