Chocolates Valor Gains Flexibility and Shaves Hours off Production Planning

For well over a century, Chocolates Valor has maintained a great reputation as a premier producer of chocolate bars, chocolates and snacks. Founded in 1881 and headquartered in the Spanish coastal city of Alicante, Chocolates Valor produces almost 21,000 tons of chocolate annually at its two production sites. With a goal of achieving excellence in manufacturing in order to maintain the high quality of its products, Chocolates Valor has implemented a process called “From Bean to Bar,” in which the company selects top-quality raw materials at their sources and processes them at its plants in Spain from start to finish: roasting and grinding, blending and mixing, refining and finally molding the finished products.

Digitalizing the supply chain, from acquisition of cocoa beans to delivery of chocolates, is essential to Chocolates Valor’s efforts to optimize its manufacturing processes. This requires total, real-time control of all information coming from the shop floor, as well as appropriate tools to enable flexible decision-making processes. Chocolates Valor was unable to achieve these objectives with its previous approach, which relied on Microsoft Excel spreadsheets of data painstakingly captured from its SAP® enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution. In addition to being time- and resource-consuming, this approach was fraught with inaccuracies and did not enable a flexible and efficient decision-making process.

To fill its digitalization needs, Chocolates Valor selected Preactor APS, a family of products for production planning and programming that improves the synchronization of manufacturing processes and offers greater visibility and control. Fully implemented within two weeks, Preactor APS enabled Chocolates Valor to sequence production orders faster and to more accurately plan production. It also streamlined updating of the production master plan and enhanced interdepartmental communications.

“With Preactor APS we have gained 16 hours per week for the planner resource dedicated to sequencing production,” notes Jordi Barbero, Chocolates Valor supply chain manager. “And we have contributed to increasing the service level. Two years ago, it stood at 97.8 percent and now we are at 98.5 percent.”

Chocolates Valor’s business challenges:

• Capture shop floor data in real time
• Improve transparency and communication among departments
• Make decisions in a more flexible, accurate and efficient way
• Improve visibility across the whole supply chain
• Optimize manufacturing processes

Chocolates Valor’s keys to success:

• Implement Preactor APS
• Integrate Preactor APS with with ERP and existing automation systems
• Expert support from Siemens partner BlueSmart

Chocolates Valor’s results:

• Faster sequencing of production orders
• More accurate production planning
• Improvement of production master plans update
• Enhanced communications among departments
• Saved 16 hours of planner resources each week
• Increased contribution to service level from 97.8 to 98.5 percent

“Our chocolate manufacturing process maximizes the quality of the final product,” Barbero says. “We decided on the Preactor APS solution because we needed to be more flexible when it came to production.”

Find out more about Chocolates Valor’s planning and control needs, the Preactor APS implementation, and their satisfying results. Read the case study