Food and beverage
Findings

Chilled ready-meal and salad producer · 2 plants in Brittany · 260 employeesThis War Map shows how we turn an operational review into an implementation plan. The dates show a possible sequence; the scope and schedule of a real engagement are agreed with you.

Findings

Where work gets held up, who has to step in, and what it costs in this example.

Penalties paid by default

Retailers invoiced €412K in 2025. Only 9% was contested, because the evidence for each line sits in four places and takes about 50 minutes to assemble.

Traceability that depends on people

The mock recall took 6 h 40 against an internal target of 4 hours. Mixed pallets break the link between production lot and destination.

Promotions planned from inboxes

Promotion volumes reach planning by email. The plan is rebuilt twice a day, and short-life product ends up overproduced or short.

Quality holds outside the ERP

Held lots are blocked in the quality tool only. Shipping relies on a printed list updated twice a day.

Illustrative time allocation for 11 interview roles

Re-keying and checking data
27%
Chasing information (email, phone, portals)
22%
Handling exceptions (holds, shortages, refusals)
19%
Planned production and quality work
21%
Decisions and customer work
11%

These scenario percentages total 100%. They describe the 11 interview roles only and are not extrapolated to the 260 employees.

Re-keying and chasing take 49% of the interviewed roles' time. Exceptions take another 19%. Planned work and decisions share the remaining 32%.

Key Insight: Much of the 19% spent on exceptions is food-safety work that stays human. The recoverable share sits mainly in re-keying and chasing, and must be measured task by task before any value is counted.

SOP vs. Reality

Retailer order to dispatchSOP: 6 steps → The Reality: 11 steps, 4 handoffs
The SOP
EDI order received
Order integrated in ERP
Plan adjusted
Picking by shelf life
Dispatch advice sent
Invoice issued
6 steps, linear
The Reality
11
Steps
4
Handoffs
Order D-1, delivery D+1
Cycle time
~1,050 orders/week
Volume

Orders arrive by EDI and import automatically. About 15% need a manual fix before they can be prepared. The plan is checked against orders in Excel, shelf life is checked by eye, and mixed pallets lose the lot link.

The Gap
31 of 214 orders in the observed window needed a manual edit: 14.5%. Main cause: promotion codes and prices loaded after the first orders arrive.
Retailer minimum remaining-life rules are printed on the wall and absent from picking. Three loads were refused in December.
Mixed pallets are built without a lot scan. This is where downstream traceability breaks.
Signed delivery notes are filed on paper by date. Finding one for a dispute takes 15 to 40 minutes.
Retailer penaltiesSOP: 4 steps → The Reality: 9 steps, 3 handoffs
The SOP
Penalty notice received
Checked against delivery
Accepted or disputed
Credit booked
4 steps, linear
The Reality
9
Steps
3
Handoffs
~50 min per disputed line
Cycle time
~1,150 lines/yr
Volume

Penalties arrive on four portals, weeks after delivery. Each dispute needs the order, its changes, the signed delivery note and the carrier's arrival record. Karine contests about two lines a week; the rest are accepted.

The Gap
Penalties appear 3 to 8 weeks after delivery. Dispute windows differ by retailer and are tracked from memory.
In the reviewed sample of 380 lines, 34% had evidence to contest: late order changes counted as shortages, or lateness caused by a slot the retailer moved.
Scenario: recovering two thirds of the contestable 34% would keep about €93K a year. Each dispute stays Karine's decision.
The penalty tracker is one Excel file kept by Karine, with no link to the customer account in Sage X3.
Quality hold and releaseSOP: 5 steps → The Reality: 9 steps, 4 handoffs
The SOP
Sample taken
Lab result recorded
Lot held if out of spec
Quality decision
Stock released or destroyed
5 steps, linear
The Reality
9
Steps
4
Handoffs
1.6 days average hold
Cycle time
~25 holds/month
Volume

Holding and releasing a lot is a quality decision and stays one. The gap is propagation: the hold exists in the QMS while Sage X3 still shows the stock as available until someone changes it.

The Gap
No status link between the QMS and Sage X3. Between two printed lists, a held lot can be picked.
Average hold of 1.6 days on products with 12 to 21 days of total shelf life. Late releases miss retailer minimum-life rules.
Scenario: 22% of 2025 write-off value, about €240K, is linked to holds released after the retailer threshold.
Investigation notes live in email threads. An auditor sees the decision without the reasoning behind it.
Recipe and label changeSOP: 5 steps → The Reality: 10 steps, 5 handoffs
The SOP
Change request
Recipe updated
Label updated
Approval
Release to production
5 steps, linear
The Reality
10
Steps
5
Handoffs
19 days observed
Cycle time
~14 changes/month
Volume

Ingredient and allergen changes travel from supplier email to Excel, to Sage X3, to the label software and back through five inboxes. Camille holds the only full view of which templates share text.

The Gap
Recipe and label are maintained in two systems with no link. Allergen text is typed twice.
Approvals run through email chains with five people. The latest version is the one in the most recent reply.
Own-label products add a retailer approval round of 4 to 9 days.
Camille is the only person who knows which templates share a common text block.
Key Insight: The four sample comparisons show 83.3%, 125%, 80% and 100% more steps, respectively: (actual ÷ documented − 1) × 100. Some extra steps are necessary food-safety checks; others are re-keying that a link between systems would remove.

Work that needs attention

Customer serviceEDI orders with rejected lines fixed by hand: about 150/week at 3 minutes each7.5h
Supply chainProduction plan rebuilt twice a day in Excel after order and promotion changes9h
FinancePenalty tracking and disputes: portal downloads, evidence search, filing6.5h
QualityComplaint files: record search only, 1 hour of the 2 h 15 per file; 45 × 12 ÷ 52 = 10.4h/week10.4h
QualityHold lists printed and relayed by phone to shipping and planning3.5h
RegulatoryLabel proofs circulated and comments merged by hand: 14 changes/month × 2.5 h; 14 × 2.5 × 12 ÷ 52 = 8.1h/week8.1h
LogisticsShelf-life checks by eye and signed delivery notes filed on paper6h
AllDownstream traceability breaks on mixed palletsongoing
51.0 person-hours/week across 7 quantified rows; 1 unquantified risk51.0 h
Key Insight: Monthly volumes are converted to weekly hours (× 12 ÷ 52). The complaint row counts only the record search, not the analysis and reply. Rows are scoped to avoid double counting; time spent is not automatically recoverable.

Risk Register

Food safetyCritical
A held lot can be picked
Hold status is missing from Sage X3. Between printed lists a held lot can ship. No incident in 2025; one near miss in November.
TraceabilityCritical
Mixed pallets break the lot link
Downstream trace took 4 h 30 in the mock recall. A real recall on a Friday evening would depend on who answers the phone.
Single point of failureCritical
Nicolas Guého, planning
The 14-tab plan and its promotion adjustments exist in his file and his head. During his holidays the industrial director rebuilds it in the evenings.
MarginHigh
Penalties accepted by default
€412K invoiced in 2025, 9% contested, although suppliers have the right to dispute each penalty. About a third of the reviewed sample had evidence to contest.
RegulatoryHigh
Allergen changes through email
A recipe change takes 19 days on average to reach the label, with approvals spread across inboxes. The exposure is a label that differs from the recipe.
Single point of failureHigh
Camille Tanguy, labelling
The only person who knows which templates share text blocks. A change to one template can alter others without anyone noticing.
WasteHigh
Write-offs tied to promotions
€1.1M written off in 2025; 38% linked to promotion forecast misses. No one compares promotion results with the forecast afterwards.
Data integrityMedium
Promotion codes loaded late
New promotional codes and prices reach Sage X3 after the first orders. Each one creates a rejected EDI line and, later, a price dispute.
Next Chapter
Implementation plan

Strategy Session · 30 min

A real engagement is scoped in the Strategy Session and may begin with a War Map or a bounded Feasibility Sprint.

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