The document outlines a case study on optimizing business processes for a brownie manufacturing company facing communication issues between departments, leading to inefficiencies. A solution was implemented using Excel to automate data entry and synchronize various operational sheets, resulting in improved productivity and a more harmonious work environment. Post-implementation, the company reported enhanced productivity and a focus on sales and new product development rather than production coordination challenges.

1. Case Study for Business Process Optimization for a FMCG
Production Company
Executive Summary
The Client is a manufacturer of brownies and has its production, stores and dispatch operations at
their factory. They have several teams who are looking after different departments of the business
but there was no proper communication amongst the departments with the result that a lot of time
was wasted in syncing the production and dispatch quantities and the stores to which the products
were to be dispatched. This resulted in a lot of wasted time and energy and was building
discontentment amongst the staff and a tension filled environment resulting in low productivity.
Requirement
Currently all the departments were using individual excel sheets and they used to punch in the data
from the sales order sheet to their own sheets and then process it. This would lead to errors in data
entry and hence calculations and on-the-fly changes in one department were not communicated to
others in a timely manner to synchronize their activities resulting in confusion at the time of
packaging and dispatches.
They required a system wherein once the sales order were confirmed, the production, stores,
dispatch and billing sheets and activities would be automatically generated without any additional
data entry. This would result in all the sheets having the same source and hence would be
synchronized and no changes in individual sheets should be permitted once the documents have
been printed.
They are supplying their products through various sales channels such as local stores, multiplexes,
outstation stores, outstation multiplexes, local distributors, local exhibitions and online agencies and
each channel has different requirement of packaging material and dispatch instructions based on
the sales channel. As the sheets were not in sync, there was always confusion in the packaging and
repackaging had to be done almost daily based on the final dispatches resulting in wastages of
product and packaging materials not the mention the frustration of the dispatch team.
They wanted a simple data entry system which was portable to enable all sales team members to
punch in their requirements in the same format and mail it to the sales manager and which could be
easily reconfigured as per the dynamic nature of their business.
Due to the dynamic nature of their business, they keep on introducing new products depending on
the buying trends and experimenting with new recipes and setting up new sales channels and
processes.
They did not want a programmed application which would require a programmer to change the
code every time a new product or process was added but wanted the system to be created in Excel
as everyone is used to and comfortable with it and could be dynamically updated easily

2. Solution
After studying and understanding their flow of operations and discussion with the team members to
understand the problems they were facing in executing their activities we implemented the
following solution using Excel.
There is only one data entry sheet which is filled in by the Sales Manager. Based on the
sales orders all the other sheets are auto generated
1. Sales Order and Production Planning Sheet
a. Sales order entry with validation and data consistency checks
i. Different sections created for different sales channels each with its
packaging requirements
ii. Each section has its own validation and checks for minimum order
lots, sales data and product mapping for each outlet
iii. Appropriate messages shown for inconsistent data entry
2. Stores
a. A summary sheet detailing the total raw material to be issued for the days
production is created
b. A summary sheet detailing the total packaging material to be issued for the days
production is created
3. Batch Production
a. The total production was segregated into production lots as per the standard batch
size simplifying the calculation of Raw Materials required for each batch
4. Sampling Sheet
a. The sample calculations are fixed for the store type and where they have a
promoter. This sheet is printed separately to keep track of samples issued
5. Packaging, Dispatch and Logistics
a. A summary sheet detailing the total packaging material issued for the days
packaging
b. Coordinated Route plan for local stores and multiplexes with travelling and waiting
time for cost calculation of transportation
c. Outstation Courier sheet with store names and packaging details with a list of
required documentation for different cities
d. Checklist to ensure that total production has been dispatched and delivered
e. Checklist to track the expired product returns and their processing status
6. Billing
a. Billing sheet for the billing team to generate invoices as per the dispatch schedule
All the sheets are protected to ensure that no changes can be done in any other sheet than the sales
order sheet by authorized personnel. Data validation and error checking is implemented to ensure
uniformity and consistency in the production schedule.
As all the sheets are auto-generated from a single Sales Order sheet, there is no conflict regarding
stores issues, packaging or dispatches and the team started executing operations smoothly which
resulted in higher productivity and kept the staff happy and contented with their jobs.
After implementation of the above solution the company has seen better productivity and a calm
working environment which has enabled it to concentrate on sales and new product development
rather than managing production issues and coordination