Hindered by a paper-based production workflow, Jacques IJs yearned for digital transformation. By implementing our MES, the Belgian ice cream company is now able to monitor and manage production in real-time, with a significant impact on efficiency, yield, and quality.
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The Belgian manufacturer Jacques IJs was struggling with legacy paper processes, and a cumbersome data analysis process. As a result, they often came late to discover trends in yield and waste parameters or production consistency. Until they had enough – and decided to digitise their operations.
Their weapon of choice: our MES software FactryOS.
Here’s how we enabled them to increase overall production efficiency and yield, reduce downtime, save costs, and improve employee engagement.
Jacques IJs is a powerhouse in the Belgian ice cream industry, with a remarkable 30-year legacy of excellence. With an extensive product line of premium frozen desserts, the company caters its products to a global customer base. Since two years, we are proud to support Jacques IJs in optimising their operations and enhancing the client and employee experience, through the implementation of our MES platform FactryOS.
In pursuit of a comprehensive company-wide transformation, Jacques IJs is implementing a range of digital initiatives across various departments. Yet, the shop floor is the place where the profits are made. Therefore, implementing a modern Manufacturing Execution System (MES) was first on their list.
Ice cream production is a complex process with many components involved, with lots of rules and exceptions, and more that 100 new recipes added to their line-up each year, some processes are hard to standardise. That’s why they needed a flexible MES that could manage these complex workflows.
Some of the challenges they were facing:
Therefore, their main objectives were to:
We needed a flexible and intuitive MES platform that could handle our rapidly fluctuating workflows. FactryOS turned out to be the best match for our needs. While most other tools lacked flexibility, it checked all of our boxes. It could be built from scratch and tailored to our workflow, while the interface looks great. Considering all these factors, I would confidently rate the software solution as an excellent 9 out of 10.
Pieter Schuermans
IT Manager at Jacques IJs
We are noticing decreased downtime, because production isn't stopped anymore due to wrong or missing papers, or issues with wrong lot numbers. We're not measuring Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE) on all lines yet. However, I calculated it for one of them already, and it has improved by 10%.
Yves Hemelaers
Planning Manager at Jacques IJs
In the past, the company’s A3 printer spilled out over 500 sheets of paper every day, going from checklists to fill-in forms and production sheets. This archaic production workflow often caused stress and unplanned downtime.
Today, peace of mind reigns over the floor. No more tangled sheets of papers, no more missing documents, no more confused looks. All relevant information is now visible on a tablet device and immediately accessible for operators.
To spot production trends, managers needed to investigate the data in spreadsheets and calculate average values, which only happened 24 hours later. Over that time, 750.000 items may have been produced on a line.
Managers and team leaders can now instantly access real-time production data from their desks. They can quickly check key metrics such as waste and yield percentages, overall production, and ensure that all KPIs are on track.
Paper checklists and forms were replaced by automated processes and in-process verifications, going from weighings to quality and safety tests. Assigning reasons for downtime is standardised through a tree structure.
Through an intuitive and user-friendly interface that integrates with any system, operators are now guided in their daily duties, resulting in a fluent operator experience with higher employee engagement and productivity.
The visual interface was well received by our employees. People are genuinely happy to work with the software. And that was the whole point. The software not only saves managers a lot of time, people on the floor are now able to focus better on the things that really matter, and do their jobs better.
Pieter Schuermans
IT Manager at Jacques IJs
With a user-focused solution aiming to address the pain points of various stakeholders, we helped to implement not only an MES, but a culture of continuous improvement for Jacques IJs. Here’s a glimpse into our approach:
A crucial aspect of our approach is to involve all relevant stakeholders before and during implementation – whether it is the company CEO, machine operators, or anyone in between. By means of user stories, we were able to pinpoint pains and frustrations for each role, and find effective solutions.
One of the main objectives was to create a user-friendly workflow that operators love to work with. By involving key users early-on on the process, including short feedback loops, we helped to ensure a need-addressing solution, and a fast user adoption. All within the agreed-upon timeframe.
New iterations, such as integrations, or adding a button or screen, are implemented at a high pace. Before any changes are deployed in production, newly developed functionalities are first pushed to a Factry test server. This allows the internal team to review changes, and give their instant feedback.
Despite the fact that we are producing more ice cream than last year, we are clearly noticing a downwards trend in customer claims. At the same time, the MES has improved our traceability. In case clients have a question, we can now send them any data they need for every stage of the production process.
Yves Hemelaers
Planning Manager at Jacques IJs
So, what has been the return of their digitisation efforts today? By implementing our MES software, the company managed to reduce downtime, increase yield, and improve traceability, leading to cost savings, streamlined production operations, and enhanced customer satisfaction.
By bringing more clarity to the shop floor, Jacques IJs was able to reduce unplanned stoppages on every line, implement a continuous improvement process to resolve recurring problems, and follow up on its progress.
By keeping their products better within weight specifications, the company has managed to decrease overfill of products with 10-15%. This has allowed them to increase their production volume without buying new equipment.
Thanks to visual alerts, operators are now able to intervene faster in case of suboptimal process values. Managers are able to spot real-time process trends at the click of a button through a single, user-friendly interface.
As a result of higher levels of production consistency and an optimised packaging and labelling process, the company notices a decreasing trend in client claims, leading to improved customer satisfaction and business growth.
In case of an audit or client claim, the ice cream company can now deliver detailed genealogy reports, ensuring traceability on a lot level. This includes information about batches, origins, and suppliers of the raw materials.
Instead of wasting hours a day on writing, printing, or retrieving paper sheets, employees now have instant access to real-time manufacturing data, revolutionising the way they work and enhancing overall productivity.
By monitoring production with FactryOS, our product overfill has now decreased by 15 to 20%. This means we can now e.g. produce 100 items instead of 85 with the same amount of raw materials. When you're producing an amount of 235 million ice creams a year, that makes a huge difference.
Yves Hemelaers
Planning Manager at Jacques IJs
With these great results, the ice cream company’s digital manufacturing journey is far from over yet. Here’s what’s still in the pipeline:
We’re looking forward to being part of this ongoing journey!