Case Study
When SAP Alone Wasn’t Enough
Kevin McCormick
1 min read
Dairy Manufacturing & Export
Industry:
Company size:
Business goals:
Business results at a glance
Blending system in continuous use
Seamless integration
with SAP and factory equipment
Accurate, auditable
Ingredient measuring and tracking
Experieco’s responsiveness, fit‑for‑purpose technology, and ability to deliver under tight deadlines gave us a rock‑solid, business‑critical system that’s easy to adapt and runs around the clock.
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Synlait, a leading dairy manufacturer based in New Zealand, produces premium milk powders and infant formulas for global markets. Following five years of rapid growth, Synlait had outgrown its existing ERP platform (Infor M3) and committed to an enterprise‑wide migration to SAP. While SAP would serve as the system of record, alternative front-end solutions proved too rigid and costly for the highly specialised manufacturing processes.
Experieco was engaged to design and deliver a custom blending application to manage ingredient staging, weighing, and mixing, ensuring absolute accuracy and traceability, all integrated with SAP and existing factory machinery.
Key pain points
Alternative front-end solutions lacked flexibility for Synlait's unique manufacturing workflows.
High urgency to align with the SAP go‑live schedule.
Need for seamless integration with barcode scanners, industrial scales, and other factory hardware.
Requirement for precise, auditable tracking of every batch to meet stringent quality and safety standards.
The Experieco solution
Experieco recommended OutSystems, an enterprise low‑code platform, to rapidly design and deploy a tailored application:
Custom UI & UX
Built specifically for the blending process, optimised for factory floor operatorsHardware Integration
Direct connections to barcode scanners and multiple industrial scale types, ensuring milligram‑level precisionMicroservices Layer
Facilitated communication between the application, factory machinery, and SAPRapid Prototyping
The proof of concept was delivered swiftly, validated feasibility of the integration approach, and evolved directly into the foundation of the production application.Iterative Enhancements
MVP delivered first, with subsequent releases adding support for more complex scenarios and new customer requirements
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Long-Term Impact
Accuracy & Compliance: Full traceability of every ingredient batch for safety audits and regulatory compliance.
Operational Reliability: The solution has operated 24/7 since launch, enabling uninterrupted production.
Ease of Change: Enhancements and process changes implemented faster and more cost‑effectively than within SAP.
This approach can be applied across industries where manufacturing processes require: Complex equipment integration, real‑time data capture and traceability, rapid delivery of tailored user interfaces alongside ERP systems.
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