Established in the USA for over 65 years, King & Prince Seafood® is one of the largest seafood companies in the United States and operates under the umbrella organisation Nissui. They have three production facilities in the US – in Bellingham and Redmond, Washington and Brunswick, Georgia.
Their broad portfolio of fish, shrimp, calamari, crab, surimi and seafood blends is supplied direct to the hospitality and restaurant trade, and their wide range of customers illustrates the high standards and consistency of their operations.
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Highly configurable software allows end users to adapt the templates to exactly meet their needs – there’s no need for additional IT involvement.
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Painless compliance with the US Nutrition Facts label regulations means a lower workload and peace of mind.
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Complete visibility of all data means this is one solution that is readily accessible to everyone, no matter what their role or department.
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Flexible training solutions are adapted on a client by client basis – sessions are adapted to focus on each organisation’s requirements – there is no one-size fits all approach.
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Improved relationships with customers and suppliers thanks to increased responsiveness.
With an enormous focus on quality and customer satisfaction, King & Prince Seafood found themselves increasingly hindered by an inconsistent and low-tech approach to recipe development, ingredients statements and allergen listings. The team suffered a couple of close calls when mislabelled allergens were identified in the NPD process. Existing safety procedures meant these allergens didn’t make it to the finished product, but alarm bells rang loudly for the King & Prince team. The way R&D technologists were working was inconsistent and time consuming; each technologist had their own way of working, all using flat Excel files unrelated to one-another. It was time to upgrade.
“It was clear we needed something new to help us get our data under control” said Tracy McConnell, VP of Technical Services. On the face of it, their requirements were simple: King & Prince needed one application that would be the same for everyone, and they needed a database where they could store their ingredients information safely, instead of storing them in unrelated flat Excel files. After an in-depth benchmarking process, Tracy and her team established a long list of requirements and put the project out to tender. Of the six software companies they initially interviewed, three were brought in to provide working demonstrations. “It was instantly clear to us that the Recipes & Specifications templates were incredibly configurable”, says Tracy. “We’d be able to design the templates to exactly suit our requirements and wouldn’t be limited by the software.” Another important factor for Tracy was the way the software would allow end-users to lead the project. “The user-friendly interface meant R&D technologists could develop the software to suit their needs.
I’ve seen software where IT generates a template without a full understanding of its use and it ends up a complete disaster.” Tracy was determined the configurability of the software would be used to full effect. Kicking off the project, FoodChain ID trained the R&D technologists in the King & Prince headquarters in Brunswick, Georgia, USA. Initial training focused on recipe development and learning how to configure the system to meet their needs. This first-round training gave technologists the knowhow to create and manage their own templates. Regular conference calls supported this training to help the team and new starters get the most out of the software. Two years into the project, the FoodChain ID spent another week with King & Prince to review recipe development and work on additional equation and template training. Confident in the success of these training sessions, Tracy is working on a further on-site training session; “we really benefit from the face to face training sessions because we’re able to really focus in on the King & Prince-specific issues,” she explains.
The impetus for the project – the mislabelled allergen – means King & Prince is using Recipes & Specifications to meet the US Nutrition Facts label regulations. The software ensures accurate real-time label information; mislabelling can be confidently consigned to the history books for King & Prince. Additionally, the team at FoodChain ID adapted the software to allow labelling information to be translated into customer specifications and POS information, reducing workload for the team.
Tracy has been true to her intent and is exploiting the system to its full extent. The King & Prince team has embraced the system. “We’re working in such a way that Recipes & Specifications is the fulcrum from which data is extracted into other software. It’s really helped streamline our SAP process” says Tracy.
King and Prince has embedded Recipes & Specifications into the core of their business. “I knew when I first saw the configurability of the template that I could really make it work for us”, says Tracy. “It holds all our data and specifications, as well as all the supplier information. In fact, all data and verifications are done within the system”.
Moving beyond R&D, the system is of huge benefit across the organisation. Every department inputs data into the system. For instance, category management input forecasting into the system and supply chain uses it to document costs and other raw material information. Customer complaints and claims are held in the system, with the investigation and outcomes stored in the same place. King & Prince even use the it to carry out and store their risk assessments.
Keen to keep momentum in place, Tracy is eager to work Recipes & Specifications even harder. “Our project for the next quarter will be to add the action claims documents to the system. This will give everyone in the organisation visibility of the technical services documents; anyone will be able to access the recall program, complaints procedures and so on at any time, as a read-only file”.
If you’re wondering how one piece of software manages multiple processes and data, our recent webinar provides an overview of the solution and a demonstration of how its features can accelerate new product development and make managing the lifecycle of your products easier.
The excellent performance against King & Prince’s internal KPIs demonstrates the impact Recipes & Specifications has had. The NPD process cycle time has been transformed with an incredible decrease in specification review time from ten days to three days1 , while the CAPA cycle time (corrective action, root cause, preventative action workflow program) has reduced by an outstanding 50%2. And illustrating that the benefits go beyond internal processes, the customer complaint cycle time is a fraction of the 2015 figure of 21 days3 – meeting its goal of five days or less for root cause and corrective action.
Tracy is delighted with the way the Recipes & Specifications has helped transform the business to a more efficient and better-controlled organisation. The benefits have transformed the operation both within the organisation and with external providers and customers. The King & Prince team is determined to make the software work even harder and intend to configure the templates further as they move into 2018.
VP of Technical Services,
King & Prince Seafood, USA
Recipes & Specifications has transformed King & Prince’s NPD process cycle time with an incredible decrease inspecification review time from ten days to three days, whilst the CAPA cycle time has reduced by an outstanding 50%. And, illustrating that the benefits go beyond internal processes, the customer complaint cycle time is a fraction of the 2015 figure of 21 days,