RFI, LLC recently adopted a new process to better manage new product development and more specifically the product specifications. Through Lascom’s solution, the R&D team is now able to provide specifications consistency throughout the product development and quickly provide technical datasheet information to their customers. They have improved time to market and reduced errors due to manual data inputs by automatically generate product information, using customizable templates.
RFI is eager to forecast costs while developing new products. The formulation tool provided by Lascom allows the company to elaborate formulas, either from an already-existing product or from scratch, and to benefit from cost estimation, nutritional value and product weight in real time to optimize formula as much as possible. The feature, especially created for fast-moving consumer goods companies, assists RFI in better managing products (creation, updates, etc.) and generating ingredients statements, allergens and claims.
“We place high importance on our products’ quality,” says Chuck Frederickson, controller, from RFI. “We have to comply with and meet the stringent food safety standards and requirements set forth by national, local and industry bodies including a certificate of analysis (CoA) attached to each product batch to ensure quality and consistency of products”.
Lascom's PLM solution provides a central repository to gather data, documents and other information about both new and existing products, offering a "single version of the truth". This implementation provides the ingredients company with tools to outperform competition in terms of quality and reactivity.
Jil Croquet, U.S. marketing manager at Lascom explains, “Through our platform, RFI documentation and certifications such as CoA are automatically attached to products, enabling effective information searches, updates with impact analysis and distribution to customers. We are extremely proud of collaborating with RFI to assist the company in better fitting their customers’ needs”.
RFI and Lascom are working on integrating the PLM to RFI ERP to fully exploit both functionalities and benefit from an extensive service.