LLC “Company Univest Marketing” is part of the Univest group of companies, one of the leaders in the paper and cardboard packaging market. The production complex is located in Fastiv city, Kyiv region, with the main office in Kyiv. The production cycle operates 24/7, covering a total production area of 19,000 square meters, with a staff of over 500 people.
The company operates in three main directions:
- “Univest Print” – high-quality printing of magazines, catalogs, and periodicals;
- “Univest Packaging” – manufacturing of cardboard and paper packaging for pharmaceutical, cosmetic, confectionery, electronic, and other industrial products;
- “Food in Box” – production of paper, cardboard, and plastic disposable tableware and packaging for fast food.
Modern equipment, certified materials, and unique printing capabilities ensure the company’s collaboration with leading industrial companies in Ukraine. With a logistics complex spanning 12,000 square meters and an in-house export-import department, the company exports to Europe, Asia, and CIS countries.
High-quality standards in materials, food safety systems, production processes, and personnel training have enabled LLC “Company Univest Marketing” to create vibrant and comprehensive packaging solutions for over 26 years, with a focus on people and the environment.
Prerequisites and Objectives
The implementation of a comprehensive system aimed to optimize the informational support for the economic, financial, and organizational management processes of the enterprise, ensuring users of the information system have access to necessary, accurate, and coordinated information.
At the onset of the project, the enterprise had several informational systems, partially integrated only at the exchange level (production planning system, logistics system, accounting, and regulatory accounting). One of the conceptual tasks of the project was to implement these business processes in a unified ERP system.
Additionally, the task was set to implement an information system with maximum utilization of standard functionality to standardize and streamline business processes during project implementation.
To achieve these conceptual tasks, as well as considering other system capabilities presented in the demo version, the decision was made to implement the BAS ERP software product.
Within the project, the following accounting sections were planned to be automated:
- Procurement Management
- Sales Management (including export operations)
- Inventory Management (nomenclature)
- Production Management
- Repairs Accounting
- Warehouse Management
- Accounting and Taxation
- Management Reporting
- Financial Management
- Personnel Accounting and Payroll Calculation
- Integration with external systems
After analyzing the market of automation solutions, we turned to CONTO, a company that is one of the leaders in implementing ERP-class systems and has a reputation as a reliable partner, to implement this project.
Implementation of the project
The project implementation consisted of several stages:
- Business process analysis, expectations, and requirements gathering from the Company, followed by the creation of the project concept. At this stage, process modeling in BAS ERP was conducted using several orders from different production directions of the company (packaging manufacturing, printing, fast-food utensils) to obtain justified information regarding the necessary solution adjustments.
- Customization of the typical software product considering industry specifics and corporate requirements for functional blocks.
- Pilot operation.
- Industrial operation and post-project support. User support and software product adjustments were carried out based on tasks not identified in the initial phase.
It is worth noting that although the initial task of the project was to implement an information system with maximum use of typical functionality, during the examination and subsequent project phases, tasks were expanded both due to additional requirements from “Univest Marketing Company” and because the typical functionality did not fully cover the specifics of the company’s business.
During the project, the following areas of accounting were automated according to the concept:
- Procurement Management
- Sales Management (including export operations, shipment planning)
- Inventory Management (item classification)
- Production Management (production department scheduling, cost calculation)
- Repair Tracking (utilized standard functionality)
- Warehouse Management
- Accounting and Taxation
- Budgeting
- Management Accounting and Reporting
- Financial Management
- Personnel Management and Payroll Calculation
For considering the specifics of the company’s technological processes, a series of enhancements to the standard functionality of BAS ERP were implemented in various blocks.
Block “Production Management”:
- In addition to the existing functionality in BAS ERP, the concept of “team” was extended with a new production unit – “worker”, allowing the registration of individual employee involvement in specific operations. This enhancement enabled the tracking of changes in team composition during shifts.
- The ability to manually adjust the production schedule (which was previously calculated automatically in the standard functionality) was enhanced to allow for more flexible operational planning.
- An automated workstation was developed for the production foreman, where they record the actual completion of production tasks for each shift, indicating the actual time spent on operations and the employees involved.
- The concept of “shift” was introduced, along with the development of “Shift Tasks” – a list of operations to be performed during a shift, with the option to print in a user-friendly format.
- A specialized workstation, “Shift Closure,” was developed to ensure the proper documentation of shift activities and to replan the schedule for the next shift considering any deviations.
- The ability to change production technology during job execution was enhanced.
- The functionality for setting norms for output volume was improved.
- The capability to allocate direct labor costs to the cost of a specific production order was enhanced.
The “Procurement Management” block:
The aim of implementing this block was to initiate the procurement processes for goods and materials using the standard functionality of BAS ERP. Additionally, within the project implementation, the following requirements for procurement processes were considered:
- When planning deliveries, the availability of key raw materials in supplier stocks is taken into account. A data storage area was developed, along with a mechanism for loading information about current stock levels.
- Enhancement was made to the mechanism for allocating transportation costs, with automatic selection of profitable invoices.
The “Sales Management” block:
- Automated tracking of shipments to customer delivery points.
- Enhancements were made for ease of working with customer order statuses.
- Printed forms were refined.
The “Logistics” block:
- Developed a workspace for creating “Shipment Order” (transport logistics department).
- Implemented the ability to generate and print a single Waybill for multiple invoices (grouping is done by vehicles).
The “Warehouse” block:
- Enhanced inventory processing: restricted movement of inventory items undergoing inventory count (visibility in available stock).
- Implemented the ability to conduct fixed asset inventory by scanning their barcodes.
The “Accounting and Tax Accounting” block:
- Added the capability to analyze settlements with counterparties based on settlement documents with special VAT regime.
- Launched standard VAT accounting functionality with automatic generation of tax documents and export to “FREDO” for registration in the Unified Register of Tax Invoices.
- Implemented the ability to defer transfer of ownership rights to goods for export sales to customers.
- Refined printed forms.
Within the “Management Reporting” block, automated P&L Statement and CF Statement reports, and implemented functionality for variance analysis of production costs by production orders.
During the implementation of the “Personnel Management and Payroll” block, the following enhancements were made:
1. “Staff Schedule”: Implemented the ability to maintain the organizational structure and staff schedule within the system. As part of the project, the following enhancements were made:
– Report on the staff schedule with special notes, including prolonged absences (sick leave according to labor regulations, childcare leave, mobilization), temporary workers, grouped payroll calculations (base salary, rates, allowances, bonuses).
2. “Personnel Management”: Launched with maximum utilization of standard functionality, including hiring, personnel transfers, dismissals, leave management, and sick leave tracking. A package of reports for managers was configured as part of the project, including reports on remaining leave balances and attendance.
3. “Time Tracking”: Implemented the ability to upload individual production schedules, automatic timesheet filling with recording of internal downtime, automatic lunch break calculation, and differentiation of night and evening hours.
4. “Payroll Calculation”: Implemented with maximum utilization of standard functionality, covering all types of earnings, organizing the payroll calculation and payment process, including salary, advances, and other payments. Additionally, the following enhancements were made:
– Automatic filling of working hours on hazardous equipment, based on data from the production unit and actual time worked on equipment with hazardous conditions.
5. An independent HR module has been developed, which includes the automation of the following functions:
- Applicant Tracking: Records candidates for company vacancies (stores candidate data, work status history, feedback, and evaluations).
- Employee Medical Insurance: Subsystem allows for obtaining lists for insurance and its cancellation for the insurance company.
- Employee Assessment and Evaluation: Allows for recording the results of employee evaluations for both technical and general competencies.
- Internship Tracking: Capability to track interns, calculate their compensation, and manage arrangements with educational institutions.
- Training and Development Tracking: Tracks employee training and development activities.
The new information system was launched for industrial operation on May 1, 2020, with 150 workplaces. As of today, an average of 90 users are simultaneously working in the system.
During the preparation and launch of the system into operation, user training was conducted for accounting blocks, data migration from old systems was performed, basic access rights were configured, and the environment was adjusted according to the new processes.
Throughout the project, CONTO consultants-analysts proved themselves not only as technical experts but also as business consultants, providing recommendations and support to key system users both in terms of business processes and system utilization.
Project Results
After 12 months of implementing BAS ERP into operation, we have observed the following changes:
- The level of accessibility, accuracy, and granularity of data in the information system has increased.
- Transparency of the company’s business processes has improved, especially in the processes reflecting the actual production operations, sales, regulatory accounting, and HR and payroll management.
- The implementation of the comprehensive BAS ERP information system has led to an increase in the productivity of various departments.
We have also noted the positive impact of the HR module, which facilitated the automation of candidate tracking, evaluation, and employee training measures.
- Tax and regulatory accounting – 20%
- Contract management – 25%
- Human Resources – 20%
- Treasury – 20-30%
- Sales – 5%
- Procurement – 15%
- Production accounting – 5%
- We also note the positive effect of the implemented HR module, which allowed for the automation of candidate tracking, evaluation, and employee training measures.
We evaluate the results of the implementation project positively; the automation goals set were generally achieved. The management of the enterprise expresses gratitude to the CONTO company team for the system implementation and training of the enterprise personnel to work with the software suite.