ALPINA MOVES FASTER WITH ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS Alpina Productos Alimenticios is a privately owned dairy products company headquartered

in Bogota, Colombia. It produces more than 400,000 liters o mil! daily and sells more than "00 products in Colombia, Central America, and #orth America, including a wide array o cheeses, yogurts, mil!$based beverages, ruit %uices, and chilled desserts. Alpina has "& sales agencies, plants in 'ene(uela and )cuador, and *,400 employees, which process +" million orders and 400,000 invoices per year. ,he diversity o its products, the delivery volume, and the si(e o Alpina-s mar!et create enormous supply chain management tas!s. .airy products require constant re rigeration and have an average shel li e o only "& days. ,he company must deliver products directly to stores or distributors within "4 hours a ter an order has been placed. ,he company wants to e/pand into new regional and e/port mar!ets by maintaining an e/ceptionally high level o product quality, service, and production e iciency. It must cope with a regional economic downturn, consumer demand or lower prices, and new global and local competitors. Although Alpina was doubling sales every two years, its in ormation systems could not support its pace o growth. Alpina had built its own series o systems that were not integrated and the systems operated in isolation rom each other. ,he irm had no way o communicating or consolidating company$wide in ormation. ,o increase productivity and competitiveness, Alpina decided to install enterprise resource planning so tware, embar!ing in &001 on an ambitious pro%ect to create integrated systems or industrial processes, logistics management, administrative and inancial unctions, and commercial unctions. Alpina started its enterprise pro%ect with pieces o so tware rom a number o di erent vendors but eventually used 2racle Consumer Pac!aged 3oods 4CP35 so tware to integrate these unctions. By .ecember &006 Alpina had installed the 2racle CP3 so tware in its production plants and sales agencies.

,he new system has enabled Alpina to reduce its inventory through better planning and stoc!ing o raw materials and inished products. Alpina has reduced turnaround in raw materials rom *1 days to "1 days and has reduced turnaround in inished products rom 6 days to 1 days. ,hrough better supply chain management, Alpina is saving 7".+ million each year. Alpina has also reduced costs by using the in ormation rom its system to consolidate delivery loads and create more e icient

delivery routes. ,he system-s transportation planning capabilities have helped the company reduce the number o truc!s at each o its ma%or distribution centers by &1 percent, saving 7"00,000 annually in transport costs. 8ith in ormation about past order history, Alpina-s system helps customers plan and stoc! their shel space, providing them with in ormation about which products, lavors, and si(es are most in demand in their stores. Alpina is using this in ormation to help calculate customer demand as it introduces new products in the sub$Andes region, Central America, and the 9nited :tates. Source:
Michael Miley, "Fast Mooving," Profit Magazine, February 2000 and Alpina.com.co.

Pregunta:

)/plique c;mo Alpina est< utili(ando sus :istemas de In ormaci;n para mover de manera m<s e iciente sus productos a trav=s de su cadena de abastecimiento