$1.5B Feed, Seed & Fertilizer Cooperative — 7 Feed Mills, 5 Fertilizer Plants, Seed Processing, and Retail · Projects 1–2 of 6 (Education Curriculum and Implementation)
Client Challenge
A 100-year-old organization with a deeply entrenched culture and multiple failed prior change initiatives
Close to 100% manual planning, scheduling, and execution across all mill operations
Client Solution
Education First: Collaborated with the JDE vendor to establish a 4-week hands-on classroom curriculum; instructed the client team on JDE modules and industry best practices — Forecasting, Capacity and Material Planning, Lean Manufacturing, SCM
Gemba Walks: Across complete Order-to-Cash, Planning, Price Hedging, Inventory Management, Manufacturing, and Procure-to-Pay processes — every corporate department and each of the 12 mills
Lean Redesign: Led lean process re-engineering design sessions; established targeted KPIs
Master Data: Designed complex UOM conversions (dry/wet, metric/imperial, peck, bushel, gallon), bulk container volume calculations, and comprehensive PDM taxonomies
Buy-In: Orchestrated a “Road Tour” demonstrating prototypes to mill managers
Client Impact Results
~90% automation of all mill operations processes, from near-100% manual
Lasting change inside a 100-year-old organization that had resisted every prior initiative
Client Technologies
JD Edwards ERP (PDM, Inventory with Lot Control, Forecasting, Manufacturing, MRP, Supplier Scheduling, Procurement, Product Costing, Manufacturing Accounting)
Complexity Lean Value Stream Mapping · BPR · Change Management · cGMP/CFR Title 21 compliance
Andy Collier was very professional and knowledgeable. He was able to gain a rapid understanding of our business and needs to help with the successful implementation of the JD Edwards ERP software.
Herb Brooks, Controller
