A product information service using artificial intelligence - an important investment in the future
Background
Saarioinen has been making Finns' favorite dishes for over 65 years. Saarioinen is a Finnish family business and a leading ready-to-eat food company with a turnover of approx. 270 million euros. The company is from Kangasala's Salahahti, from Saarioinen Kartano. In addition to this, Saarioinen's delicious food is made in Valkeakoski and Huittinen, as well as in Rapla, Estonia, with a total of about 1200 people. Saarioinen cherishes traditions and at the same time constantly develops new things together with Finns. Food made by mothers since 1957. www.saarioinen.fi
Problem
Delicious, nutritious and safe food is based on first-class ingredients. In order to guarantee quality, every raw material is required to have an up-to-date specification in accordance with the requirements of the legislation. In practice, the specification means a quality document that contains essential information about the raw material, such as its nutritional values, microbiological limit values and allergens.
Suppliers' specifications are in different formats and languages. The requirements and contents set for the specifications of different item groups, such as fish or grain products, differ greatly.
Checking and approving the specification is an important and mandatory work step before approving a new title. Manual inspection and traditional workflow takes time and burdens procurement, quality and product development personnel - especially when the number of items is large.
Overall, the management of a large amount of data and the workload of the personnel caused problems for which solutions had to be found.
Solution
Adeona Oy ja Taito United Oy responded together to the needs of Saarioinen. In close cooperation, they designed and built a service which made the work of experts more efficient with the help of artificial intelligence and smart information management.
Adeona focused on the centralized management of product information and documents, product group-specific limit and reference values for raw materials, and the automatic generation of quantitative specifications. Taito United took responsibility for the spec service module, the inspection and approval of product specifications, the development of the experts' workflow and collaboration, and the learning artificial intelligence engine.
Results
The service was received with enthusiasm by Saarioinen. For Saarionen's experts, the solution really came in handy: the workload decreased, routine tasks were reduced and the process sped up. In addition, the service improved both product quality and safety.
Procurement director of Saarioinen Mikko Tervonen praises the service:
"The new operating method helps our personnel to allocate their valuable time to tasks of higher added value instead of repetitive routines. At the same time, we are able to improve the quality of product information and we can make sure that the specifications are always up to date. We see artificial intelligence and automation as an important investment in product safety, manufacturing high-quality products and the future."
"The cooperation with Taito United and Adeona has been exceptionally smooth and rewarding. Their professionalism and commitment have exceeded our expectations. The project went excellently: the resulting service utilizing artificial intelligence enhances our operating methods and speeds up our processes. I warmly recommend Taito United and Adeona for demanding IT projects that require innovative thinking, information management and artificial intelligence. We will definitely continue to cooperate with them in the future as well."
