How Thorpe Packaging replaced an unsupported ERP with a complete operational system, material planning, shop floor execution, quality management and warehouse control, developed on the Simportal platform and adopted through a staged, evidence-led transition.
At a glance
Results at a glance
The challenge
Thorpe Packaging was running on a legacy ERP that remained central to the business but was no longer supported and increasingly difficult to adapt.
The age of the ERP was not the real problem.
The real problem was that confidence in the information it produced was gradually eroding.
Materials moved through the operation on scanners, but the system demanded strict process adherence through an interface that was difficult to use under production pressure. As a result, steps were sometimes missed. Scheduling increasingly relied on manual job cards. Stock movements after production were not always completed in real time.
Over time, operational control started depending on workarounds rather than systems.
The records on the screen no longer reliably matched what was happening on the floor. Keeping traceability intact from goods in through production to despatch increasingly depended on manual reconciliation and individual knowledge.
Replacing the ERP outright carried significant risk for a live manufacturing operation.
Continuing as they were was becoming increasingly difficult.
Thorpe needed a third option.
What Thorpe runs on Simportal today
MRP – Material planning
Purchasing, goods in and stock movements captured in real time. Production is planned against live material availability rather than manual job cards. The system knows what is on site, what is committed and what is needed, because it is fed by the operation itself.
MES – Production execution
Operators record movements, usage and completions at the point they happen, through an interface built for the pace of live production rather than against it. Scheduling, execution and completion sit on one platform.
At the machine, no scanner is needed. Once material is delivered to the line, operators work with two things: the job number and the human-friendly identifier on the raw material. Every pallet carries one, six unique letters, easy to read and easy to key in. Six letters give over 308 million possible codes, and only a small fraction are ever in use. Mistype a code and it almost certainly matches nothing, so the system rejects the error rather than booking material to the wrong job. Wrong entries fail safely instead of passing silently. The capture method fits the workstation, not the other way round.
QMS – Quality and traceability
Traceability runs from goods in to finished reels leaving the site. When a reel arrives damaged, the operator photographs it before it leaves the vehicle. The image is linked to the reel’s six-letter identifier, and that identifier follows the reel through the whole operation. Damage is recorded with evidence at the point it is found, resolving supplier questions before they become disputes. Audits, recalls and food grade compliance draw on data embedded in daily activity, not reconstructed after the event. Traceability reporting that took more than 20 minutes per item is now instant.
WMS – Warehouse
The warehouse runs on scanners. Pallet movements, picking and put-away are captured as they happen, so stock records reflect reality rather than yesterday’s paperwork. And the warehouse does not wait to be asked: staff see the live material position for every job running on every machine, and for the jobs coming next, so replenishment happens ahead of need. If material runs critically low, production staff have a call button direct to the warehouse. The principle is simple: machines never stop for want of material. Under the old system, stoppages from material shortages were never measured, though everyone knew they happened. They are measured now. Since go-live, there have been none.
How the transition worked
We started by understanding how materials and production actually moved through the business rather than how the existing ERP assumed they should move.
Instead of proposing a disruptive rip-and-replace project, we introduced Simportal alongside the legacy ERP and focused first on restoring confidence in materials management.
Goods in, stock movements and production usage were captured accurately and consistently. Traceability was embedded from the point of receipt through to finished reels leaving the site.
Crucially, Simportal ran in parallel with the existing ERP.
Management and operators could compare both systems side by side, validate the information being produced and build confidence gradually. Materials remained under parallel control long enough to prove that the new platform reflected operational reality.
Only when that confidence had been established were scheduling, production completion and wider operational processes brought fully into Simportal.
The transition happened through evidence and confidence rather than a leap of faith.
The outcome
Most importantly, operational control was restored.
The business now works from information embedded within day-to-day activity rather than information reconstructed after the event. Decisions are made using data that reflects reality, not assumptions.
Control was restored without a single day lost to the transition.
“The transition happened gradually, giving us confidence in the data before switching anything off. We improved control without disrupting production.”
Peter Jolliffe – Director
Could the same approach work for your operation?
Many manufacturers believe they face two choices:
Thorpe chose a third option.
Start with the area where control is slipping most. Run in parallel. Prove it with evidence. Transition when the evidence supports it.
Today the whole operation, materials, production, quality and warehouse, runs on a system shaped around how Thorpe actually works.
If operational control is starting to depend on spreadsheets, workarounds or key individuals, let’s start with the operation rather than the software.
A five-minute Operational Control Review is enough to identify where control may be slipping and whether a staged approach could help.