CPGSuite MES Improves Quality, Boosts Production

Mullins Foods, a mid-market food manufacturer, faced compounding operational challenges that threatened its ability to scale with customer demand. Batch recipe deviations — where ingredient quantities drifted from specification during production — were a persistent source of rework and waste. Compounding the issue, inventory records were frequently inaccurate, making it difficult to plan ingredient ordering or verify that production runs had the right inputs on hand. In food and beverage manufacturing, where regulatory compliance and consistent product quality are non-negotiable, these gaps created downstream quality failures, extended quality check cycles, and eroded confidence in the plant's ability to hit output targets reliably.

Mullins Foods implemented Rockwell Automation's FactoryTalk CPGSuite MES — a Manufacturing Execution System purpose-built for consumer packaged goods and food and beverage operations. The system automated ingredient measurement at the point of use, replacing manual recording with real-time, system-enforced workflows that ensure each batch follows the approved recipe precisely. Automated production workflows guided operators through each step, reducing reliance on paper-based processes and operator judgment. Critically, CPGSuite was integrated bidirectionally with the plant's existing ERP system, enabling accurate, real-time data sharing between the plant floor and enterprise planning layers. This closed-loop integration gave both production and procurement teams a single source of truth for inventory levels, batch status, and material consumption.

The CPGSuite MES deployment delivered measurable quality and operational improvements across Mullins Foods' production environment:

• Batch adjustments reduced to near zero — automated recipe enforcement at the ingredient level eliminated the deviations that previously required mid-batch corrections.
• Quality check time dramatically reduced — tighter batch-to-batch consistency meant fewer samples fell outside acceptable ranges, compressing inspection cycles.
• Ingredient ordering and storage streamlined — accurate, real-time inventory data removed the manual reconciliation step from procurement, reducing both excess stock and shortage-driven production stoppages.

The ERP integration also surfaced new visibility into previously opaque cost areas, opening further improvement opportunities beyond the initial deployment scope.

• ERP integration is the force multiplier: MES value compounds when plant-floor data flows in real time to enterprise systems — procurement, finance, and planning all benefit, not just production.
• Recipe enforcement at the source beats inspection downstream: Automating measurement and workflow adherence prevents deviations rather than catching them after the fact.
• Inventory accuracy unlocks adjacent wins: Reliable stock data reduces emergency ordering, improves batch scheduling, and lowers carrying costs — often underestimated in MES ROI calculations.
• Mid-market food manufacturers can achieve pharma-grade batch control: CPG-focused MES platforms make this level of precision accessible without custom development.