Increasing Operational Efficiency

About the Company

CLADAN S.A. is a food/agricultural manufacturing company located in Pilar, in the province of Buenos Aires, one of Argentina's most important and well-established industrial and logistics centers. It has more than 23 years of experience in the animal nutrition and health sector.

Its main activity focuses on the production, marketing, and consulting of products and services of excellence in animal nutrition and health, with a focus on sustainable and competitive production. Recognized as a "knowledge" company, CLADAN is not only a supplier, but also a technical reference and leader in the micronutrients and premixes segment. It is one of the most reputable national companies for its integration of science and production, ranking among the top tier of Argentine industrial SMEs with international projection. It maintains strategic and technological alliances with global leaders in the sector, allowing it to introduce cutting-edge animal health technologies to the local market.

The Story

CLADAN is a 100% Argentine family-owned business, founded in 2001, which has positioned itself as a key link in the production of animal protein. Its philosophy is based on knowledge and commitment, enabling it to anticipate the challenges of the animal production sector. The company mainly serves the following segments: poultry, beef cattle, dairy cattle, and pigs.

As a value proposition, CLADAN complements its product offering, which includes high-concentration cores, premixes, and proprietary nutritional additives, with a solid structure of technical and support services. This includes a professional technical assistance team, its own laboratory for all types of analysis, an R&D department, three experimental farms, and ongoing training for its customers.

CLADAN began its digital transformation with the implementation of Epicor Kinetic in 2017 for management of its administration, production, and general processes. This decision was strategic in improving its processes, allowing the company to adapt to the particularities of the Argentine market, especially in fiscal aspects. The platform has been very positively evaluated in general and especially for its adaptability to the characteristics of the Argentine industry. Recently, the company implemented the Fluent platform from Technology Coast Partners (TCP).

In a recent conversation with Iván Rebolledo, CRO of Technology Coast Partners, Alejandro Formosa, Planning and Control Manager, and Leonardo Sciaccaluga, Systems Administrator at CLADAN, shared the challenges, implementation experience, and clear and immediate benefits that Fluent brought to the company.

The Challenge

The main challenge CLADAN faced was the need to streamline its administrative processes, which were performed manually and were prone to errors. The company's growth and operational complexity created a bottleneck in the processing of supplier invoices. They faced:

• Delays due to manual entry: Direct processing of invoices in the ERP required manual entry by humans, which involved several steps and a significant amount of time, leading to a backlog of work and delays in management.
• Typing errors: Constant human intervention led to data entry errors.
• Argentine tax complexity: The process was complicated by the large number of taxes and specific tax breakdown requirements in Argentina. This increased the risk of suppliers issuing invoices with errors, requiring subsequent rectification work on the accounting side.
• Underutilization of talent: Administrative staff spent most of their time on the tedious and manual task of uploading receipts, rather than spending that time on higher-value tasks such as information analysis and controls.

CLADAN needed a solution that would not only reduce processing time, but also ensure the integrity of the information and the correct categorization of invoices.

Solution Implementation

To overcome these efficiency challenges, CLADAN adopted Fluent to streamline and increase administrative efficiency with the use of the AP invoice agent, specifically in the uploading of accounts payable invoices, leveraging the power of Artificial Intelligence.

Implementation Phase:

• ERP Integration: Fluent was configured to integrate and work in conjunction with Epicor Kinetic.
• Speed and support: The CLADAN team highlights the speed of implementation. Improvements or changes detected during the process were resolved within hours, meeting the agreed-upon deadlines.
• Change management: The introduction of the tool did not generate resistance from staff, as the support provided by the TCP team demonstrated that Fluent was a tool that would help them do their jobs better, shifting the focus from manual work to supervision and analysis.

The Results

Automation with Fluent had an immediate and significant positive impact on CLADAN's operations, resulting in much more efficient administrative management.

Highlights include:

• Operational efficiency: The tool is very fast and versatile, quickly processing more than 400 invoices per month.
• Improved data quality: Information capture and automatic validation ensure that suppliers issue invoices correctly and that complex taxes are properly allocated, a crucial aspect given the fiscal complexity in Argentina, thus avoiding subsequent accounting rectification work.
• Improved supplier relations: Consistency in invoice issuance can now be monitored more effectively.
• Optimízation of human resources : Staff in the area can now perform more valuable work, spending their time on other controls and subsequent analysis of the information uploaded.
• Strategic value: The main benefit is not only measured in cost savings per person, but also in agility, efficiency, and the elimination of errors in tedious manual work.

Future Outlook

Looking ahead, CLADAN plans to continue advancing in the use of Fluent to further optimize data entry and explore new areas for improvement within its operation, seeking to replicate the success achieved.

Future plans include:

• Automation of check issuance: Application of  Fluent for the automatic loading of check values, a process that is currently done manually.
• Purchasing area: Incorporation of the tool in the purchasing area to optimize its processes, promising a more holistic and systematic approach to process automation.
• Manufacturing and production: Implementation in two critical areas of the supply chain:
  • Receiving and control of materials: Automating the entry of supplies to avoid manual loading and directly compare with issued purchase orders.
  • Raw material consumption: Automate the processing of daily consumption, freeing up the person currently dedicated to that task for higher-value activities.

Key Conclusions

The digital transformation undertaken by CLADAN through the implementation of tools such as Epicor Kinetic and Fluente has proven to be a fundamental pillar of its operation. CLADAN's experience underscores the power of intelligent automation when integrated with an established ERP platform such as Epicor Kinetic.

• Agility as a primary benefit: The main value of Fluent for CLADAN lies in the agility and efficiency of information, allowing the uploading of a high volume of daily invoices without human intervention.
• Focus on analysis: Fluent transformed the role of the finance team, freeing them from manual data entry work so they could focus on analyzing receipts, improving control and decision-making.
• Strategic partner: TCP's collaboration and ongoing support were fundamental to the project's success, including rapid and effective implementation.
• Fluent closes the ERP circle: Automation through Fluent is seen as the element that complements and enhances the capabilities of ERP, in this case Epicor Kinetic, even facilitating the recommendation of the system to other colleagues in the industry.

CLADAN's experience with the Fluent implementation is not simply a success story in automation; it is the demonstration of how Artificial Intelligence closes the ERP circle, radically transforming administrative management. The impact can be summed up as a paradigm shift: exponential agility, total precision, and optimization of talent.

CLADAN not only improved a process, but redefined the role of its finance team: from "typists" to strategic analysts. The Fluent implementation, with its speed and effective support, demonstrates that AI is the key element that complements and enhances the capabilities of an established ERP such as Epicor Kinetic, paving the way for the scalability of intelligent automation in the industry.

This success story demonstrates that true digital transformation does not end with the installation of software, but is enhanced through strategic collaboration that understands the real needs of the business. As Alejandro Formosa points out, the success of the project lies in the fact that TCP and Fluent are not limited to being a "closed package," but rather adapt dynamically to solve specific challenges. This approach has allowed not only to automate tasks, but also to revalue human talent, allowing the finance team to evolve from operational functions to strategic analysis roles. Ultimately, this success story is testimony to the fact that great advances are achieved when technology is combined with a human team that gets involved "as if the project and the needs of the company were their own," thus closing the circle of efficiency and paving the way for agile operation and unlimited growth.

Without a doubt, the future of CLADAN is agile administration enabled by AI, error-free and focused on strategic analysis.