Success Story: Imperial Sugar Company Achieves Sweet Success With HighJump Data Collection Advantage

Imperial Sugar® Company is the producer of products under the labels of Imperial Pure Cane Sugar®, Dixie Crystals® and Holly®. Imperial Sugar products are sold in most grocery/retail stores and to industrial and foodservice customers.

After an acquisition in 1997 made it the largest processor and refi ner of sugar in the United States, Imperial Sugar implemented the PeopleSoft® ERP system to manage its financial, human resource, payroll and supply chain functions. It quickly became evident, however, that Imperial Sugar needed a more robust automated data collection (ADC) system to track its inventory.

The company was coping with insuffi cient and inaccurate inventory control from production through shipping. Physical inventories were being performed manually and were cumbersome and time-consuming. In addition, the company’s container loading and shipping cycle was taking too long for peak business periods. Inaccurate inventory caused incomplete shipments and error-ridden data on shipped lots. “Ultimately, our inaccurate inventory was leading to our inability to meet customer demands,” said George Muller, CIO, Imperial Sugar.

Imperial Sugar began looking for a software solution to help get their accuracy issues under control. The company had a clear objective: more accurate inventories. It wanted a data collection solution with a proven integration to PeopleSoft, where inventory information would be stored.