Silver Bird (Stanson Bakery)
What is the secret ingredient to Silver Bird’s success?
the secrets of the Silver Bird Group’s success
The bakery industry, by it very nature, is a cut-throat business: to win market share, rivals will consistently undercut each others’ prices. To survive, major bakeries have to maintain a high volume of turnover to compensate for low margins. How can management system be used to achieve the corporate strategy?
The Silver Bird Group, in Malaysia, is one of the country’s most successful bakeries, having survived two recessions and the 1997 Asian Financial crisis. Most importantly, it has maintained double-digit growth year after year.
What are the secrets of the Silver Bird Group’s success?
One of them is having a good management system. In the early days, the Silver Bird Group began the journey towards maintaining international quality standards by achieving ISO 9001, with Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance (LRQA) chosen as their certification body.
Eventually, Silver Bird also chose to be certified to the international standard for food-safety management, known as ISO 22000. According to Dato’ Jackson Tan, LRQA assessments were valuable in that they helped the company to focus on business performance.
For example, if workers accidentally put the wrong ingredients into the production process, customer satisfaction would suffer. Silver Bird would also have to throw out the ‘faulty’ product and restart the baking process, adding cost. The cost of a small mistake can be as high as US$100,000.
By having systems that minimizes the opportunity for error, the company saves time, money and its hard-won reputation.
“Every cent saved is a cent earned,” said Dato’ Tan.
In 2010, Silver Bird will further enhance its management system by upgrading its Management Information System (MIS). As the management system is maturing, Silver Bird will install an enterprise-wide system that will help to increase sales and reduce cost by improving inventory control.
If products are missing from the shelves, the system automatically informs the sales team to replenish it and gears up the factory to produce more. On the other hand, if a product is not selling well, the system alerts the factory to produce less, reducing waste.
Dato’ Tan also commented that Silver Bird’s strong sales growth is due to a commitment to product innovation, a great marketing strategy and strict cost-management. In fact, product innovation is a core focus of its corporate strategy.
The use of management systems can help to keep successful products in the market place, while discontinuing items with low sales volumes.
Written by Richard Gunawan, LRQA Vice President of business & sustainability development, Asia.
LRQA and Silver Bird management discuss their goals before and after the assessment.
