Emmi Schweiz AG

Value chain: 100% digital
Animal welfare, nature conservation, sustainability, Swiss quality—these are valuable assets in Emmis position as a premium manufacturer. However, the corporation is under tremendous pressure to keep costs low, especially due to high prices in Switzerland. Therefore, Emmi constantly strives to improve productivity and relies on growth abroad. Competition is fierce and on Emmi’s domestic market in Switzerland, competitors don’t sleep.

Milk processing is a high-tech industry. Emmi’s 25 Swiss production companies usually work in three layers. There are 6,500 Swiss dairy companies feeding the supply chain. Since milk spoils quickly, the production processes have to run nonstop. While it’s true that, in the event of a standstill, deliveries can be redistributed or stored temporarily, this is only a short-term solution and a costly one at that. Facility cleaning is quite expensive. For everything from central applications to factory production control, powerful IT is essential. Not to mention the fact that there is little time for maintenance—a half day per month at most!

From delivery via production control to logistics, Emmi has digitized its value chain 100%. Production and IT are constantly growing into a unified IT infrastructure, from network to data pool. There has been a steady rise in users, data and virtual machines. Thus, the central IT organisation in Ostermundigen relies on maximum virtualization, standardization and a central Emmi Private Cloud. It handles core applications such as the all-connecting SAP system, which includes production scheduling, and services for collaboration, files and sharing. The standard NetApp is used for data management.

Why be complex when it can be simple?

At Emmi, we know from experience that we can rely on NetApp and that the performance is right. We can therefore pursue a single-vendor strategy for data management. This keeps management costs low, reduces risks and simplifies operations,

Stefan Lüthi, Head of IT Infrastructure at Emmi.

ITpoint Systems AG is a proven contact for Emmi for all NetApp solutions: Whether with pure flash and business continuity setup as in the central Emmi private cloud or with hybrid systems and more or less redundancy at the sites, the equipment always fits the requirements exactly. NFS has more than proven itself as the standard protocol. Data management keeps the infrastructure together. NetApp tools provide the overview and central administration, backing up local data from 12 sites in Germany and abroad to Emmi in Switzerland on a daily basis. 

The NetApp software is so good that when backing up the off-site locations, on-site performance does not suffer, nor does time run out. NetApp backup is a real no-brainer and unique in its kind

Marc Baumann, team leader for databases and storage at Emmi.

Only two colleagues manage the data infrastructure for around 2,500 users, in addition to other tasks. Automation from backup to site failover is just as important for them as it is for the SAP team. Because now SAP environments can be copied, edited, and deleted again with a few commands, which speeds up testing and QA. NetApp data management is certified for SAP. This also has advantages for a possible SAP HANA implementation. Instead of having to invest in a HANA appliance, Emmi can integrate only the HANA component into the NetApp infrastructure and remain flexible.

Geared to efficiency and growth
What was a regional medium-sized company 20 years ago is now an international group with around 5,800 employees. Emmi exports to 60 countries and generates sales of more than CHF 3 billion with its four divisions Switzerland, Americas, Europe and Global Trade. And the aim is to achieve even more. Growth abroad is a pillar of the Group’s strategy, as are strengthening the domestic market and cost management.

IT is also feeling the omnipresent cost pressure and is continuously optimizing the processes and systems of the value chain, for example with a document management system so that each document only exists once and is always accessible. When it comes to data management, Emmi has benefited since 2010 from NetApp solutions that support every business step in IT – with performance, integration capability and efficiency.

Today, the central Emmi private cloud runs on NetApp all-flash technology. Our users benefit from the performance, and we save over 80% space in the racks,”. “Compared to its beginnings, our entire NetApp infrastructure is now more than 20 times larger. With NetApp data management, we have the entire data fabric under control and, no matter where, can get new site IT ready to go in a very short time.

Marc Baumann, team leader for databases and storage at Emmi.

ResearchConvincing retailers and households
Every day, consumers make up to 200 eating decisions based on habit, price, quality and appearance, or simply out of curiosity. Not an easy game for food manufacturers in general.

Space in refrigerated shelves and fridges is limited. For Emmi, this means convincing retailers and households time and again with high quality, variety and new products. Our 100% digital value chain with NetApp technology as a basis helps us to achieve these goals.

Ricardo Nebot, Head of IT at Emmi.

About Emmi Schweiz AG
Over the past 20 years, Emmi Switzerland has developed from a medium-sized, regionally oriented company into an international group of companies with over 6,000 employees worldwide. Today, the focus of its activities is on the Swiss market, the surrounding European countries and North America. In 2017, Emmi generated 51 percent of its sales in Switzerland. www.emmi.ch