When you operate one of the largest food and beverage manufacturing facilities in North America, every hour has a cost. Every shipment matters. Every decision touches thousands of pounds of product moving across rail, truck, and production lines.
For this Fortune 500 manufacturer processing millions of pounds of product daily and managing 10 million pounds of tomato paste inventory, their systems worked. ExtendAg handled commodity accounting. SAP managed enterprise planning. The integration between them was reliable, consistent, and predictable.
But as throughput increased, so did the value of faster data.
Planners wanted to see shipment details sooner. Operations wanted tighter coordination with inbound rail cars. Materials teams wanted clearer visibility into approvals and assignments.
Everyone saw the same opportunity: if data could move faster, the entire operation could move faster with it.
Annual Savings
Faster BOL Visibility
Processing Hours
Week to Implement
The team’s standard integration delivered Bills of Lading (BOL)s from ExtendAg to SAP in a predictable pattern. But that pattern meant waiting 48 hours to 5 days for full visibility. A typical 50-BOL shipment batch required 25 hours just for initial import.
For operations running continuous production lines serving retail and foodservice customers, faster data meant better decisions, tighter inventory management, and more proactive planning.
The team knew there had to be a better way.
Facing similar integration challenges? See how ExtendAg’s platform could work with your SAP environment.
When the supply planner for tomato paste and ingredients joined in September 2024, he immediately recognized the potential for improvement. Within days of identifying the opportunity, ExtendAg responded with the partnership approach the team needed.
From the very first call, the tone was clear: this was a collaboration.
ExtendAg’s integration specialists worked side-by-side with the company’s SAP team, walking through workflows, background processes, and daily operational rhythms. Together, they mapped out exactly where speed could be gained.
What happened next moved faster than anyone expected.
Within 3-4 days, the optimization was underway. The materials planner watched it unfold:
“He jumped right in. Within like 3-4 days, he’s like, OK, I’ve refined the upload process. OK, I’ve refined the SAP creation process, and it went so quick.”
ExtendAg system enhancements:
SAP integration optimization:
Combined impact:
The implementation of this tighter, enhanced integration took only one week.
“You guys did great about jumping right on calls. Everybody was really great about walking through the process and trying to understand the gaps.”
The difference was immediate.
Rail cars uploaded by 2pm are fully in-system by 3pm.
"Since then it's been way, way smoother. It's just great now. We can receive the BOLs pretty much within an hour or so."
Planners can now watch approvals, assignments, and arrivals update throughout the day.
Supply planning, materials planning, procurement, and operations finally have the same current data at the same time.
"There's a lot better visibility. Which is extremely helpful."
Issues that once took full business days are now resolved within an hour.
With all of the changes this processor made came something remarkable: massive reductions in demurrage fees.
With real-time visibility, rail car detention times dropped dramatically.
September 2024: $200,000 saved
October 2024: $300,000 saved
Projected annual impact: $2.4M to $3.6M
These weren’t theoretical savings. These were actual avoided costs that showed up immediately in the financials.
Want to estimate your potential savings?
Use our demurrage savings calculator based on this case study.
With real-time data flowing from ExtendAg into SAP, planners can now maintain ideal inventory levels, supplement rail shipments with truck orders when needed, adjust schedules proactively, and spot problems long before they become real issues.
New operational flexibility emerged:
“[ExtendAg] is a pretty easy, user-friendly system. It is very, very simple, very cut and dry.”
This success story isn’t only about faster exports or shorter batch runs.
It’s about what happens when technology helps people work with confidence.
Planners make smarter decisions. Operations run smoother. Costs go down. Collaboration goes up. And everyone moves faster.
The measurable impact:
BOL data accessible in 20-30 minutes versus 48+ hours
Through demurrage reduction alone
Smooth operations since implementation
Complete order visibility from placement to delivery
The enhanced ExtendAg-SAP integration unlocked a new standard of operational intelligence for this manufacturer.
ExtendAg brings vital operational intelligence to processors by modernizing data flows, strengthening supply chains, and bringing real-time visibility to the systems they already rely on.
If you’re ready to gain critical operational intelligence that brings efficiency and cost savings, we’re ready to help.
ExtendAg is part of Cultura Technologies, a growing collaborative of people, businesses and insights that enables better decisions to build a thriving and resilient agri-food system.
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