Modernising a Legacy Manufacturing System
Customer Overview
A leading European frozen food manufacturer operates across 22 markets, producing and distributing a wide range of branded frozen products, including fish, vegetables, poultry, pizzas, and ready meals. The organisation focuses on delivering convenient, nutritious, and affordable food while reducing waste through sustainable practices and innovation.
With operations spanning multiple production facilities and supply chains, reliable manufacturing systems are essential to ensure efficiency, product quality, and operational continuity.
The Challenge
The company relies on a legacy manufacturing system that has been in operation for over 11 years. While the system has supported production effectively for many years, it has become increasingly difficult to maintain as the underlying technology environment has evolved.
Running the platform on modern Windows Server and SQL environments has introduced several challenges, including:
- Reduced system compatibility with newer infrastructure
- Declining performance affecting key operational processes
- Reliability concerns impacting critical services
- Limited ability to safely test changes before deployment
One of the most significant risks has been instability within a core service responsible for managing weighbridge operations, a critical component of production and logistics workflows.
Solution Approach
ATS conducted a detailed technical review of the manufacturing system environment to identify the root causes of performance and reliability issues.
Following this assessment, ATS implemented a structured modernisation and stabilisation programme designed to:
- Improve system performance by optimising outdated code
- Stabilise critical services to reduce operational disruption
- Address compatibility challenges with modern server and database environments
- Establish a dedicated test environment to safely trial future upgrades and system changes
This approach ensures the system can continue to support production operations while preparing it for future technological improvements.
Current Status & Early Benefits
The project is ongoing, and while we won’t have concrete results until pea season starts in mid to late June, everything is progressing well. Early indications show the organisation is already benefiting from increased system stability and improved operational resilience.
ATS is confident that once fully implemented, the modernised system will:
- Further improve reliability and operational stability
- Resolve performance bottlenecks affecting production processes
- Reduce risk across critical manufacturing services
- Create a foundation for future system upgrades and innovation
This ongoing project ensures the organisation can continue delivering high-quality food products efficiently while maintaining a stable and scalable manufacturing technology environment.
