Success Story: Portillos

BACKGROUND

Portillo’s, a fast-casual restaurant chain based in the Chicago area, is known for serving Chicago-style Street food. With over 50 locations across the U.S., Portillo’s manages the manufacturing and distribution of its wide range of food and beverages across its restaurant chain. However, the company’s existing technology stack and application architecture were not scalable enough to meet growing demands. With ambitious growth targets ahead, Portillo’s decided to automate its processes and implement a world-class inventory and manufacturing system. To achieve this, they selected Oracle Cloud SCM and Intellinum’s FlexiPro mobility solution, aiming to enhance operational efficiency, reduce labor costs, and build a scalable growth model.

CHALLENGE

Portillo’s outdated ERP system lacked an integrated barcode scanning solution, which led to several business challenges:

• Operational Processes: The company relied heavily on employee knowledge for managing warehouse operations.
• Need for Automation: Manual tasks reduced workforce efficiency.
• Regulatory Compliance: Ensuring adherence to food safety and regulatory standards became increasingly complex, especially with expanding operations.
• Sustainable Growth: The legacy system was neither scalable nor comprehensive enough to support the company’s growing needs.
• Operational Inefficiencies: Manual data entry and paper-based processes were slow and prone to errors.
• Limited Supply Chain Visibility: The company lacked insight into inventory levels, production status, and order fulfillment, making it difficult to optimize operations and respond to customer demands.
• Real-Time Data Requirements: Access to real-time supply chain, logistics, and order information was critical to maintaining competitive service levels.

• Implemented a Palletization Solution for Oracle SCM Inventory to manage receiving, put-away, transfers to production staging, work order issues, work order completions, inventory management, and sales order picking activities.
• Developed logic to automatically backflush Lot-Controlled packaging components based on FEFO (First Expired, First Out) principles.
• Made the cycle counting process paperless by introducing directed cycle counting using picking and put-away sequences.
• Reduced transaction processing time by developing mobile application workflows that required minimal scans and data input.
• Developed a solution to support case tracking for finished goods, essential for food processing companies for product tracking and traceability.
• Allowed for substitutions during sales order picking, facilitating picking exceptions.

SOLUTION

The implementation of the FlexiPro mobility solution alongside Oracle Cloud SCM produced several positive results for Portillo’s:

• Improved Efficiency: Real-time data access via mobile devices significantly reduced manual tasks, boosting warehouse efficiency.
• Regulatory Compliance: The mobile tracking of food safety regulations ensured adherence to compliance requirements, minimizing the risk of violations and product recalls.
• Enhanced Recall Management: In the event of a product recall, FlexiPro streamlined traceability and simplified recall management.
• Better Inventory Management: Product spoilage was minimized through system-directed picking based on FEFO allocations.

 RESULTS

The integration of Oracle Cloud SCM with FlexiPro allowed Portillo’s to overcome the limitations of its standard Oracle Process Manufacturing system. This comprehensive solution modernized their supply chain, improved operational efficiency, and enhanced end user satisfaction. This implementation serves as a strong example of how cloud and FlexiPro can transform food industry operations by increasing flexibility, transparency, and compliance.