Tracking the complete life cycle of 65 million eggs per year with IBM Business Analytics solutions.

1. Consumer ProductsLet’s build a smarter planet
The British Columbia Egg Marketing Board (BC Egg) was established
in 1967 to help producers provide consumers and businesses with a
stable supply of eggs at a fair price. The organization’s main focus is
supply management – planning and controlling production to ensure
that fluctuating levels of demand can be managed effectively. This is
achieved through a quota system, where each farm is allowed to keep a
certain number of birds, and BC Egg conducts regular bird-counts to
ensure that the quotas are being managed properly.
BC Egg is also responsible for ensuring that its producers are
complying with local and federal regulations, such as the British
Columbia biosecurity guidelines and Egg Farmers of Canada’s ‘Start
Clean, Stay Clean’ initiatives.
“We are a small organization with only 12 full-time staff, but we need
to be able to oversee a huge and important industry,” explains Anne-
Marie Butler, Director of Finance and Administration at BC Egg.
“We work with 130 producers, each of whom may have one or more
farms and thousands of birds. In total, our producers keep 2.6 million
chickens and our grading stations process 65 million eggs every
year. Matching supply to demand, maintaining a steady income for
producers and enforcing rigorous quality and biosecurity standards are
major challenges – and IT plays a major role in helping our small team
to meet them.”
BC Egg boosts food
safety and enhances
operational planning
Tracking the complete lifecycle of 65 million
eggs per year with IBM Business Analytics solutions
Smart is...
Increasing public safety and
improving operational planning by
tracking millions of chickens and
eggs throughout their lifecycle.
With a range of responsibilities including
quota management, capacity planning,
inspections and biosecurity regulations,
BC Egg realized that it needed to make
smarter use of operational data in
order to provide a better service to its
stakeholders, including egg producers
and the general public.
Building on an IBM Business Analytics
platform that was initially introduced for
financial planning and budgeting, BC Egg
has created a range of solutions that
help it both to analyze data about many
aspects of its operations and to access
historic data from its legacy system. One
solution allows Producer Liaison Officers
(PLOs) to collect farm inspection data and
perform bird-counts electronically using
tablet PCs. Another will soon help to track
producer flocks and their eggs through
the entire production and distribution
process.

2. Consumer ProductsLet’s build a smarter planet
The need for a new solution
For many years, the organization had relied on a legacy system known
as LUCY to manage its operational data. As local and federal regulation
of the egg industry increased and other requirements emerged, the
organization began to supplement LUCY with a range of spreadsheets
and other systems. This gradually became unsustainable.
“LUCY was starting to show her age – we had concerns about the
quality of the data, and it was also very difficult to generate reports
or gain insight into operations,” says Anne-Marie Butler. “It was
particularly difficult at budget time, because we had to gather
information together manually from many different sources: we were
spending about two full months every year on creating the annual
budget, and if we wanted to do any kind of ‘what if’ analysis, each
different scenario would take about a day to compile.”
Choosing IBM Cognos TM1
The organization decided to implement a new, more automated
financial planning and analytics solution to reduce workload for the
finance team and improve data quality by reducing the risk of manual
errors.
“We looked at various solutions for financial planning, but when we
saw IBM®
Cognos®
TM1®
, we realized that it had the potential to offer
us so much more,” states Anne-Marie Butler. “As well as modernizing
our IT environment and solving problems in the finance department, it
provided a significant opportunity to enhance production planning and
Business Benefits
• Enables BC Egg to identify the optimal
time to add or replace flocks, scaling
production up or down to meet seasonal
demand patterns, and maximizing
inventory levels.
• Enhances public safety: for example, in
the event of a salmonella outbreak, it will
be possible to trace individual eggs from
the point of sale back to the individual
flock that produced them.
• Cuts basic farm inspection workload by
66 percent, enabling PLOs to spend more
time helping farmers address biosecurity
issues and comply with local and federal
regulations.
• Automates many financial planning
processes, reducing the budget cycle
from two months to less than two weeks –
an improvement of more than 75 percent.
• Increases BC Egg’s overall productivity,
saving around $100,000 per year that
would otherwise need to be spent on
additional staff.
Smarter Consumer Products
Instrumented Each year, 65 million eggs and 2.6 million chickens are registered
in BC Egg’s systems. Data from farm inspections is also gathered
via tablet PCs and integrated into the organization’s databases.
Interconnected Analysts at BC Egg use IBM Business Analytics technologies to
gain insight into this wealth of data, creating reports that help to
plan production and help farmers address issues.
Intelligent New insights enable BC Egg to plan production more efficiently,
predicting seasonal changes in demand and ensuring that the
right number of birds are in place to lay the right number of
eggs. Both eggs and chickens can also be traced throughout their
lifecycle, helping to address product quality and public safety
issues rapidly and effectively.

3. Consumer ProductsLet’s build a smarter planet
management. It would give us the power to track each flock of chickens
– or even each bird – throughout its production lifecycle, and to trace
every individual egg from the producer via the grading station to the
point of sale. Moreover, by integrating data from the farm inspections
too, we would be able to get a real 360-degree view of our entire
operation.”
A strong partnership with IBM
BC Egg decided to work with IBM Business Analytics Software
Services to implement the solution.
“The breadth and depth of IBM’s service organization made it a
compelling proposition for BC Egg,” comments Anne-Marie Butler.
“The idea behind this project was to make fundamental changes to
the way we manage our whole organization, so we really needed to
ensure we got the right support. From the technical perspective, we
wanted access to the top Cognos experts from IBM; from the project
management side, we were keen to harness IBM’s vast experience of
analytics implementations in the consumer products industry; and we
also wanted top-class training to get our users up to speed.”
A team from IBM Business Analytics Software Services worked closely
with subject-matter experts from BC Egg to assist in the design, build
and testing of an application that could analyze data taken from the
grading stations. IBM experts helped to develop an IBM Cognos
TM1 solution with five primary cubes and several supporting cubes
to accommodate the data. The team authored a high-level design
document encompassing the new cubes, dimensions, calculations
and interfaces. IBM Cognos TM1 Turbo Integrator processes were
developed to import data from the grading stations into the application
and integrate it with BC Egg’s Sage ERP ACCPAC accounting system.
The application design was also expanded to integrate data on quotas,
hatcheries, producers and industrial product.
BC Egg also decided to renew its long-standing relationship with
IBM Education Services. To ensure success with the new solution,
BC Egg opted for a blend of public education and private training.
Public education allowed BC Egg team members to learn in a
collaborative environment with other customers and gain an
understanding of how the software solution was being applied at other
organizations. Private training allowed BC Egg to bring together staff
from across its organization, identify the key areas of the course, and
ask the instructor to tailor the learning to BC Egg’s specific needs.
Private training also enabled BC Egg to schedule the training at a
convenient off-site location that eliminated day-to-day distractions for
the participants.
“By making data easier to
collect, analyze and share,
the IBM solution has
enhanced productivity in
almost every area of our
operations.”
— Anne-Marie Butler, Director of Finance and
Administration, BC Egg
Solution Components
Software
• IBM®
Cognos®
TM1®
Services
• IBM Software Services for Cognos

4. Consumer ProductsLet’s build a smarter planet
According to Anne-Marie Butler: “The private training in particular
was incredibly helpful because our instructor was not only able to tailor
the content to our needs, but also incorporate our own data into the
training, which made it much more relevant. Our team understood
instantly how they were going to be able to use and apply the training
to their everyday needs. This eliminated the ‘double learning curve’
that sometimes comes with training, where you learn something
generically and then have to start again and work out how to apply it to
your specific situation. We found this approach to be very engaging and
valuable.”
Better budgeting
The implementation was carried out in several phases, starting with the
financial planning process. By automating the collection of data and
making it easier to gain input from stakeholders, IBM Cognos TM1
has transformed the organization’s ability to complete its annual
budgets in a timely, accurate way.
“I’m an accountant, so I know exactly how painful it used to be to
prepare our budgets. Compared to our old spreadsheet-based process,
TM1 is a marvel,” comments Anne-Marie Butler. “The budget for this
year only took two weeks, which is at least 75 percent faster than our
old process. It’s also easier for us to collaborate on the budget now,
so I can get more help from my colleagues: there will be three of us
working on the budget for next year, and I expect we will get it done in
about a week.
“Best of all, when I present the budget to the board, I can give them
several different scenarios, so they can see what might happen if there
are fluctuations in significant variables such as the cost of production or
the levy rate. This helps us to make contingency plans for the coming
year, so if economic conditions are easier or tougher than our best
estimate, we can act quickly to minimize the impact on producers and
end-customers. Scenario planning used to require a huge amount of
manual effort, but with TM1 we can just alter the inputs and run the
numbers again in seconds.”
“The private training in
particular was incredibly
helpful because our
instructor was not only
able to tailor the content
to our needs, but also
incorporate our own data
into the training, which
made it much more
relevant.”
— Anne-Marie Butler, Director of Finance and
Administration, BC Egg

5. Consumer ProductsLet’s build a smarter planet
Simplifying farm inspections
With the success of this first phase of the project, BC Egg continued
to work with the IBM team on a second solution – this time, helping
Producer Liaison Officers (PLOs) gather information during farm
inspections.
“The PLOs have a lot of work to do during inspections,” explains
Anne-Marie Butler. “First off there’s a bird-count, to make sure that
the producer has the right number of chickens and isn’t exceeding the
quota. Then there are the assessments for the ‘Start Clean, Stay Clean’
program and the British Columbia biosecurity program. Previously, the
PLOs had to carry a huge set of paperwork around with them during
the inspection, and once they’d completed one survey, they would often
need to backtrack to an area of the farm they had already visited in
order to answer questions from a different form. The farmers used to
dread the inspections because they took hours to complete.”
The IBM team helped to create an application that collates all the
questions from the different surveys and puts them in a more practical
order. The PLOs can access the application from their tablet PCs, and
by following a set route through each farm, they can input the answers
quickly and efficiently. The data is then digitally signed off by the
farmer and automatically uploaded to the central IBM Cognos TM1
database, where it can be analyzed.
“The use of the application means that our PLOs can get the basic
parts of farm inspections done in about a third of the time it used to
take,” says Anne-Marie Butler. “This gives them much more time to
discuss their findings with the farmer and address any issues that have
arisen. They can also use the TM1 analytical tools to show farmers
useful information – for example, what are the most common issues
that other farms in the area are facing, and what are the best corrective
actions to take. This means we’re not just doing the bare minimum for
compliance; we’re actually being proactive in improving the quality and
safety of our processes and products.”
Full lifecycle traceability
In the third phase of the project, BC Egg is taking its most ambitious
step yet: implementing a full-lifecycle tracking system for every egg and
chicken in the production process.
“Tracking the eggs is important from a quality and safety perspective
– for example, if there is a salmonella outbreak, we want to be able to
trace the infected eggs back to the place where they were produced,”
says Anne-Marie Butler. “At the moment, we can find out which group
“As well as modernizing
our IT environment
and solving problems in
the finance department,
IBM Cognos TM1,
provided a significant
opportunity to enhance
production planning and
management.”
— Anne-Marie Butler, Director of Finance and
Administration, BC Egg

6. Consumer ProductsLet’s build a smarter planet
of farms produced a given egg, but when this TM1 project is complete,
we’ll be able to identify the exact farm, the barn, even the flock. By
pinpointing the problem, we can address any issues quickly without
affecting production at other locations.”
She adds: “Tracking the chickens is important for a different reason:
it helps with production planning. Demand for eggs fluctuates
throughout the year – it’s lowest in summer and highest around
Christmas and Easter. Matching supply to demand requires a complex
calculation of how many birds we need in production at any one time
– and it’s not something that can be adjusted quickly. Chicks spend 19
weeks growing into pullets, and then a further 52 weeks producing
eggs. We have to be able to plan at least 23 weeks in advance to ensure
that we know how many chicks we need to order from the hatchery
when it’s time for a farmer to replace one of his flocks. With TM1,
we can see the age of all the flocks at each farm, we can monitor the
rate of laying, we can analyze demand patterns and trends, and we can
make smarter decisions about how to gear production in the coming
months.”
Significant time and cost savings
Looking at the business analytics project as a whole, the effect on
BC Egg’s operation has been dramatic.
“By making data easier to collect, analyze and share, the IBM solution
has enhanced productivity in almost every area of our operations,”
concludes Anne-Marie Butler. “As a result, although two members of
our team recently left the organization, we haven’t needed to replace
them: the rest of us have been able to absorb the workload. This
probably saves us about $100,000 a year in salaries – and when you
consider that those two people made up nearly 15 percent of our entire
workforce, it’s even more impressive!
“Looking forward, we have a bunch of new business analytics projects
we’d like to start working on. For example, we’ll be re-launching our
website in the next few months, and we would like to make it possible
for our producers to log in and view their own data from TM1. We
would also like to build some dashboards for our directors, maybe using
IBM Cognos Business Intelligence. We’re really believers in leveraging
technology to help us make the right decisions, and we see IBM as a
key partner in enabling us to achieve this.”
“Looking forward, we
have a bunch of new
business analytics projects
we’d like to start working
on. For example, we’ll be
re-launching our website
in the next few months,
and we would like to
make it possible for our
producers to log in and
view their own data from
TM1.”
— Anne-Marie Butler, Director of Finance and
Administration, BC Egg

7. Consumer ProductsLet’s build a smarter planet
About IBM Business Analytics
IBM Business Analytics software delivers actionable insights decision-
makers need to achieve better business performance. IBM offers a
comprehensive, unified portfolio of business intelligence, predictive and
advanced analytics, financial performance and strategy management,
governance, risk and compliance and analytic applications.
With IBM software, companies can spot trends, patterns and
anomalies, compare “what if” scenarios, predict potential threats
and opportunities, identify and manage key business risks and plan,
budget and forecast resources. With these deep analytic capabilities
our customers around the world can better understand, anticipate and
shape business outcomes.
For more information
For further information or to reach a representative please visit
ibm.com/analytics.
Request a call
To request a call or to ask a question, go to
ibm.com/business-analytics/contactus. An IBM representative will
respond to your inquiry within two business days.

8. © Copyright IBM Corporation 2012
IBM Corporation
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Printed in Canada
January 2012
IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com, Let’s Build A Smarter Planet, Smarter Planet,
the planet icons, Cognos and TM1 are trademarks or registered trademarks of
International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or
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The content in this document (including currency OR pricing references) is current
as of the initial date of publication and may be changed by IBM at any time.
Not all offerings are available in every country in which IBM operates.
The client examples cited are presented for illustrative purposes only. Actual
performance results may vary depending on specific configurations and operating
conditions.
It is the user’s responsibility to evaluate and verify the operation of any other products
or programs with IBM products and programs.
THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED “AS IS”
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR
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conditions of the agreements under which they are provided.
The client is responsible for ensuring compliance with laws and regulations applicable
to it. IBM does not provide legal advice or represent or warrant that its services or
products will ensure that the client is in compliance with any law or regulation.
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