For more than 60 years, Andrea Foods has grown from a neighborhood deli into a regional manufacturer of frozen Italian specialties. As production expanded, however, paper-based processes and a heavily customized legacy manufacturing system began creating obstacles to efficiency, visibility, and growth. Now, purpose-built food manufacturing software has standardized formulas and production processes.
By implementing and integrating manufacturing with Andrea Foods digitized production, standardized formulas, strengthened lot traceability, and created a foundation for future growth—including a planned move to
Key takeaways:
- Paper-based manufacturing can become a significant burden as food production grows.
- Purpose-built food manufacturing software can standardize formulas and production processes.
- Connecting manufacturing with the ERP system improves access to production and inventory data.
- Lot traceability and electronic records strengthen audit readiness and quality management.
- A modern manufacturing platform can help food manufacturers prepare for future ERP and MRP initiatives.
How Andrea Foods Modernized Food Manufacturing with Vicinity Food and Microsoft Dynamics 365
For more than six decades, has built its business around a simple idea: preserve the family legacy while delivering quality Italian food to customers across the United States. What began as a New Jersey neighborhood deli founded by Italian immigrant Andrea Savignano has grown into a manufacturer of frozen ravioli, tortellini, gnocchi, lasagna, stuffed shells, pasta sheets, and other Italian specialties.
But growth brings new operational challenges. As Andrea expanded production, the company found that paper-based manufacturing records and a highly customized legacy manufacturing system were no longer keeping pace. The business needed better visibility, more efficient processes, stronger traceability, and a manufacturing platform that could support its next stage of growth.
The solution was Vicinity Food, integrated with Microsoft Dynamics GP.
Why Successful Food Manufacturing Outgrows Paper-Based Processes
Paper can work for a small manufacturing operation, but as production volumes increase, manually maintained records can quickly become a bottleneck.
At Andrea Foods, manufacturing information was primarily recorded on paper. Production reporting, inventory updates, and audit preparation required significant time and effort. The company also had difficulty going back through its historical manufacturing data to evaluate what had happened during production.
For a growing food manufacturer, this lack of accessible information can affect more than administrative efficiency. Production teams need accurate formulas, inventory information, and manufacturing records to keep operations running consistently. Quality teams need reliable documentation and traceability. Management needs data to understand performance and identify opportunities for improvement.
Andrea Foods recognized that reducing paperwork and gaining better access to manufacturing data had become priorities.
Replacing a Legacy Manufacturing System
Paper wasn't the company's only challenge.
Andrea Foods was also relying on a heavily customized manufacturing application built into Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010. Although the system had supported the company for years, its extensive customization created limitations. It prevented software upgrades and made it increasingly difficult for the business to adapt as it grew.
Rather than continuing to modify an aging system, Andrea Foods looked for a manufacturing solution designed specifically for food production.
The company selected Vicinity Food to replace its legacy manufacturing system while maintaining integration with Microsoft Dynamics GP. This allowed Andrea Foods to modernize manufacturing without disconnecting its production operations from its financial and ERP environment.
Standardizing Food Manufacturing Formulas
One of the important improvements involved how Andrea Foods managed manufacturing formulas.
Previously, formulas could be difficult to interpret because they were expressed in fractional pounds. For operators working on the plant floor, that approach was not always intuitive.
Vicinity Food enabled Andrea Foods to represent formulas using more meaningful units of measure that operators could easily understand.
The result was more than a change in how information was displayed. Standardizing formulas helped create greater consistency between the way products were defined in the system and the way production actually took place.
For food manufacturers, this type of standardization can be particularly valuable. Recipes and formulas are central to production, and even seemingly small inconsistencies can affect materials, costs, production results, and finished products.
By creating formulas that better reflected real-world production, Andrea used the implementation as an opportunity to improve its underlying processes rather than simply automate the processes it already had.
Improving Visibility and Lot Traceability
Digitizing production records also gave Andrea Foods faster access to manufacturing information.
Instead of relying primarily on paper documentation, production information is now captured electronically. This makes reporting and audit preparation easier while giving the company greater visibility into its manufacturing operations.
Lot traceability was another important part of the modernization effort.
For food manufacturers, knowing where materials came from and how they moved through production is essential. Integrated manufacturing and lot traceability give Andrea Foods greater confidence in inventory, production reporting, and quality documentation. The company can also investigate production history more effectively when questions arise.
This creates an important operational advantage: information that was previously scattered across paper records becomes part of a more accessible digital manufacturing environment.
Turning an Implementation Into a Process Improvement Opportunity
Andrea Foods' experience also demonstrates that implementing new manufacturing software does not have to be simply a technology replacement project.
During the implementation, Vicinity's team encouraged the company to look for opportunities to improve existing processes. Initially, Andrea Foods' project team was skeptical that the implementation would uncover significant improvements. In practice, the project highlighted several opportunities to strengthen operations.
That approach helped shift the focus from "How do we automate what we already do?" to "How can we improve the way we manufacture?"
With hands-on guidance and training, the Andrea Foods team became more comfortable managing the new system independently while aligning it more closely with the company's actual plant-floor processes.
Building a Foundation for Future Growth and Dynamics 365 BC
Perhaps the most important outcome is that Andrea now has a manufacturing foundation designed to evolve with the business.
Manufacturing and Quality Control are already live, while the company is positioned to expand into MRP planning. Andrea Foods is also planning a migration to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, giving the company a path toward a modern ERP environment.
This is an important consideration for food manufacturers evaluating technology investments. A manufacturing system should not only solve today's problems; it should provide a foundation for tomorrow's initiatives.
By modernizing manufacturing first, Andrea Foods can approach future ERP and planning initiatives with more standardized processes, better production data, and stronger traceability already in place.
Modern Food Manufacturing for the Next Generation
Andrea Foods' story is ultimately about more than replacing paper or upgrading software. It is about giving a fourth-generation family business the technology needed to continue growing while preserving the values that built the company.
Today, Andrea Foods ships multiple truckloads of frozen Italian foods each week. Its partnership with Vicinity Software has helped transform manufacturing operations from paper-driven and highly customized processes into a more digital, standardized, and scalable environment.
For growing food manufacturers, the lesson is clear: modernization does not have to mean abandoning the systems and traditions that made the business successful. With the right manufacturing technology and a thoughtful implementation strategy, companies can preserve what works, improve what doesn't, and build a stronger foundation for the future.
Andrea Foods' next chapter—including MRP and its planned move to Dynamics 365 Business Central—shows how modern food manufacturing technology can help a family-owned company prepare for its next generation of growth.
Want to learn more about Andrea Foods’ journey? . If you’d like to explore how Vicinity Software’s solutions can support the modernization and growth of your food manufacturing business, our experts.
By Randy Smith, Vicinity Software,
