Customer Case: Crop’s – From Idea to Realization via a Digitized NPD Flow and NPI Portal
About Crop’s
Crop’s is a leading international producer of frozen vegetables, fruit, prepared meals, and innovative food solutions. Flexibility, speed, and customization are the cornerstones of their success. Behind the scenes, this requires flawless coordination of processes, data, and people – especially when introducing new products.
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The Challenge
The New Product Introduction (NPI) portal is a crucial element behind Crop’s innovation power. But with so many departments involved – from R&D and sales to finance, kitchen planning, QA, and supply chain – every new product launch also meant a complex stream of communication, decisions, and follow-up actions.
Until recently, this follow-up was handled mainly through emails and Excel files. Not only was this time-consuming, but it was also error-prone and lacking in transparency. The need for a structured, centralized, efficient, and widely supported approach became increasingly urgent.
The Driving Force for Change: Crop’s People
What makes this project exceptional is that the digitization of the NPI portal was not imposed from the top down. It was Crop’s employees themselves who, based on their daily practice, took the initiative. They mapped out where the bottlenecks were, where clarity was lacking, and how interdepartmental collaboration could be improved.
Step by step, the process was built based on their insights. They determined how the flow should work, which decision points were essential, how information would be shared, and where control points were needed. Ometa acted as facilitator and technical partner, but the content direction was entirely in the hands of Crop’s.
The Solution: A Tailor-Made Digital NDP Flow
The result is a digital, integrated New Product Development (NPD) flow that perfectly matches Crop’s operations and culture. The flow consists of seven gates:
✅ Recipe Screening
✅ Contribution Screening
✅ Capacity Screening
✅ QA Screening
✅ New Ingredient Screening
✅ New Packaging Screening
✅ Investment Screening
Each gate has its own responsibilities and approvals. Items can be rejected or revised; samples are tested – both internally and with the customer – and the central screening committee makes transparent decisions based on up-to-date, uniform information.
This structured approach ensures that information is collected, shared, and validated in a consistent and clear manner. The flow provides clarity in roles, decision-making moments, and documentation, making the entire process more manageable and controllable.
Real-Time Integration with Back Office – No More Double Work
What makes this solution even more powerful is the seamless integration with existing back-office systems such as SAP. At each gate, the relevant setup in the back-office system is executed in real time. As a result, decisions and data no longer need to be manually re-entered – eliminating a major source of errors.
Based on collaboration and approvals in each phase, a MAF flow (Material Acceptance Form) is automatically generated. This flow ensures that all collaboration data is automatically entered into the SAP environment – without having to open SAP manually. This guarantees correct, up-to-date master data without extra workload for employees.
Each department has its own digital workspace where tasks are tracked, statuses are visible, documentation is shared, and decisions are recorded. This creates a single source of truth with structured, transparent, and easily accessible information for all stakeholders.
A Solution That Truly Works—Because It Comes From Within
The real success of this project? Ownership lies with the people of Crop’s. Because they were the driving force behind the digitization, the solution enjoys broad support.
The benefits are clear and tangible:
✅ More efficient and consistent data collection across the entire NPI portal
✅ No more manual input into SAP, thanks to real-time integration and MAF flow
✅ Improved collaboration between departments
✅ More structure, overview, and transparency in every process phase
✅ Clear responsibilities and centralized documentation
✅ Improved customer interaction through clear status information
✅ Full traceability of every case and uniform reporting
Digitalization and Collaboration: Not a Luxury, But a Necessity
In a food industry where customer-specific requirements, regulations, and short time-to-market are increasingly important, digitization is no longer a “nice to have” – it is a prerequisite for success. By smartly structuring processes and facilitating collaboration, Crop’s remains agile without compromising on quality or control.
The strength of this project lies in the combination of technology and collaboration. It is not a single system or a single team that makes the difference, but the shared belief that innovation only works if you build it together.
A Strong Example of Co-Creation
Crop’s proves that complex processes are not simplified by off-the-shelf tools, but by collaboration between practice and technology. Their new NPD flow is not just a digital solution – it is a foundation for future-oriented growth.
Crop’s in the spotlight? Absolutely. Because they chose an approach that works: from the inside out, driven by people, supported by technology. And with a clear result: structured, transparent, and moving forward together. Crop’s has succeeded in transforming a complex process with many variables into a smart, widely supported workflow – built on real needs, with a solid foundation for sustainable innovation.
