Bottled water firm completes shift to automated operations

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu-based Philippine Spring Water Resources Inc. (PSWRI), the maker of Nature’s Spring bottled water brand, has completed its investment in total technology adoption of an ERP system of IBM to effectively structure its business processes and improve operational efficiencies ensuring world-class customer satisfaction.

The 20-year-old company, which is one of the pioneers in the bottled water trade, is now ready to spread its wings and provide efficient service to its growing market here and abroad, through automated operations.

In a press conference held recently, IBM and PSWRI said the deployment of the new system resulted “in automation, traceability, and accountability of its operations which streamlined and increased operational production efficiency in its product lines.”

The project achieved “go live” status in a short span of four months, making it a milestone in the Philippines IT industry, the companies said.

Daniel Lua, PSWRI vice president for operations, said in a statement that the collaboration among PSWRI, IBM, and SAP allowed the company to be better prepared in its expansion plans in the north, central, and south Philippines.

PSWRI is now expected to integrate its various businesses and provide improved visibility across the enterprise, resulting in control over operations and quick access to real time information across its various locations and businesses.

“Most companies choose to put off investment until the sagging economy improves, but few realize that this is an opportunity to improve overall business operations and systems. The main caveat is that companies need to be smarter than ever in doing so. That is why Nature Spring is embarking towards the full integration and automation of its ERP systems,” said Charles Capilitan, special assistant to PSWRI president.

IBM provided PSWRI a couple of IBM 3600 and 3800 servers, IBM SAN switches, IBM Blade Center, IBM DS 5100 System Storage, Red Hat (OS), VMware (virtualization) for it to implement SAP’s ERP Central Component 6.0.

PSWRI is now operating over 100 outlets nationwide, with five big bottling plants, and five small plants located major locations across the country.

According to Capilitan, the demand for bottled water product in the Philippines is so huge, that even all players in the entire industry cannot immediately cater to.

Aside from its massive expansion in the Philippines, Capilitan said the company is also preparing to venture overseas, and re-open its presence in other countries such as United States.

In its Cebu plant alone, the facility produces an average of 242 thousand bottles in an eight-hour operation, or 86 million bottle average productions a year.

At present, the brand holds about 50 percent of the country’s bottled water market. Capilitan said the company aims at increasing its share with the adoption of world-class technology.