December 2nd, 2024

Starpro Transforms R&D Management with Centric PLM

A bowl of clear soup with meatballs, diced potatoes, and carrots, garnished with fresh parsley and dill. Perfectly crafted like the innovative solutions from Starpro, it is served in a white bowl on a white surface, adorned by garlic cloves and green leaves.

Food company increases product success rates and customer satisfaction through partnership with Centric Software

CAMPBELL, Calif., December 3, 2024 – Centric Software® is excited to unveil a success story featuring its customer Starpro. Centric Software provides the most innovative enterprise solutions to plan, formulate, develop, procure, manufacture and sell consumer goods products in food & beverage, grocery, fashion and multi-category retail to achieve strategic and operational digital transformation goals.

Hangzhou Starpro Starch Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of the PMI Group founded in 2006, is a comprehensive enterprise specializing in the R&D, production and sales of modified starch. With over 1,800 customers across eight major industries, it offers over 1,000 application solutions and 500 products. Headquartered in Asia, Starpro operates nine factories and 12 production lines in Hangzhou, Tianjin and Thailand, serving clients in China, Japan and Russia, including notable companies like Master Kong, PepsiCo and Kraft.

As Starpro’s success rapidly expanded, its R&D team realized that existing manual processes could no longer support the increasing number of projects. It became evident that digitalizing the R&D process was essential for enhancing efficiency, ensuring product quality and meeting customer demands. Li Chenhong, Director of R&D at Starpro adds, “Different systems had different material codes and data dimensions, making it very difficult to connect data across systems. Without standardized data, data-driven decision-making is impossible.” Recognizing the need for change, Starpro initiated preparations for a PLM project in August 2021.

Eight months after launching Centric PLM™, Starpro transformed its R&D management into a more systematic and efficient process. The company established a closed-loop data management system, leading to a 20% increase in R&D efficiency and improved product success rates. Additionally, Starpro achieved two-way traceability for both raw materials and finished products. Most importantly, this agile and precise approach to R&D has significantly enhanced customer satisfaction.

Li remarks on the dedication of the Centric team throughout the process, “We share many of the same values, learning from each other’s work methods. The collaboration has been both enjoyable and effective.”

Learn more in detail about how Starpro empowers R&D management with Centric PLM.

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Starpro (www.starpro.com.cn)

Established in 2006, Hangzhou Starpro Starch Co., Ltd. delivers innovative products and value to its customers with efficient and excellent service. Guided by its business philosophy of “integrity, practicability, and innovation”, Starpro takes pride in its high-quality starch resources and enjoys the support of an outstanding local professional team for the development and application of modified starch. The company is committed to the research, development, and innovative application of starch and starch derivatives, so as to provide customers with high quality products and professional support.

The company is based in Asia and mainly operates in China. A total of 6 production plants have been established in Thailand and the Chinese cities of Hangzhou and Tianjin, to serve customers such as Master Kong, Pepsi, Dicos, General Mills, Kraft, and Synear, located in China, Japan, Russia, and other regions.

Centric Software® (https://www.centricsoftware.com/)

From its headquarters in Silicon Valley, Centric Software provides the market-leading AI-enabled Product Lifecycle Management platform for food & beverage manufacturers, grocery and multi-category retailers. As experts in all fast-moving consumer goods, Centric Software delivers best-of-breed solutions to design, develop, source, buy, make, package, assort and sell products. Centric solutions optimize the product portfolio, harmonize product offers and streamline product development by speeding time to market and innovation while enhancing quality control and ensuring regulatory compliance.

Centric PLM™ features integrated industry best practices and innovative, AI-enabled capabilities tailored specifically for food and beverage manufacturers, retailers and service providers. Seamlessly manage the overall product lifecycle, from initial concept and formula development to packaging, quality, supplier collaboration, nutritional labeling, production, SKU rationalization and beyond. Results include up to a 50% improvement in productivity and a 60% decrease in time to market.
Centric Visual Boards™ are a visually oriented top-down/bottom-up product portfolio optimization tool. Real-time data and imagery from multiple business systems are brought into a singular accessible workspace, creating a new, visual way of working for all teams to ensure robust, well-balanced global/regional product offers, dramatically decreasing assortment development cycle time.

Centric Software maintains a 100% go-live rate and has received awards for excellence from Just Food, Just Drinks, Business Awards UK, Frost & Sullivan and many other regional accolades. Centric Software is proud to provide the best solutions, backed by the best team and to partner with the best customers.