More and more food companies are looking to cut costs and increase their margins by introducing more automation into their operations.
RPM software allows plant managers to track and measure business processes within the production, operations, quality and maintenance operations.
The company, which announced record results in the year to March 2006, said that its multi-plant sales during the period included what it claims is the food sector's largest ever single order for RPM packaged software.
This was a a $1m-plus software contract from international foods producer, Greencore. The company also made an eight-plant sale to UK-based Premier Foods.
Following the release of two new modules to its RPM package this year and the launch of a new accreditation program, sales of Mvi's flagship product, mvi-eventsengine, increased 104 per cent year-on-year, the company reported.
A new module to the software allows chief operating officers a real-time view of multi-plant enterprises from their desktops. A separate release of the 'Improve' module has unleashed what the company calls "the power of the Toyota production system principles of Kaizen, Lean and Six Sigma" for food plant shopfloor workers and their managers.
The Improve eventsengine module collects data on what people actually do in the workplace, helping managers to reduce changeover times and unplanned downtime.
The first implementation of 'Improve' has allowed a Wisconsin-based, single-plant food producer with revenues of under $100m, to identify annual savings of about $1m, the company claims.
"Being the number-one provider of real-time performance software and services in food and beverage creates a tough act to follow and that is our intention," stated Mark Sutcliffe, Mvi's chief executive officer.
Mvi technology is based in Miami, Florida, and has offices in the UK. Its customers include Kerry Foods, Associated British Foods, Calypso Foods, Allied Bakeries, Abbyland Foods, Premier Foods, Berner Foods, Heinz, Uniq Foods, Greencore and Marsan Foods.
In a separate press release, Mvi said Marsan Foods bought the company's RPM software solution in 2004 and since then has improved operational performance.
"The software and training have delivered real financial benefits; we have reduced our direct labour cost on all products run through the line, increased throughput and raised production standards - twice," Graeme Jewett, Marsan's president is quoted as stating.