Pet Food Manufacturer Managing Complex Batch Production and Traceability
Primal Pet Group operates a pet food production facility in Abilene, Texas. The team manages raw materials, batch production, and finished-goods movement across multiple manufacturing stages.
Manual Batch Tracking and Limited Traceability Slowed Production and Fulfillment
Primal Pet Group needed a dependable way to manage raw-material batches for production orders. The team required clear visibility into what was picked for each order and needed to isolate ingredients by type. Traceability was essential, including visibility into ingredient origins and lot numbers as materials moved through production.
The operation also required consistent labeling of pallets and cases, accurate weight capture, and the ability to handle all activities using handheld scanners rather than paper-based reporting. Employees needed to move the remaining materials back to storage with accurate weights, labels, and updated locations.
In early 2025, Primal Pet Group introduced e-commerce fulfillment. The warehouse needed a process that minimized manual steps, provided clear visibility into inventory availability, and integrated directly with freight providers. The goal was to reduce touch points while ensuring accurate pick, pack, and ship workflows.
Connected Warehouse, Production, and Shipping with Real-Time Scanning and Automation
Primal Pet Group deployed several Insight Works applications alongside Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Cloud to support raw-material handling, production reporting, warehouse control, and shipping.
- Warehouse Insight: The warehouse team used Warehouse Insight on handheld scanners to pick raw materials, report consumption, move leftover quantities, and process outbound shipments directly into Business Central. The scanning workflow eliminated paper and kept all movements accurate.
- License Plating: The team used License Plating to create pallet and batch labels tied to production orders, ingredients, lots, and picked quantities. Employees scanned these labels during production to report consumption and later to identify finished goods.
- Advanced Inventory Count: Inventory staff used Advanced Inventory Count to support accurate bin counts, lot/serial reconciliation, and scanning-based count entry.
- Order Fulfillment Worksheet: The team used the Order Fulfillment Worksheet to see which orders they could fulfill immediately and which orders had shortages. With a single action, they released shippable orders to the warehouse and printed pick documents for the warehouse printers.
- Dynamic Ship: After the e-commerce program went live, the team used Dynamic Ship to perform rate shopping, integrate carriers, and print shipping labels directly from Business Central.
All applications worked together to support precise batch handling, real-time updates, handheld-driven production reporting, and predictable e-commerce fulfillment.
Rapid, Self-Managed Deployment Focused on Workflow Design and Real-World Testing
The team already knew Insight Works applications from previous projects, so they focused on remapping workflows and aligning them with Warehouse Insight and License Plating. The team spent most of the implementation time on process design and scenario testing, and they installed each app in a largely plug-and-play manner.
Primal Pet Group completed the implementation through a focused, self-managed effort. The team configured Warehouse Insight, License Plating, and Advanced Inventory Count first, then extended the workflow to include Dynamic Ship and the Order Fulfillment Worksheet. The rollout spanned roughly three months, with most of that time dedicated to validating workflows and testing real production and warehouse scenarios rather than configuring the applications themselves.
Insight Works supported several minor workflow adjustments to align with Primal Pet Group’s business processes.
Improved Batch Control, Inventory Accuracy, and Scalable Fulfillment Operations
Primal Pet Group reported several improvements:
- The warehouse team improved raw-material picking consistency and gained clear batch and lot visibility.
- Employees scanned labels to report consumption, which removed paper-based steps.
- Employees labeled finished goods as soon as they completed production orders, thereby maintaining traceability.
- The team returned leftover materials to storage with correct weights and updated locations.
- E-commerce pick, pack, and ship workflows run with fewer manual touch points.
- Staff quickly identified order availability using the Order Fulfillment Worksheet.
- Inventory adjustments trended downward, and bin accuracy improved steadily.
- Warehouse staff followed predictable scanning workflows at picking, packing, and shipping workstations.
“Using handheld scanners with License Plating and Warehouse Insight gave us real-time visibility into production and inventory movements that we simply did not have before. The workflows reduced manual effort and helped improve our overall inventory accuracy.” — Deepak Agrawal, Primal Pet Group
End-to-End Traceability and Warehouse Control Without Manual Processes
Primal Pet Group strengthened batch control, improved ingredient traceability, and created reliable warehouse workflows by combining Business Central with applications from Insight Works. The handheld-driven approach kept data accurate across production and fulfillment while reducing manual effort.
Additional Information
About Insight Works – www.dmsiworks.com
Insight Works is an Independent Software Vendor (ISV) that caters to the manufacturing and distribution industry. Their product line features a breadth of end-to-end apps that integrate with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. There are apps designed for manufacturing, distribution, shipping, sales, productivity, barcoding, and more. Apps are distributed through partners like Dynamic Aspect.
