Alpine herbs meet high tech: How Swiss Alpine Herbs is digitizing production with Odoo

Company name: SAH Alpenkräuter AG
Location: Switzerland, Europe
Industry: Food&Beverage
Established: 1991
Company size: 50+
Odoo users: <50
Hosting type: On-Premises
Apps: Sales, Inventory, Quality, Manufacturing (MRP), Point of Sale (Shop), Website Builder, E-Commerce
Implementing partner: braintec

Swiss Alpine Herbs (SAH) processes up to 60 tons of fresh Alpine herbs every year. The Swiss company focuses on both quality and sustainability. Carefully selected suppliers from the region and decades of experience transform the herbs into aromatic teas, spices, and syrups.

But even though tradition is very important in the Simmental valley, time does not stand still. SAH AG was looking for ways to combine its high quality standards with modern, scalable processes. Instead of compromising, Swiss Alpine Herbs opted for an All-in-One solution: Odoo’s ERP.

Fresh herbs and stale processes 

In the past, SAH's business processes were heavily reliant on manual labour. The supply chain was not fully digitized, and there were numerous process gaps that required employee intervention. Orders were checked manually and laboriously reconciled with inventory levels and production orders — a process that was prone to errors.

The food industry in particular has high requirements: strict legal regulations, comprehensive documentation requirements, and the perishability of raw materials demand precision. The existing quality management system was thorough but time-consuming, as there were no digital tools to ease the workload. Swiss Alpine Herbs was therefore looking for an ERP solution that would combine compliance, freshness, and efficiency.

Why Odoo?

• All-in-one approach: Odoo offers integrated solutions ranging from e-commerce to warehouse management and purchasing. This allows business processes to be digitized in a uniform manner.

• Strong quality management: Digital checklists and automated quality control points (QCP) enable quality to be checked and ensured in a uniform manner. 

• Seamless batch tracking: Thanks to the uniform data set throughout the entire production chain, the shelf life of the goods can be traced at any time. 

From field to store – SAH digitizes its supply chain

Odoo Gold Partner braintec supported Swiss Alpine Herbs in digitizing its entire production process in Odoo. Thanks to Odoo's modular architecture, the challenging project was implemented in an agile and step-by-step manner. The goal was to implement the purchasing, warehouse, quality control, production, point of sale (PoS), and website modules.

Purchasing and Inventory

The entire warehouse management system (WMS) was mapped in Odoo and linked to purchasing. Once minimum stock levels have been defined, the system can automatically prepare orders thanks to intelligent forecasts. Since correct labeling is essential for food products, SAH uses the Odoo warehouse app in combination with barcodes. This enables precise identification of all items – largely in the Odoo standard, without costly programming.

Production and quality control

Herbs and products made from them can lose their aroma if they are stored for too long. It was therefore crucial for the implementation that the system prevented overproduction. It was necessary to ensure that warehousing, ordering, and production worked hand in hand. This enables the system to predict in real time which goods are in short supply and where stock levels are sufficient. This prevents both overproduction and delivery bottlenecks. 

A total of 1,200 different bills of materials (BoMs) were stored in the manufacturing app. These show employees which steps and raw materials are required for each order. 

Ensuring the quality of 60 tons of herbs is a huge task. During the implementation process emphasis was placed on ensuring that the system supports and relieves the employees in this area. Out-of-the-box, Odoo provides a range of functions that allow Swiss Alpine Herbs to ensure consistent quality. The goal was to achieve standardized and digitized quality control—without paperwork or guesswork.

E-commerce and PoS

SAH AG sells its products both via an online shop and via its factory outlet in Därstetten. Both sales channels were also integrated with Odoo. To achieve this, the website and the associated shop were set up and configured using the Odoo apps. This allows stocks to be synchronized across all channels in real time.

SAH combines tradition and modernity with Odoo

In cooperation with braintec, Swiss Alpine Herbs was able to implement a fully integrated value chain. The results speak for themselves:

Orders are placed either via the online store or in the factory shop. Both use Odoo – e-commerce for the web store and PoS for factory sales. Intuitive operation and seamless order creation have led to a significant increase in efficiency. The fast checkout and numerous integrated payment options also make life easier for customers.

As soon as production orders are generated, Odoo checks the raw material inventory. If goods are missing, the system automatically triggers a warning message. After approval by the responsible employee, the order is initiated with the regional supplier. At the same time, Odoo monitors the shelf life (best-before date) in real time and warns when critical data is reached. The employee sorts out the affected batches if necessary. Thanks to this automation, inventory management now works much more effectively.

Thanks to Odoo, Swiss Alpine Herbs can focus entirely on what they do best: manufacturing sustainable, high-quality herbal products. “Odoo offers the necessary adaptability to map a wide variety of business processes and enables customized solution concepts,” summarizes the SAH team. 

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