How Cérélia saves 75% time on audits with 1 unified skills system
One system, audit-ready, and employees chasing their own training for the first time
A question nobody could answer
Cérélia makes dough for pastry, pizza bases, and bakery products, which are then distributed across Europe. On a production line handling food safety at scale, knowing exactly who is qualified to perform which tasks is a mission-critical task.
Patrick van Dinther, School of Bakery Manager at Cérélia, found that out the hard way when he asked a simple question: Who is actually allowed to perform metal detection duties on this production line?
Nobody knew.
“We had to dive into the personnel files to work out who was qualified for metal detection duties,” he said. “We didn’t have a single overview or even a single system to answer this simple question.”
Those personnel files were physical folders, around 400 of them, one per employee, in a cabinet. Finding an answer meant going through them one by one.
From a full day to a few seconds
Using AG5, Cérélia mapped qualifications to workstations and departments across every production line and proficiency level. The cabinet is gone, and the answer to van Dinther’s metal detection question – as well as any like it – now takes seconds.
“Who needs training? Who’s already received training? I now have answers to these questions in a matter of seconds. This would have taken me a whole day to determine before we had AG5,” he said.
Audit preparation, which previously was a significant time sink, has also been cut by 75%. Integrations with DPS and aNewSpring mean training data flows into the platform automatically, keeping records current without manual upkeep.
Now we’re using AG5, anyone can check and find the information they need in an instant. We all love it!
Patrick van Dinther
School of Bakery Manager, Cérélia
The surprise on the shop floor
The efficiency gains were expected, but van Dinther didn’t anticipate what happened to the employees themselves.
New staff at Cérélia go through an onboarding process that takes around four months. With AG5, they can see their own progress in real time, including which skills are complete, which are still outstanding, and exactly what they need to do next.
“Nowadays, they approach their team leaders asking, ‘Hey, take a look at this! These training programs of mine are still on red. I want to get them all green!’,” van Dinther said.
For van Dinther, a workforce that chases its own development rather than waiting to be managed through it might be the outcome nobody put in the results block. However, it’s one that pays lasting dividends – and further strengthens skills management efforts across the entire organization.
The software is clearly laid out and saves us an enormous amount of time. Just a few clicks and everything you need appears on the screen in front of you.
Patrick van Dinther
School of Bakery Manager, Cérélia
