Digital overview in a tradition-rich production environment

100 years of heritage meets change

Toms Group was established in 1924, and with more than 100 years of experience, the company’s history has left a clear mark on both its products and workflows, which have been refined over time. This places significant demands on today’s quality management, where a constant balance must be struck between preserving what works and developing and adapting to new requirements from authorities, certifications, and customers.

The organisation operates under several certifications, including FSSC 22000 in Denmark, IFS in Poland, and ISO 28000 focusing on supply chain security across both countries.

“Digitalisation opens up many opportunities – the only limit is imagination. The challenge is not to do more, but to do the right things. We must identify the most critical processes, improve what can be optimised, and embed these improvements across our locations,” says Andreas Harpøth, Group Quality Specialist.

For Toms Group, it is about preserving traditional ways of working while keeping pace with development – and ensuring the entire organisation is part of the journey. This requires motivation and engagement among employees so that new changes do not come at the expense of the strong heritage that already works well.

Together with his colleagues, Andreas is working to create alignment and consistency without losing local strengths. On top of this, Toms Group is facing one of the largest transformations in recent times: the relocation of the chocolate factory from Ballerup to Poland. Here, more than 100 years of experience with quality-assured workflows must be preserved and made to work in a new production reality.

The goal is to ensure that the strong processes from Ballerup are transferred to Poland, enabling production to succeed from day one.

“We need a single place where we can bring everything together – status, tasks, and documentation. Otherwise, it is easy to lose the overview in a process like this,” Andreas explains.

Food safety culture: when procedures drive positive behaviour

At Toms Group, food safety culture is high on the agenda. It is not only about employees being able to carry out procedures correctly, but also about them understanding why they are important.

Here, Toms Group plays a central role as a tool that supports the desired behaviour without functioning as a control mechanism.

An important part of the work is making quality management relevant to everyone across the organisation.

“For many people, it is not naturally exciting. So it is about making it easy and meaningful – so it does not just become something you have to do, but something where you understand the value,” Andreas explains.

With more than 1,000 documents, the focus is not on documenting as much as possible – but on documenting the right things. Together with his colleagues, Andreas has worked deliberately to reduce and target procedures so that they only describe what is necessary and are easily accessible to the relevant employees.

“The art is to create the procedures you actually need – and to make them so simple that our colleagues can easily use them. And they must be easy to find the moment you need them,” Andreas explains.

Procedures range from very concrete production instructions, such as how a machine should be checked or an area cleaned, to more general guidelines such as supplier evaluations and handling food fraud.

“It creates a completely different sense of ownership when our colleagues are involved in building it themselves,” says Andreas Harpøth.

Shared digital overview ensures progress in a complex relocation process

In connection with the relocation of the chocolate factory from Ballerup to Poland, D4InfoNet has become a concrete management tool. Through digital forms and dashboards, the entire process has been structured and documented.

“Here we can follow progress and be confident that nothing falls between the cracks,” Andreas Harpøth explains.

Andreas and his team have thus built a digital, shared overview of a complex relocation process, where relevant employees can continuously track progress, document completed tasks, and ensure that nothing is overlooked.

Strengthened deviation management with focus on root causes

When the only limit is imagination in terms of digital opportunities, the list of potential extensions is long. The next step is an enhancement of deviation management. In close collaboration with D4’s consultants, the solution is being expanded with the 5 Whys method, which will become a standard practice for all quality managers going forward.

In a fast-paced production environment, 5 Whys helps ensure that the underlying cause of each deviation is consistently explored – not only what happened, but why it happened. By repeatedly asking “why”, the focus shifts from the immediate incident to the root causes.

“It gives us a stronger data foundation, and it also ensures that knowledge from individual cases is not lost, but is instead collected and actively used to prevent it from happening again,” says Andreas Harpøth.

A robust system enables change across locations

With D4InfoNet, Toms Group has created a shared foundation for quality management without removing local strengths.

“For us, it is essential to have a document management system that works. A place where people can look things up when in doubt – and quickly find out what the correct way of doing things is,” says Andreas Harpøth.

In Poland, D4InfoNet has been translated into Polish and anchored through local editors, ensuring the platform is integrated into their workflows – without losing alignment across all production sites. This also means that the Polish unit is ready to take over chocolate production with both quality and working culture preserved from day one.

Within D4InfoNet, the foundation has been laid for an even more data-driven approach to quality management. With improved structure and increased use of registrations, it becomes easier to identify patterns, work systematically with root causes, and strengthen both deviation and supplier management.

The result is an organisation that can both preserve its heritage and continue to evolve – with quality intact and a stronger foundation for future requirements from authorities, certifications, and customers.

All images from Toms Group production are credited to Toms Group PR.