Tulip, one of the UK’s largest food producers, operates a farm-to-fork model, from rearing livestock to producing and supplying products to major retailers and the food service industry. With 70
manufacturing sites across the UK, each location had been managing time and attendance
independently using different systems and data formats.
This made labour reporting inconsistent and time-consuming, particularly for central teams responsible for group-wide KPI analysis. To improve visibility and ensure standardised reporting, Tulip needed a
single, integrated platform capable of handling workforce data across all sites.
“We discovered that all of our manufacturing sites were already running some form of Crown Computing solution. That made Crown the obvious provider for a single T&A platform.”
- Steve Camm, IT Functional Lead
Tulip partnered with Crown Workforce Management to implement a single database and unified software platform across the group. This allowed real-time visibility of workforce data from every site, replacing inconsistent spreadsheets and standalone systems.
Working closely with Crown, Tulip created a central data model to consolidate information from legacy systems while filtering out redundant data. Scripts developed with Crown’s support enabled smooth data migration into a centralised environment.
To encourage adoption, Tulip focused on site-level ownership. More than 500 users, including HR staff, team leaders, and factory managers, now use the system daily for everything from clocking and absence management to department reporting.
“We made the sites self-sufficient. They’re responsible for their own day-to-day data, which builds ownership and accuracy.”
- Sheila Grass, Payroll Project Manager
The introduction of Crown’s platform has given Tulip full, real-time visibility of workforce activity across
all 70 sites. By standardising labour reporting and establishing a central cost structure, the business can
now produce accurate data at every level, from site to shift, in a consistent format.
This consistency has dramatically reduced manual work for central teams, who previously had to
compile and reformat spreadsheets from multiple sites. Now, workforce data is readily available for KPI
analysis and performance reporting, allowing Tulip to compare productivity across different operations
with ease.
The result is a more connected, efficient business where managers have ownership of their data, HR teams have accurate information at their fingertips, and group leaders have a single source of truth for workforce performance.
“The feedback from sites was excellent. They’d struggled for years with inconsistent data, and now everything is so much easier.”
- Sheila Grass, Payroll Project Manager