Founded in Brussels in 1926, Godiva is the global leader in premium chocolate production. With over 450 locations worldwide and 60,000 users across their operations, Godiva maintains the highest standards for product quality and innovation. The company's success depends on efficient coordination across diverse business functions—from new product development and production planning to capital expenditure decisions and quality control. As a global manufacturer, Godiva requires seamless collaboration between teams across multiple countries and business units to maintain their reputation for excellence.
As Godiva expanded globally, coordination across their critical business processes became increasingly difficult. The company struggled to gain real-time visibility into ongoing projects and initiatives, making it impossible to track progress or identify bottlenecks before they impacted operations.
Product development and innovation processes lacked structure and oversight. New product initiatives moved through various stages without clear gates, approval requirements, or standardised documentation. This made it difficult to ensure all necessary reviews were completed, stakeholder input was captured, and decisions were properly documented. Teams in different locations often worked with inconsistent information, leading to duplicated efforts and misaligned priorities.
Capital expenditure (Capex) approvals suffered from similar challenges. Requests for equipment purchases, facility improvements, and other investments moved through email chains and manual approval routing. Finance teams had limited visibility into pending requests, approval status, or budget impact. The lack of a structured process meant that urgent capital needs could be delayed whilst less critical requests moved forward, impacting production efficiency and business priorities.
Beyond these two critical processes, procurement of raw materials, production planning, quality control, and marketing initiatives all operated with limited integration. When issues arose, identifying root causes and implementing improvements required significant manual effort. The company needed a platform that could bring structure, visibility, and control to these diverse processes without disrupting existing operations.
Emakin provided Godiva with a unified platform for managing and optimising their complex business processes, with particular focus on two mission-critical workflows.
Stage & Gate Process for Product Development
Godiva implemented a structured Stage & Gate framework through Emakin to manage new product development from concept to market launch. Each stage of development—from initial ideation through formulation, testing, pilot production, and full-scale launch—now has clearly defined requirements, deliverables, and gate criteria.
Stakeholders across R&D, production, quality, marketing, and finance participate in gate reviews through structured workflows that ensure all necessary approvals are obtained before projects advance. The platform automatically routes proposals to the appropriate reviewers based on project type, budget, and strategic importance. All documentation, test results, and decision rationale are captured and linked to each project, creating complete visibility into development pipelines.
Management can now see which products are in development, their current stage, upcoming gate reviews, and potential launch dates. This visibility enables better resource allocation, identifies projects at risk, and ensures development efforts align with business priorities.
Capital Expenditure (Capex) Management
Capex requests now flow through Emakin's approval workflows based on investment amount, type, and business unit. Requestors submit proposals with detailed justifications, ROI analysis, and supporting documentation. The system automatically routes requests to the appropriate approvers—from local managers for smaller investments to executive leadership for major capital decisions.
Finance teams have complete visibility into the capital pipeline, including pending requests, approved budgets, and spending forecasts. The platform tracks actual expenditure against approved amounts and flags exceptions. Budget holders can see their allocation status in real time, making it easier to plan and prioritise investments. Approval cycles that previously took weeks now move through the system in days, with full audit trails documenting all decisions.
Production Planning and Supply Chain Coordination
Emakin improved visibility into production schedules and supply processes. Teams can monitor production stages, resource allocation, and workflow status across all locations. Issues are identified quickly, enabling faster response and incremental improvements to production efficiency.
Cross-Functional Coordination
All business units now work from a single platform with consistent processes. Whether managing product development, capital investments, procurement, or quality initiatives, teams follow structured workflows that ensure proper approvals, documentation, and visibility. This coordination reduces duplicated efforts and ensures information flows efficiently across the organisation.
Godiva transformed coordination across their global operations with structured processes that bring visibility and control to critical business functions. The Stage & Gate framework has brought discipline to product development, ensuring that all new products move through proper review gates with appropriate stakeholder input. Development timelines are more predictable, resource allocation is more efficient, and management has clear visibility into the innovation pipeline.
Capex management has become more strategic and efficient. Finance teams no longer chase approvals through email or struggle to forecast capital spending. Budget holders make better-informed decisions with real-time visibility into their allocations. The structured approval process ensures that capital investments align with business priorities whilst maintaining appropriate financial controls.
Across all 20+ implemented processes, business productivity has increased continuously. Issues are identified and resolved more quickly. All business units are better coordinated and work more effectively. The platform supports Godiva's global scale whilst maintaining the operational excellence their brand demands.
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