About the Company |
A Global Pharmaceutical Company with a market presence in over 50 countries. The company’s products include softgel capsule, hard-gel capsules, tablets and dry and wet injectable. |
Business Situation |
Client was aggressively expanding in North American and European market. 15 manufacturing plants in 6 countriesPlanning frequency was once in a month. Key products had fluctuating demand across various time period because of which handling dynamic batch size was difficult. MRP was run for the standard batch size, hence the Purchase Requisition did not always reflect the actual quantity required. Planning lead time was 1week to plan end to end solution which was highly inflexible. Client was facing significant issues w.r.t. Inventory planning and ControlClient was using SAP ECC as core ERP system for all of the Geographies |
Business Solution |
Implemented Lighthouse Integrated Planning Solution across the supply chain including Demand Planning, Manufacturing Planning and Scheduling. Two-way integration with SAP ERP systemRolling Long term plan for subsequent 4 quarters was also integrated into planning run which helped in demand, supply and capacity alignment. Align overall operations plan with financial forecast to improve financial forecasting accuracyPlanning frequency was increased to weekly run from monthly run due to shorter planning cycle time Ability to handle multiple batch sizes giving more flexibility for PR and reducing inventory build up. Complete control over MRP, flexibility to set the demand quantity as per priority. |
Business Benefits |
Significant improvement in overall Inventory turns and reduction of inventory buildup. Overall improvement in Customer service levelProvides future visibility to decide which orders have to expedited/ de-expedited based on capacity constraints. Rolling plan helped the management for various strategic decisions as well as Purchase department to intimate the suppliers in advance. |
Key Performance Indicators |
KPIs: (in 1.5 Yrs.)Inventory Turn: From 3.9 To 6.8Service Level: 15% improvement |
Client representative’s testimonial |
Pharmaceutical Business be it in any geography is governed by the simple theme “Competitive Compliance” – which means highest level of “Data integrity”, “Data Accuracy” & “Compliance” to ensure Regulatory discipline. Integration of constraints across the value chain viz. Business development, Technical Operations & Manufacturing, however important, cannot be achieved merely by having world class IT platforms but with a deep-rooted process and integration specialization. Supply Chain function in the Organization is the “nucleus” which need to drive the above essentials. Strides has learnt this early enough in implementing the “Lighthouse Planning Solution” which precisely addresses these core areas right up to the granular level. Lighthouse with the most articulated algorithm resolves complex issues within the ecosystem and eliminates people dependencies. Material & capacity availability, customer expectation on delivery dates, regulatory compliance needs are the most common and complex constraints which supply chain is normally contending with. Doing this through manual & archaic solutions, put the organization at incalculable risk. Lighthouse addresses all these areas as a rule based logic which determines and prioritizes the Organization core values. The solution effectively cuts down on legacy communication channels such as “ Mails, Phone, meetings etc. Every stakeholder has a view of the plan and actuals to determine which leg in the entire planning and scheduling cycle is contributing to delays or On-time” performance achievement. Effective use of the Planning system pro-actively enables to address the weak links in the organization without having to chase the wrong end. ~ CIO of a leading pharma company |
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