Global life science giant automates warehouse

A leading life science company was looking for a way to solve their warehouse and supply chain challenges. Warehouse operations were manual (paper or excel), which led to delays in processing, documentation, and execution. Even finding the right spare part took a long time. This lag led to further delays in plant operations that were waiting for the spare part. There were manual entries in the system to set up the job, before picking up the package/spare part and putting it away (in another bin or different location).

There wasn’t a standardized warehouse management system. We consulted with the required stakeholders to understand their specific use cases.

This had to be standardized and structured into an intuitive workflow (for Crave’s cWarehouse app) that could be easily followed by everyone.

After the consulting and work reviews, we created the aptest solution for the client from the ground up, starting with SAP Warehouse Management implementation.

The solution and workflows were configured exactly for the requirements of the stakeholders and the requirements of the pharma company. There were very limited options for specific warehouse solutions for a pharma company before this.

We configured the solution to ensure that the processes were compliant with the regulatory bodies. This is extremely important within the pharma industry.

We implemented the SAP warehouse Management system in integration with plant maintenance, Inventory management. Also, we deployed Crave’s cWarehouse app. This app was UI/UX optimized using the SAP Fiori language and schema. We also deployed scanners (to scan barcodes and QR codes) and portable printers (to print labels with required barcodes/QR codes). These are connected to the central system and in sync with cWarehouse.

• Improved visibility of spare parts will lead to better inventory management.
• Streamlined the inbound, outbound, and internal warehousing process by bringing automation by way of scanning the barcodes/QR codes and fetching the data from SAP for executing the transaction code resulting in reducing paperwork and turnaround time.
• Automation of processes with the user ID, date, and time capture when a user performs the transaction.
• Physical Inventory verification by scanning with a device to minimize the stock mismatch between system stock and physical stock.
• Simplified workflow to ensure optimization of warehouse operations. This helped reduce the previous lag within the supply chain. It meant that the plants had visibility of the available spare parts and were able to acquire them (in time) easily.
• No more difficulty in locating materials inside Warehouse – WMS will enable QR code-based tracking using a mobile device.
• Faster Turnarounds for issuance - Users from the plant don’t have to spend time searching for the materials inside Warehouse. The exact location will be provided by the system.
• No more manual writing of labels – All labels would be generated from SAP in the form of QR codes at the time of GRN.
• Easiness in labeling - Multiple label sizes to accommodate different sizes of materials.
• Labels would be scannable – Information related to Material, POs, Requisitioned, location and etc. will be shown on scanning.
• Total accountability and control for warehouse and inventory management. This includes easy job assignment, optimized workflow for faster processing, easy execution (just scan the item) and following directions in the app, and full job tracking for the manager.
• We use scannable devices and applications can be downloaded on any mobile device like tablets, IPAD, mobile phones as well as desktops.
• Users are working in a fully integrated environment due to seamless integration with multiple modules.
• All the processes are paperless with an increase in operational efficiency.
• The connected supply chain, including the plants requisitioning the spare parts and awaiting the same, has full visibility of the process (with status updates). The overall turnaround time is minimized and hence the plant operations and asset management is improved.

• 80% (approx.) reduction in the total cost of ownership
• 100% paperless processes
• 15% labor cost per unit handled
• 35% reduction in put away the goods time
• 35% reduction in Warehouse Operating costs