End-to-end management in the pharmaceutical industry

• Company profile
• Gapless sales and logistics processes
• Full supply chain integration
• Ideal warehouse management

"In the pharmaceutical industry there are many special features that we were able to cover with Microsoft Dynamics NAV with the support of COSMO CONSULT. Thanks to the close cooperation with our software partner and the flexible ERP system, we were able to implement all requirements."

Pedro Berbil, Operations manager at PharmaMar

Madrid-based PharmaMar S.A. is one of the world's leading companies in the research and development of molecules with marine anti-tumor activity. At the beginning of 2019, the biopharmaceutical company announced a new immunological drug in the preclinical phase, which led to a strong increase in market capitalization. Developing therapies that further improve the safety and efficacy of current treatments is one of the key challenges facing chemical-pharmaceutical companies.

In the pharmaceutical industry, all pharmaceutical shipments are generally treated as urgent shipments. For PharmaMar this means that products must be available within 24 hours in all European countries. It is therefore particularly important that all logistics systems - from receipt of the shipment to delivery to the end customer - function smoothly.

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Today, the company uses the various modules of the Microsoft Dynamics NAV ERP system to control the entire production process - from incoming orders to delivery to the end customer. Pedro Berbil, operations manager at PharmaMar, explains how the solution is used: "First of all, we record the quantities required by our customers. This is based, for example, on forecasts or concrete orders. The information is then entered into the sales or production forecast module. The data then flows into production planning and material planning."

Order processing is supported by a modern warehouse management system (WMS) that is directly integrated into the ERP system. Incoming orders are recorded by the call center, processed in the ERP sales module and transmitted to the WMS via interface. The articles are picked according to the Pick-per-Light method. The positions to be picked are indicated by lamps on the relevant picking compartments, so that the classic picking list is no longer necessary. During the process, the ERP system is continuously informed of the current order status by means of confirmations. The final invoice is generated automatically at the end.

Semi-automated warehouse management has a significant impact on the company's global operations. In the final phase of the project, the WMS was therefore networked with the systems of the transport companies. Today, the entire supply chain is fully integrated and largely automated, resulting in greater flexibility in order processing.

Inventories are now defined individually for each product according to specific requirements and set in relation to the optimum order time and financial specifications. This means that order and warehouse management is much better aligned with the financial strategy.

One of the central legal requirements for the pharmaceutical industry is batch tracking. As soon as a batch is finished, PharmaMar checks and analyzes the produced stocks. Permanent stock control ensures, for example, that products with the earliest expiration date are delivered first. "There are many special features in the pharmaceutical industry that we were able to map in our ERP system with the support of COSMO CONSULT. The close cooperation with our software partner and the flexible ERP system were decisive for the fact that we were able to implement all requirements. Right from the start, we decided in favor of Microsoft Dynamics NAV - and never regretted our choice," underlines Berbil.