Pharmaceutical company expects production increases with Infor systems

Peter Dinham
Thursday, 01 October 2009 20:41

IT Industry - Deals

Australian pharmaceutical group, API Consumer Brands, is to implement business software vendor, Infor’s, automated scheduling and planning system in its New Zealand manufacturing plant to replace what it says is a “failing spreadsheet-based process” that could not handle production demands.

API general manager, Peter Day, said the company, which manufactures and distributes many of its pharmaceutical products from its New Zealand base, said the company has undergone a 25 percent increase in manufacturing volume in the last year, and as a consequence “has struggled to meet all of the increased demand with poor planning processes being one of the major factors.”

Day says API will use Infor SCM Advance Scheduler as part of the introduction of a formal production planning system.

“The Infor SCM Advanced Scheduler will allow us to completely change our approach, freeing up resource, production lines and labour.  We will now be able to focus on the job requirements rather than a daily schedule which we just couldn’t do before.

“The success of our business depends on our ability to produce and deliver products to match demand.  We have struggled to do this before but Infor’s Advanced Scheduler will allow us to redress that balance.  It’s critical to our business.”

According to Day, API expects benefits from the Infor implementation, including reversal of the trend on increasing lead times per job, which had moved out from 3 months to 5 months, more efficient use of labour resources thus reducing costs, improved customer satisfaction with more accurate delivery times and the elimination of late shipments, and increased efficiency to a point that usage capacity reduces from 100 percent to 80 percent, “leaving room for more flexibility in production.”

Infor managing director, Pacific region, James Brackenrig, said that despite the global economic situation, API Consumer Brands had gone from strength to strength to the point that it has “almost become a victim of its own success.”

According to Brackenrig, Infor often sees “a tipping point in production and logistics where spreadsheet based planning and scheduling, never the most efficient method, just grinds to a halt.  “This is where we’re seeing a lot of demand for automated scheduling and planning which can deliver significant business benefits.”