About the company
Our customer is a multinational pharmaceutics company with over 17,000 employees, and an annual turnover of ~11.8 Billion. Their European branch employs approximately 4,200 people across sales and marketing, R&D, and manufacturing. It has 21 sales and marketing affiliates, 3 manufacturing plants, and 1 R&D center. The European unit is also responsible for the distribution of the company’s products in multiple markets, e.g. in the Middle East and Africa.
The challenge
To make informed decisions that help achieve (long-term) goals and boost end-to-end supply chain performance, our customer recognized the need for global insights via global KPI dashboards.
The customer also identified the need for process automation: given the scarce time of supply chain professionals, they should work on activities where they add the most value. Not only is automation a significant time-saver, it also makes demand and supply planning processes more structured and robust.
The project
EyeOn supported the customer in developing and maintaining various reports on demand and supply planning in QlikSense, like forecast accuracy and bias, demand development, and stock projections.
Together with the customer, we developed and embedded RPA algorithms (RPA stands for ‘robotic process automation’) that mimic time-consuming routine activities of demand and supply planners and managers during the monthly planning cycle. E.g.:
- Automatic PowerPoint generation
- Scripted mailing with alerts on forecast accuracy and expiring stock
Results
The regularly generated QlikSense reports help the users obtain end-to-end insights into supply chain planning performance.
The RPA algorithms result in significant time savings in routine activities. Within the EMEA region, this alone saves approximately 2 days per month of manual work.
Enhancing planners’ capabilities, not replacing them: Automation enables demand and supply planners to spend more time on proactive deep dives and actions to maximize opportunities and mitigate supply chain risks.
Ready to optimize the value add of your planners?
Get in touch with us to learn how our specialists can help you enhance your planners’ capabilities and save significant amounts of time by enabling end-to-end insights into your supply chain planning performance.