Getting Pharmaceutical Supply ChainsBack on Track

Pharmaceutical companies have to deal with extremely complex supply chains and production processes. Supply chains are particularly vulnerable to disruptions e.g., due to temperature-sensitive materials and time-sensitive deliveries.

Our customer works with 10 CMOs as part of a transnational drug manufacturing project, with more than 50 partners involved in production. Collaborating with so many players contributes to the complexity of our customer’s supply chain.

Compliance with strict regulatory requirements (e.g. GMP) and accurate demand forecasting make managing the supply chain an even bigger challenge. Existing solutions are often not flexible or transparent enough to cope with accurate planning in such a dynamic environment.

Unexpected disruptions have consequences for production development, revenue generation, and the health system worldwide.

Together, we developed a data product that provides an overview of the entire supply chain. The data product synchronizes large amounts of data from different systems and thus enables them to proactively respond to disruptions.

One Data centralized data from the customer’s EPR systems, CMOs and suppliers. All relevant data is prepared using automation with AI to support linking mismatched data from across providers, and quality assured using quality checks in One Data. The AI-powered Data Product Builder makes it easy to identify, link and analyze relevant data.

With the consolidated data, our customer was able to establish a unified data map of all suppliers, CMOs, and materials, and maintain complete transparency over material inventory, demand, and deliveries.

The heat map data product provides an overview of all data along the supply chain to support production planning. Material production is tracked across multiple teams, inventory variances are managed, and data-driven communication along the supply chain is improved.

If bottlenecks are predicted, the user is notified through an early warning system. Additionally, the data product finds the most sensible materials needed in the warehouse or at external suppliers.

The data map gives the customer visibility into data from suppliers, CMOs, with additional insights into required and available materials. Inventory management has improved significantly, as has demand forecasting and supply planning.

Using the heat map data product, the customer now identifies where critical action is needed along the supply chain. It takes into account parameters such as inventory levels, orders, lead times and quality assurance. As a result, new drugs can be brought to market in record time while ensuring regulatory requirements are met at all times.

With the supply chain now running smoothly and reliably, the day–to–day work of everyone involved in pharmaceutical production is made easier. This allows our customer to focus on their core competencies and the important role they play in the healthcare system.