The Usefulness of ERP in the Pharmaceutical Industry

Medicines are not just any other manufactured products. Medicines and other pharmaceutical products are directly associated with the life and well-being of people, which is why managing a pharmaceutical business comes with a lot of overheads. There are added complexities in terms of adhering to strict regulations, deft management of expiry dates and accurate usage of ingredients. ERP for pharma companies dramatically improves the manufacturing process, saves time, reduces errors, and keeps them compliant with pharmaceutical rules and regulations. Here is how-

Process Standardization & Adherence to SOP

Pharmaceutical product manufacturing follows a set guideline. Everything is pre-decided, from the quantity and selection of raw materials to the number of hours a machine should run. No deviation from this standard operating procedure is allowed to ensure the products meet the regulatory requirement.

ERP solutions for the Pharma industry help medicine manufacturers to operate within a set construct. The SOP is converted into a set of processes by the ERP, which helps manufacturers follow the process in a step-by-step manner.

When we talk about process standardisation, it’s necessary to mention two important features provided by leading ERP for pharma - 

1. Bill of Materials:

The Bill of Materials module in the ERP system enables manufacturers to specify which raw materials are to be used to produce a pharma product, how much quantity is needed and other such information. In fact, the Bill of Materials can be granular to the point of specifying at what stage a specific raw material should be used.

The Bill of Materials module ensures that appropriate standards and quantity are followed regarding raw materials. Imagine creating a BoM manually using simple project management software. It would be a nightmare!

2. Material Resource Planning

With the MRP module of leading ERP solutions for pharma, we leverage BoM to plan production. MRP is used to specify when production should start, how much of the end product should be produced, how long it should take etc. In fact, some ERP for pharma even allows users to create an MRP without specifying a Bill of Materials, giving the company the flexibility to add raw materials in the production planning stage.

These two components immensely help pharma companies to standardise the production process and adhere to an SOP.

Batch Management and End-to-End Traceability of Products

Leading ERPs for pharmaceutical industries like SAP ERP services offer batch management to club pharma products manufactured in the same production run. This ensures two things: quality assurance becomes easier with increased traceability, and assigning expiry dates happens in an organised manner. Both aspects - traceability and expiry dates - are extremely crucial for the pharma industry to comply and provide safe-to-consume medicines to the public.

Real-Time Inventory Management

Pharma companies deal with two kinds of inventories - the raw material inventory and the finished goods inventory. Since the entire backend in the ERP or pharma is connected to a single source of truth, it becomes easy for pharma companies to keep track of the raw materials inventory.

During the production planning stage itself, the system shows whether the raw materials required for production are there in the warehouse in enough quantities. Again, the visibility into the finished good inventory helps pharma companies to keep track of fast- and slow-moving items or to ensure the delivery of items on a First Expired, First Out basis.

Accurate Demand Planning

At the end of the day, a pharma company is a manufacturing business. This means that it needs to keep track of the demand for its products to make sure that it can supply them without any delay. Most modern ERPs, like SAP ERP services, use statistical analysis and machine learning to forecast future demand based on historical data.

Apart from these pharma-specific benefits, ERP for pharma acts as a bridge between various departments, ensuring a smooth flow of information. Furthermore, this smooth flow of data facilitates automation. For example, once a sale takes place, the ERP system automatically fills up the financial ledger, thus reducing the workload of the finance department.

Bottomline

Pharma companies are already burdened with the responsibility of adhering to regulatory compliance. ERPs specifically for pharma empower the industry by shouldering the internal business process and manufacturing backend. With the right implementation partner, like Uneecops, pharma companies can significantly unburden themselves by leveraging ERP solutions. Reach out to Uneecops today.. Let us help you with a flawless pharma ERP implementation.