Vetter Pharma-Fertigung GmbH & Co. KG
Vetter Pharma-Fertigung GmbH & Co. KG
Vetter is one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical service providers for
the aseptic filling and packaging of syringes and other injection systems – for the treatment of diseases such as multiple sclerosis, severe rheumatoid arthritis and cancer. The globally operating company supports pharmaceutical manufacturers from the early development of new preparations through to worldwide market supply. Vetter was founded in 1950, currently employs 5,500 people worldwide and has over 40 years of experience in aseptic filling and contract manufacturing.
Initial situation
There were repeated bottlenecks in Vetter’s QC laboratory capacities, which posed the risk of the laboratories becoming a bottleneck within the supply chain. Nevertheless communication with production and purchasing was not fully supported by technology. This made it difficult to integrate QC (in terms of processes and data) within the entire supply chain.
Specifically, for example, customer orders were accepted for which the laboratories were not fully involved in the evaluation process in terms of capacity feasibility. This resulted in high costs for short-term capacity increases. Bernd Gruber, Head of QC Service & Systems, comments: “The need for ever more precise laboratory capacity planning led to increasing costs, which we had to cover ‘manually’ and often ad hoc reactively instead of planned proactively.”
Consequently, a software solution was sought that would support the integration of the laboratories into the supply chain in terms of data and processes, as well as a simplifies the capacitive planning of QC resources.
Selection process
Vetter has been using the Planning Domain with its production planning tool since 2012. This includes the Planning Domain Manufacturing Workbench for capacity planning and detailed planning. Demand-side planning has also been carried out with the Planning Domain Enterprise Workbench since 2020. A trusting relationship has been built up with us through the intensive cooperation during this period.
An analysis revealed that Planning Domain also has a solution for laboratory planning in its portfolio with the LabScheduling tool. This fulfills the aforementioned requirements and, in particular, offers full integration into the existing production into the existing production planning solution and (via a certified interface) the SAP ERP used.
Project process
At the beginning, a rough project procedure was agreed in joint meetings with the planning domain. This consisted of several initial workshops in which it was clearly defined which functionalities and data were needed to fulfill the given requirements. It turned out that the time required to adapt the master data in SAP (in particular inspection plans) was in conflict with the rapid use of the software. The implementation was therefore carried out in such a way that outstanding master data adjustments were compensated for by temporarily maintaining the data in other sources such as Excel or Z tables.
With the launch of LabScheduling of the Planning Domain, an overview of the upcoming capacity utilization of the laboratories was provided. The workload can be analyzed and checked in detail at all required resource levels. In addition to the inspection lots from SAP QM, simulated inspection lots are also created in the tool, which anticipate the upcoming workload based on the transaction data from production and purchasing. This means that
the effects of changes in production can be recognized at an early stage and reacted to accordingly. The software was implemented as a fundamental step in 2018 without any delays.
Parallel to the launch of the software, work began on adapting the required master data in SAP. The integration of the data from the test plans was then completed by expanding the laboratory planning solution. In addition, some detailed adjustments were made to the logic in the software. Thanks to good planning and coordination on both sides, these adjustments were launched in 2020 without any delays.
“Overall, the project was well structured and there was close support from the Planning Domain experts. The jointly set timeline and the milestones defined in it were also adhered to,” says Gabriele Franke, Project Manager & Senior Key User Expert QM Applications.
An adjustment to fully integrate the stability studies, including their simulation, is planned for 2021.
Insights
Communication between the QC and production departments has already improved as a result of the workshops and a greater understanding of each other’s processes has been achieved. The use of the software has strengthened this considerably. In the initial phase in particular, master data was the key to successful laboratory planning. An incomplete data situation could be cushioned by proceeding in phases. In this way, the potential benefits of the software were quickly realized, while at the same time successively improving and harmonizing the required master data.
Anne Kuhlmann, Vice President Quality Control:
“The cooperation with the consultants and developers at ORSOFT GmbH was always friendly and professional. Thanks to the successful implementation of the Planning Domain’s LabScheduling solution, Vetter now has a tool for comprehensive resource planning within the Vetter quality control, for which long-term support, further development and maintenance by Germanedge will be guaranteed.”
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Martin Kohl
Sales Team Germanedge