SIGMA Healthcare as part of the construction of a new greenfield facility in Hobart has partnered with The Config Team, an established SAP supply chain specialist.
With nine distribution centres in Australia, supplying over 1,200 regional pharmacies, Sigma has strived to ensure a continuous supply of medicines to customers for more than 30 years.
However, following a recent project to roll out SAP work across its estate, the company had outgrown capacity at the existing site in Hobart and embarked on a project to construct a new greenfield facility to increase capacity at this location.
Sigma's collaboration with The Config Team, with its proven expertise in delivering SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) projects, will see the introduction of a conveyor at the new Hobart site, with automations and integrations to streamline the picking and packing process, which had previously been a manual paper-based process.
Consultants were able to configure a direct Material Flow System integration into SAP for EWM on software S/4HANA, which introduced scanning capabilities, while eliminating the need for middleware.
Working closely with Sigma's internal teams, The Config Team also developed a custom application in SAP Fiori, which automatically scans picked tote boxes during quality control.
When totes reach the end of the conveyor, if the order is correct, it will be highlighted green on a screen and moved through to be shipped, whereas incomplete orders are highlighted red with a note detailing the detected error, enabling quick resolution, and combating delivery disruptions.
Sigma is now benefitting from seamless integration at its Hobart site, as Diane Matheson, Head of Supply Chain Technology at Sigma, explains, "this is the first site that we have not used a third party to integrate our automation equipment with SAP, so having this direct integration has improved efficiencies at Hobart, which has allowed a greater capacity to flow through the process".
"Reducing human inputs and utilising scanning for pick verifications has also increased our pick accuracy for a more streamlined operation."
Following the successful go-live at Hobart, Sigma and The Config Team will scope out future S/4HANA roll outs throughout 2023 and beyond.
The above article was sent to subscribers in Pharmacy Daily's issue from 08 Jun 23
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