In order to build an organization that can react extremely flexibly, even in the current economic situation, Merz Group Services GmbH has implemented the real-time capable APS solution wayRTS. The pharmaceutical company, which has grown strong internationally in recent years and has many years of experience with way software for planning and managing the supply chain, wants to use this solution to ensure sustainable sales growth. The intended increases in efficiency and decreases in costs in the supply chain have been effectively implemented by the company in collaboration with Wassermann AG.
The most important objective in supply chain management at Merz, the reduction of costs during rescheduling after disruptions, has been fulfilled: The elimination of resource shortfalls and the reliability of deadlines have already achieved a value of 95 percent. With regard to the market, this translates to 100 percent of orders being on schedule. The areas of capacity planning, set-up optimization, and detailed production planning were also optimized.
Realization of objectives with wayRTS and Wassermann: 100 Percent
"Because the individual workstations are now transparent, we can identify capacity bottlenecks in a targeted manner," says Björn Rolshausen, head of Demand Management at Merz, explaining the advantages of the increased process transparency. For production planning all changes relevant to scheduling are synchronized with SAP using "Net-Change" processes without interrupting the process flow. Therefore, the company can react significantly faster to new demand situations. "We no longer have delays-wayRTS enables continuous planning on all levels," emphasizes Rolshausen.
Wassermann AG's optimization project also incorporated the implementation of other specific requirements in the Merz supply chain, among them the implementation of a specific engineering change management system for printed packaging and the generation of flexible filter functions in the planning software. According to Björn Rolshausen, a satisfied Wassermann user, the pharmaceutical group evaluates the completion of the project with wayRTS and Wassermann as having achieved "100 percent" success.
For more information, please contact Wassermann or visit www.wassermann.com.
About Merz:
Merz focuses on producing pharmaceuticals for the treatment of neurological and psychiatric illnesses and is leader in the research of Alzheimer's disease. With Memantine, Merz developed the first drug for the treatment of moderate to severe Alzheimer's disease. Memantine is the second largest Alzheimer pharmaceutical worldwide. A further specialist area of Merz is clinical and aesthetic dermatology. In addition to the pharmaceutical market, Merz is also active in the health sector beyond the drugstore. With its brands tetesept® and Merz Spezial®, Merz Consumer Care is one of the leading providers of products for self-medication, dietary supplements, and skincare in the German-speaking world. Senator GmbH & Co. KGaA, a subsidiary of Merz, is one of the leading manufacturers of writing instruments on the global advertising market.
The Merz Group employs 2,289 people worldwide. In the 2007/08 fiscal year, the company achieved a turnover of around 610 million Euro.
www.merz.com