Alliance UniChem is rolling out a replenishment system
to eight European countries after successfully deploying the
software in the UK.
The pharmaceutical firm's wholesale business, UniChem, completed
the UK implementation of Manhattan Associates' DPR system in
October and aims to complete the European roll-out by the end of
2006.
UniChem expects the system to improve the quality of service
that its customers - both independent pharmacies and chains -
receive. It supplies pharmacies in the UK with 20,000 product lines
and it delivers to each store at least twice a day.
Anthony Roberts, UniChem's IT director, said, "If we can improve
our service levels, that is a very visible business benefit to our
customers. Improved service levels also provide an internal benefit
for us."
Before the implementation could begin, UniChem managers had to
agree common business processes that could be used to operate the
IT system in all nine countries.
Adrian Chen, Alliance UniChem's director of group IT, said,
"Logistics was one of the critical areas for the project because
there were a lot of differences between the processes we used in
different countries."
In some European countries, each warehouse location had its own
business processes. UniChem decided to introduce central
replenishment departments in each country to run the new
system.
Chen said, "We believe it is best practice is to get a central
department, so we had to show everyone what the benefits of a
central department were."
Pharmaceutical wholesalers have more complex supply chains than
most retail suppliers because they provide a greater numbers of
products and make more frequent deliveries to stores.
UniChem has 11 warehouses in the UK. They supply more than 3,000
of the UK's 10,000 independent pharmacies as well as the 939 stores
that operate under the Alliance Pharmacy brand - Alliance UniChem's
retail arm.
Alliance UniChem and pharmacy chain Boots announced a £7bn
merger in October. The combined company, which will trade as
Alliance Boots, will have about 2,400 stores in the UK.