Deliver better visibility and efficiency in life sciences distribution with SAP EWM
October 12, 2021
Life sciences manufacturers and distributors are facing increased pressure to comply with product safety and traceability regulations from jurisdictions around the globe. Increasingly, they are handling more expensive raw materials and finished goods, with shorter shelf lives than ever before. A fully integrated supply chain with complete end-to-end visibility is now critical to manage materials, meet increasing customer demands, maintain product authenticity and confirm patient safety. All of these factors are driving life sciences companies to reconsider their current warehousing and distribution capabilities.
SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) is the latest SAP operations and product supply solution for optimizing warehouse and distribution center operations. It supports:
Increased visibility at the product level for higher stock accuracy
Comprehensive functionality for resource and labor management
Efficient operation of distribution, production supplies and storage processes
Enhanced mobile technology, including voice and radio frequency identification (RFID) capabilities
Seamless integration with warehouse control systems (WCS)
Native Fiori application support for an improved user experience
The life sciences industry (particularly pharma, biotech and vaccine manufacturers) must also meet an increasing number of product traceability, authentication and authorized return compliance requirements. To help brand owners and manufacturers comply with these regulations, EWM Core Functions and Features available to life sciences companies include:
RFID integration
Serial number management
Batch management
Material Flow Systems (MFS) for automation integration
Advanced production integration
While it's possible to implement and integrate EWM with SAP ECC, EWM can be most effective in SAP S/4HANA environments. SAP EWM includes integration support for:
SAP S/4HANA
SAP Advanced Track and Trace for Pharmaceuticals
SAP Global Batch Traceability
SAP Transportation Management
SAP Yard Logistics
PwC’s Warehouse & Distribution Capabilities Assessment Offering
PwC’s Warehouse & Distribution Capabilities Assessment program allows our consultants to tailor a client’s specific warehousing approach to address specific pain points, areas for near-term improvements, and opportunities to build future capabilities, both business process and technology related. PwC is prepared to assist you in selecting a warehouse management system (WMS) for your growing needs and collaborate with you to implement that solution globally. After a rapid tour of your facilities, interviews of key operations and warehouse personnel, and alignment of goals with business technology leaders, we are confident we can help accelerate your time to value for investments in enhanced warehousing and distribution capabilities.
Industry Edge: PwC’s preconfigured S/4HANA EWM solution
Our end-to-end preconfigured EWM system leverages industry-wide leading practices for warehousing processes and can accelerate the design of your EWM program.
PwC Life Sciences Edge
PwC’s Life Sciences Industry Edge Solution is based on SAP S/4HANA’s latest version and provides a leading, preconfigured SAP system that enables companies to leverage analytics to achieve real-time, strategic profitability management. We currently have nine end-to-end scenarios built in PwC’s Industry Edge:
Loaner and equipment management
Contract Manufacturing Organization (CMO) and subcontractor integration and management
Third party logistics (3PL) integration and management
Planning through production and quality management
Intercompany sales
R&D as a Service
Direct procurement
Indirect procurement
Customer returns
PwC is ready to demonstrate these capabilities to help accelerate your path to enhanced and optimized warehouse and distribution capabilities. Our holistic approach and deep level of experience have prepared us to help life sciences customers achieve their specific end-to-end needs.
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