Swiss-American Products
Case Study: Swiss-American Products
About The Company
Swiss-American Products, Inc., a leading manufacturer of medical products, began in 1988 by importing a moisturizer used to stop dry skin problems in the cold mountains of the Swiss Alps. Optimized over time for the American market, the Elta product line expanded
significantly and is now manufactured in the U.S. Skin care products continue to focus on solving serious skin problems such as severe dry skin, skin problems from diabetes, burn care and radiation dermatitis. Additional Elta product areas include continence care, sun care, massage therapy, wound care, psoriasis and eczema care, and enzyme-enhanced products
The Situation
As Swiss-American grew, it expanded its contract manufacturing as well as manufacturing its own Elta product line. With this growth and new business direction, its software needs were changing and
growing as well. The existing system was not equipped to handle the demands of a manufacturing plant, nor was it specialized enough for pharmaceutical manufacturing and regulatory compliance functionality needed to be competitive. As Swiss-American began its quest for a new software system, they had several requirements which were viewed as critical to any new system.
Benefits & Results
Efficient Sales Order Entry
Swiss-American takes orders via fax and phone and manually enters them into the system. ProcessPro® software’s robust sales order
entry application offers one screen that lists commonly ordered customer-specific items, allowing efficient and fast order entry.
Complete Lot Traceability
Swiss-American needed the ability to more efficiently track lot numbers of raw materials and finished goods. Manual tracking of lot
numbers led to inefficient use of resources when tracking controlled inventory The software’s lot tracking allows Swiss- American to assign an internal lot number to each receipt of material. This lot number is tied to the vendor lot number, reducing confusion often caused by multiple receipts of the same vendor lot of material. The finished good lot number tracking allows Swiss-American to easily meet FDA/GMP recall requirements
True MRP System
Swiss-American was planning its purchasing and production needs from spreadsheets and educated guesses by employees. This method was often inaccurate and Swiss- American was struggling to maintain adequate amounts of raw materials for scheduling timely batch productionUsing ProcessPro® software’s MRP, Swiss- American’s purchasing and manufacturing managers were able to more efficiently work together in maintaining optimal inventory levels and an efficient manufacturing schedule
Efficient Sales Order Entry
Swiss-American takes orders via fax and phone and manually enters them into the system. ProcessPro® software’s robust sales order
entry application offers one screen that lists commonly ordered customer-specific items, allowing efficient and fast order entry
Common Carrier Interface
Customer addresses are used directly from ProcessPro® software, reducing data entry errors and personnel needs. Freight charges are automatically added based on customer billing terms, thus reducing manual billing errors. With customer shipping status immediately available at their fingertips, ProcessPro® software allows Swiss American to easily fax or e-mail shipping information. The time critical nature of supplying the medical industry often requires shipment tracking. Swiss-American needed a nearly instantaneous way to track shipments and supply the information while the customer was still on the phone.
Solid/Accurate Inventory Control
Unable to easily and efficiently track its inventory levels, Swiss-American needed to maintain accurate inventory levels in a real-time environment. ProcessPro® software provides Swiss- American with live inventory updates and on-hand, allocated and projected inventory levels by combining batch tickets, sales orders, purchase orders and current inventory levels.
Conclusion
Swiss-American found ProcessPro® software to be an ideal fit for their operations. With complete lot traceability, MRP, purchasing and manufacturing projections, ProcessPro® software enabled Swiss-
American to vastly improve the accuracy of inventory levels. The integrated ProcessPro® software system with the UPS interface reduced dual-entry and laborious procedures, creating a more efficient and cost-saving operation.
