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Automate to Innovate: Automating Incoming Goods in Pharmaceutical Procurement

Following our previous discussion in “Unpacking the Complex World of Pharmaceutical Procurement,” this piece explores the transformative impact of automation on pharmaceutical procurement. We delve into how automating the handling of incoming goods is not just a solution to current challenges but a significant step towards innovative procurement processes in the pharmaceutical industry. 

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Revisiting the Main Pharmaceutical Procurement Challenges

Pharmaceutical procurement, especially concerning hazardous or critical goods, demands stringent adherence to quality and safety standards. Like in other industries, such as the chemicals and materials industry or the engineering and manufacturing sector, this necessitates detailed information and documentation management and processing of various documents, including certificates, delivery notes, and goods records. Due to these distinct characteristics and requirements of pharmaceutical procurement, procurement managers are confronted with significant challenges: efficiently managing vast information databases, swiftly processing critical documents, overcoming the hurdles of manual data entry, and time-consuming data archiving, all of which divert focus from other tasks. 

Pharmaceutical Procurement Automation: Why Pharma Procurement Needs Transformation

Over the last few years, the expectations placed on pharma procurement departments to meet requirements and quality standards while controlling costs and managing volatile supply chains have risen and are expected to rise further. These teams face a dual challenge: driving value creation and innovation while ensuring transparent and stable processes. Unfortunately, manual tasks often hinder their efficiency. To remain agile and future-ready, transforming pharmaceutical procurement through automation is not just beneficial but essential. 

Reasons for Automating Incoming Goods

In pharmaceutical procurement, it is essential for procurement teams to plan ahead and maintain stable, uninterrupted workflows. The daily influx of raw materials, medical products, ampoules, and packaging necessitates well-organised and clear documentation. Automating these processes not only alleviates the burden on procurement teams but also enhances speed and accuracy. This automation extends to the processing of certificates and delivery notes, ensuring a seamless integration into the procurement system. 

Automating Certificates and Delivery Notes in Pharmaceutical Procurement

In pharmaceutical procurement, hazardous goods are sent with a certificate. As these goods are mostly shipped in batches, each batch is delivered with a certificate. Consequently, when one order is delivered in 20 batches, 20 certificates need to be processed. Processing these certificates and delivery notes manually not only increases workload but is prone to errors. 

Automated processing of delivery notes enhances the efficiency of incoming goods management, allowing for advanced knowledge of batch details and necessary storage conditions. This comprehensive automation ensures that procurement teams have access to vital information, facilitating informed decision-making and swift response to changes. 

The Benefits of Automated Archiving 

Document archiving, a critical component of the pharmaceutical P2P process, can be a daunting and monotonous task, if performed manually. Implementing automation solutions transforms this essential function by enabling rapid and accurate archiving of vital documents like certificates and records. Automated extraction, processing, and archiving of information ensure that documents are always readily accessible, significantly boosting efficiency and reliability in the procurement process. 

The Benefits of Automating Incoming Goods and Archiving

Automating incoming goods and archiving offers numerous benefits to overcome challenges of pharmaceutical procurement. It minimises manual labor, significantly saving time and reducing errors. This shift allows staff to allocate their focus to other critical areas. Automated processes ensure streamlined operations, enhanced data quality, and consistent transparency, with reliable information readily available. The resulting structured data empowers teams to make informed decisions, plan, react to unforeseen changes, adapt to requirements and adhere to quality standards.  

Choosing Wisely: Finding the Perfect Automation Software for Pharmaceutical Procurement Automation

For pharmaceutical procurement automation to be successful, it is vital to choose the right automation solution. When automating incoming goods and document processing, choosing a sophisticated, intelligent automation solution is paramount. Cloud-based Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) platforms, such as the Netfira Platform, are adept at accurately extracting and validating data from documents, thus ensuring high-quality data. Further, integration with existing systems, like ERP and CRM, is essential for seamless data flow and efficient archiving. On top of that, the scalability of cloud-based IDP solutions allows for the expansion of automation to other areas like invoice processing, further enhancing the procurement process.  

Pharmaceutical Procurement Automation: Automating Incoming Goods Processes

The automation of incoming goods is a cornerstone of pharmaceutical procurement automation. By automating the processing of documents such as certificates and delivery notes, pharmaceutical procurement teams are relieved of time-consuming and error-prone manual activities. This automation facilitates faster and more efficient workflows, significantly enhancing decision-making and planning capabilities. Advanced Intelligent Document Processing solutions, such as the Netfira Platform, are exceptionally equipped to meet the rigorous demands of pharmaceutical procurement. Thanks to their extraordinary precision in data extraction and validation, they provide the necessary data quality, process stability and transparency to make procurement in the pharmaceutical industry competitive and future-proof.  

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Trending articles

Unpacking the Complex World of Pharmaceutical Procurement

In the pharmaceutical industry, procurement plays an increasingly important role. At the same time, pharmaceutical procurement teams are faced with a variety of challenges. This blog post delves into the intricate world of pharmaceutical procurement, highlighting its pivotal role and outlining the major hurdles encountered in the process. Discover how technological enhancements, particularly in automation, are revolutionsing this field. 

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Pharmaceutical Procurement Unveiled  

Pharmaceutical procurement is the process of acquiring pharmaceuticals and medical devices by a company or organisation. It encompasses the identification of needs, evaluation of options, supplier selection, contract negotiations, and product delivery, demanding resources like medical expertise, technology, and robust infrastructure. 

The Pillars of Procurement in Pharmaceuticals

Pharmaceutical procurement can be divided into three categories: direct procurement, indirect procurement, and contract procurement.  

Direct Procurement  

Involves purchasing directly from a single source, often under bulk or military contracts. 

Indirect Procurement  

Entails buying from multiple sources, useful for creating custom pharmaceutical blends. 

Contract Procurement 

Outsourcing procurement to a third party, often utilised for exploring new product options. 

The Significance of Procurement in the Pharma Industry

In an industry where innovation and cost control are paramount, procurement is increasingly recognised as a critical driver. Procurement teams are being seen as value creators, contributing to innovation and collaboration, and taking centre stage in strategic planning and management.  

Pharma companies are focusing on transforming procurement by aligning procurement objectives with wider business areas to enable growth and cost reduction, establishing a preferred supplier programme to integrate suppliers, and leveraging technologies to facilitate better decision making. 

Pharma’s Unique P2P Dynamics 

The end use of procured goods by patients adds layers of complexity to the pharmaceutical P2P process, necessitating stringent quality standards and compliance with numerous regulations. 

Supplier Relations

Compared to other industries, like mechanical engineering or construction, pharmaceutical companies tend to work with less suppliers. Many collaborate with only a few big suppliers as stringent quality and supply chain transparency requirements make supplier selection a meticulous and vital process.   

Navigating the Procurement of Dangerous Goods

Handling dangerous substances is an inherent part of pharmaceutical procurement. Those dangerous goods, potentially lethal substances and medications along with ampoules, other items and packages often come in batches. These batches must meet strict requirements and standards to make sure that only safe medication is procured and sold. As a result, transparency, reliability, and clean data on the procured goods are at the heart of a functioning P2P process in pharmaceuticals.  

Overcoming Pharmaceutical Procurement Challenges

The challenges in pharmaceutical procurement are manifold, but with the integration of intelligent automation technologies, these hurdles can be transformed into opportunities for efficiency, innovation, and safety. 

Data Management

A key challenge lies in gathering and storing vast amounts of information, which must be readily accessible when needed. This includes data from certificates, documentation, information about raw materials, and risk assessments. Crucial documents in the pharmaceutical P2P process, such as certificates, delivery notes, and documentation of incoming goods, often in multiple batches, as well as sample documentation, must be meticulously managed. 

Document Processing

Swift and efficient document processing is essential to maintain flexibility and agility. Implementing operational processes that ensure both transparency and stability, while also allowing for planning and adaptation to unforeseen changes, is vital. 

Data Quality

Teams often grapple with manual data entry, where even minor details on certificates, orders, and other documents can significantly impact workflows. Thus, data quality becomes paramount. Utilising automated data entry solutions can help minimise human error, enhancing accuracy. 

Archiving

In pharmaceutical procurement, archiving data is crucial but can be extremely time-consuming when performed manually. As a result, procurement teams may find their time for other tasks limited. Adopting cloud-based storage solutions can offer a secure and accessible means to improve the archiving process. 

Discover in our blog article “Automate to Innovate: Automating Incoming Goods in Pharmaceutical Procurement” how automation helps procurement teams in the pharmaceutical industry to overcome challenges and to make their operational processes reliable, transparent and efficient.   

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