Smith Drug Company is a $2.5 billion pharmaceutical wholesale/distribution firm that services over 1,000 independent pharmacies and long-term care facilities in 18 states throughout the southeastern U.S. Established in 1944, Smith Drug Company is headquartered in Spartanburg, S.C., and has two other distribution centers in Paragould, Ark., and Valdosta, Ga. Its inventory includes prescription and over-the-counter drugs, beauty supplies and medical equipment.
Without ERP software that improved inventory accuracy, distribution operations and customer service, the continuously growing company was confined to just two warehouses and unable to reach its potential. The primary reason for this was that employees had to manually enter inventory information—a time consuming task considering the high volume of orders received. Manual data entry also impeded Smith Drug’s replenishment process. This made it difficult for users to determine exact quantities of product in the warehouse.
With a strong need to expand beyond its two warehouse facilities, Smith Drug Company understood that investing in a state-of-the-art ERP system would allow the company to do this. VAI’s S2K for Distribution was selected as it offers integrated applications for warehouse, wholesale, purchasing and customer service management.
Upon implementing a customized version of VAI’s S2K for Distribution, Smith Drug Company began to experience an improvement in the efficiency and simplicity of its everyday processes.
- S2K fulfilled Smith Drug Company’s need for inventory accuracy by alerting employees of errors as they occurred and by tracking inventory movement more closely. With S2K, Smith Drug Company can easily check received item quantities during the put away process, and also check return quantities processed through its restock program.
- S2K also provided Smith Drug Company with the ability maintain infinite locations for one particular item in the same warehouse facility. This was important because the previous solution only had the capability to accommodate two locations for each piece of inventory.
- S2K gave Smith Drug Company the ability for automated replenishment, eliminating the mistakes that can come with manual data entry. Moreover, the system schedules purchases before products runs out, ensuring that the company always has adequate inventory on hand to service its customer base.
- Another issue solved by S2K was the accessibility of information, such as customer and shipping data. Such information is now readily available at employees’ fingertips, consequently improving customer service and virtually eliminating the need for employees to consult the IT department.
Evaluation-Results and Benefits
By implementing VAI’s S2K for Distribution, Smith Drug Company enhanced existing, and acquired new and valuable technological capabilities. Due to S2K’s user-friendly interface, employees can quickly create reports and retrieve customer and order information. As a result, calls to Smith Drug Company’s IT department dropped 75 to 80 percent.
“VAI worked to fully customize S2K to meet our needs and interface with our existing modules. The solution has helped improve the company’s efficiency in warehousing and distribution operations, thus allowing us to open a third location, one of our primary goals.” ~ Isaac Rogers, Vice President of Operations, Smith Drug Company
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