Galapagos pharma are a small pharmaceutical company that has been recently launched to provide a new arthritis treatment to patients within Europe.

There’s a small amount of products (SKU’s) that have to be supplied to their EU markets, however due to the fact this is a young company there’s a lack of systems to control replenishment orders and local inventories.

Galapagos were facing many market lauches of products with inventory builds that had to be managed together with the uncenrtainty of not being able to forecast accurately due to the lack of understanding of the marketplace.  A best in class planning solution was required that could be implemented quickly and with little on going maintenance that can manage the difficulties of launching products with variable demand.

A solution is required that can be implemented quickly that utilises best practice to ensure the correct levels of inventory are kept in the UK warehouse that takes into account the seasonality of demand and also the required safety stocks.

SmartPlan is currently being trialled with the planners and customer service team (only 2 people) to maintain the inventory levels taking into account the required safety stocks, lead times, order frequencies and the variability of demand.