"Back to the industry standard and "implementation of a future-oriented long-term strategy" were the central investment motives for Finzelberg's management when it came to deciding on a new software platform. The pharmaceutical specialist switched to the platform-independent and web-based GUS-OS family of solutions based around GUS-OS ERP.
Expectations standard
To be able to efficiently manage this considerable effort in product quality, Finzelberg invested in IT systems at an early stage. "With new software, we wanted to take the opportunity to return our customizations to a standard. The goal was to become fully update-capable again and also to reduce the effort required for industry requirements such as validation," says Heim. Other expectations that the Andernach-based company associated with the new ERP solution were easier connection of the various production sites and a reduction in the operating and familiarization effort thanks to an intuitive graphical user interface. It was therefore obvious to combine the "strategic investment" in a new central ERP solution with a redefinition of the technology. The decision was therefore made in favor of a system that was programmed in Java, platform-independent and web-based.
Pilot on pragmatic route
At the start of the project, an as-is analysis was first carried out. Based on this status report, the project team was then able to decide which functionalities should be included in the standard. "For example, at Finzelberg's suggestion, our developers created a "target batch disposition". This means that a batch is now already formed when the purchase order or production order is created and not just when production starts," explains Eckhard Hasse, project manager and managing director of the GUS Group.
Result with easy care character
Finzelberg now has an ERP system that essentially consists of standard functions. The GUS Group now imports updates directly from its Cologne site, so that the corresponding programming effort, which took around two to three months with the highly individualized old solution, fell to zero. Since the GUS Group delivers documentation documents in the scope of several thousand pages as PDF files, Finzelberg also reduces the costs for validation. Of course, individual quality-relevant adjustments still have to be validated by the company itself. Thanks to the GUS-OS user interface, Finzelberg's employees working with the system have also become considerably more productive. This freed up personnel capacities for new activities. Since GUS-OS ERP is web-based, connecting Finzelberg's various production plants was also straightforward. The new plant in Poland was also easily connected to the IT infrastructure - it was a good thing that the new solution quickly learned Polish using the translation tool.
GUS-OS ERP as platform core
Together with the central ERP solution, the project team introduced no less than four additional modules: GUS-OS Planning provides extended information options, optimization procedures and simulations. GUS-OS Forecast is used for sales planning and primary demand management. The third add-on module is GUS-OS Product Passport. Finzelberg uses it to control and document work-sharing processes in the sense of product lifecycle management. The quartet is completed by the laboratory information management system (LIMS) GUS-OS Laboratory. "The GUS Group is there when it matters and has the medium-sized mindset. This gives us confidence for the next steps as well," Frank Heim looks ahead. Today, Finzelberg can look back on more than 130 years of experience with the development and production of plant extracts obtained from more than 150 different raw materials. The company also focuses on extracts for pharmaceuticals, dietary supplements, and comprehensive services from product development to regulatory approval. To meet the requirements of its numerous clients in the pharmaceutical industry, Finzelberg has established reproducible manufacturing processes and a quality management system that all drugs and extracts undergo.
