Based in the city of Tianjin, our pharmaceutical customer manufactures Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCM) materials such as herbs, compounded and patented TCM herbal products, dietary supplements, pharmaceuticals, and medical equipment.

Their products are distributed across China and to international markets including the United States of America. This was a major milestone for our customer as their Dantonic Chinese herbal compound received the industry’s first approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) as it was deemed safe and effective after passing the FDA’s phase II clinical trial.

For eight continuous years, our customer has been listed as China’s “Top 20 Competitive Listed Pharmaceutical Companies.” To date, they are still experiencing a rapidly growing international business.

What were our customer’s requirements?

Due to increased global demand for its TCM products, our customer sought to upgrade its warehouse and distribution operations to ensure efficient and accurate movement of goods through its supply chain to customers.

Our customer highlighted that they required a Warehouse Management Solution (WMS) that could meet the needs of multiple companies, entities, and roles on an ongoing basis across different national and international markets.

After an extensive evaluation process of WMS providers in China, Honeywell Logistics Solutions was chosen to undertake a benchmark logistics project for their pharmaceutical and TCM businesses.

How did we meet our customer’s order?

In 2017, Honeywell Logistics Solutions Warehouse Management System (HLS WMS) and Datahub was integrated into our customer’s distribution centre network, specifically to manage the flow of goods through warehouses which distributed biomedicine, TCM and healthcare products.

HLS WMS now serves as the control centre for our customer’s distribution centres. The solution coordinates disparate warehouse technologies such as Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERP), automatic dispenser, automated mini-load and AS/RS automated and high-rise warehouse, and digital picking operations (PTL) through Datahub.

We ultimately delivered a solution that met our customer’s various needs but was also highly configured with standardised applications allowing for system replication across new facilities in line with their business growth. After the success of its benchmarking project, HLS WMS has  been rolled-out to their entire warehouse and distribution centre network across Northeast China, Northwest China, North China, South China, East China, Southwest China, and South-Central China.

What was the end result?

With HLS WMS and Datahub integrated into their operations, our customer has been able to manage throughput volumes and daily processed orders that varies from warehouse to warehouse efficiently. Some warehouses handle: 30 to 10,000+ orders; while others manage 20,000+ per day.

Our customer has experienced significant operational performance benefits across its warehouse network. Through HLS WMS, they are able to accurately visualise logistics resources and orders to maximise efficiency and reduce logistics overheads. The company has also seen its inventory check accuracy rise above 99.9%, resulting in more accurate stock counts and better delivery processes.