Integrating automated warehouse and distribution operations to enhance supply chain performance
Mankind: Integrating automated warehouse and distribution operations to enhance supply chain performance
A direct link connecting the supply chain and patient health
Mankind Pharma Ltd. readied its business for rapid growth by improving warehousing and distribution processes with the SAP Extended Warehouse Management and SAP Transportation Management applications. Now, greater flexibility, automation integration, and real-time analytics empower Mankind to make strategic investment decisions in new warehouses while also improving medicine efficacy during the production process.
| Industry | Region | Company Size | Partner |
| Life sciences | New Delhi, India | >21,000 employees | Deloitte |
improvement in pick rate.
reduction in customer order cycle times.
increase in warehouse utilization.
Head, Distribution and Logistics, Mankind Pharma Ltd.
Scaling up warehousing operations to support rapid business growth
Mankind Pharma Ltd. is the fourth-largest innovative pharmaceutical company in India, engaged in the formulation, development, and marketing of both pharmaceutical and consumer healthcare products. With a sharp focus on quality, affordability, and accessibility, the company stays true to its founding principles of delivering affordable medication for all Indians. Mankind’s pioneering use of supply chains and its own distribution setup bolsters accessibility, providing coverage to people right across India, from those living in bigger cities to those in the remotest parts of the country.
Its strategic road map for sustainable growth focuses on diversifying into new therapies, increasing the value of prescriptions in existing markets, and growing its presence in the chronic therapy segment. Other key priorities include expanding modern trade and e-commerce activities and continuing to develop digital tools to enhance productivity and efficiency.
To realize its strategic plan, Mankind sought out inefficiencies in its depot, warehouse, and distribution channels that could hinder its growth aspirations. In the production warehouse, it found relabeling was required on containers in the automated storage and retrieval system and multiple inspection lots were used for recurring inspections. The company had limited bin-level stock visibility, and stand-alone scales were used in warehousing and dispensing operations.
In its depots, Mankind was using traditional paper-based processes and relying on operators’ localized knowledge for determining pallet building, put-away, picking, and batch control processes. With no direct integration with SAP S/4HANA, Mankind’s operators were required to manually enter the data in the advanced ERP software.
In terms of transportation management, Mankind handled transporter contracts and freight invoicing using spreadsheets, with shipment and load planning calculations made in disparate systems. There was a limited automated communication flow with transporters through a custom portal, and vehicle monitoring was performed by a third-party provider. For handling samples, there was a heavy reliance on consignment notes issued by the transport company.
Adopting advanced warehousing capabilities to drive efficiency
To lead its warehouse transformation, Mankind partnered with Deloitte to guide the way with its proven industry knowledge and experience with the SAP Extended Warehouse Management and SAP Transportation Management applications.
Key priorities for the project included augmenting warehousing infrastructure with barcoded bin labeling, handheld terminals, label printers, shelving racks for loose picking, and integration of dispensing booth weighing scales.
For the deployment, Deloitte orchestrated a template-driven rollout that was tailored to the pharmaceutical sector’s unique needs and curated for each plant and depot. The applications help enhance operational efficiency and provide consistency and flexibility across depots and production plants. Deloitte oversaw a regimen of robust testing and quality assurance measures that was conducted at each phase of the rollout, helping optimize system stability, validate component reliability, and enhance overall performance. With the integration of SAP Transportation Management, Mankind focused on onboarding transporters and readying the business for the advent of systematized collaboration.
Deloitte also took charge of integrating the applications with multiple third-party systems. This created a smooth data flow between the automated storage and retrieval system, warehousing and distribution services, and vendor portal. Mankind’s information architecture is shown in the figure below.
To shore up rapid user adoption, a rigorous change management plan provided hands-on training and live problem-solving.
Optimizing warehouse visibility from gate to staging and storage
With the adoption of SAP Extended Warehouse Management and SAP Transportation Management, Mankind has transformed its warehousing operations to support its massive growth agenda, helping the company make the right investment decisions in new warehouses.
Thanks to rapid user adoption, the company experienced improved accuracy in its warehouse operations from the get-go. In its production warehouse, Mankind optimized crane efficiency with handheld terminals enabled for receiving, dispensing, and put-away processes. There’s also container-level visibility of stock, including in the automated storage and retrieval system, which is available upon a barcode scan. A systematized dispensing process, featuring automated capture of weights and scanning of batch and container identifications, provides pinpoint accuracy. The company has also increased productivity by maximizing automation equipment utilization, with its weighing and dispensing system now directly linked to production processes, improving medicine efficacy. The introduction of a single labeling process for each SKU throughout the supply chain process helps ensure accurate and fast retrieval.
In the depots, Mankind has seen increased operational efficiency from using system-guided picking and put-away strategies, and the use of handheld terminals has significantly improved accuracy and batch controls. There’s also improved visibility and traceability throughout warehousing areas from gate to staging and storage.
In terms of its investment in SAP Transportation Management, Mankind has automated transporter invoice and dispute management workflows. It can also smoothly collaborate with transporters for peer-to-peer shipment tendering processes through SMS and e-mail functionality. Real-time analytics and reporting provide up-to-the-minute insights and compliance checks, while system-based load optimization, routing, and automated freight settlement charges optimize operators’ workloads.
In addition, there’s digital order management for truck distribution and pickup for goods and samples. Transportation planning functionality allows the company to send parcels on the samples network. Meanwhile, integration with third-party handlers provides comprehensive visibility and smooths transportation execution.
Since the go-live, Mankind has achieved 99.9% inventory accuracy, reduced dispatch time by 40% through wave picking, and increased space utilization by 20%, allowing the company to close one of its three depots.
Head, Distribution and Logistics, Mankind Pharma Ltd.
Featured partner
Deloitte is an SAP platinum partner and a longtime platinum member of the global alliance, with more than 25 years of experience and serving more than 1,000 active SAP clients globally. Deloitte led the transformation program with a multidisciplinary strategy, harnessing deep domain expertise to deliver meaningful business outcomes for Mankind. This included its supply chain advisory team reimagining the warehouse layout and defining velocity at the SKU level to optimize operational flow. Meanwhile, its technology consulting team translated these designs into system-enabled processes using advanced capabilities within SAP Extended Warehouse Management and SAP Transportation Management. And complementing these efforts, its change management team smoothed adoption by equipping warehouse operators with the tools and mindset needed to embrace the new way of working.