Haleon Cuts Errors and Lifts On-time Delivery Rates to Over 99% with OpenText

⇨ Haleon aims for a 99% on-time, in-full (OTIF) fulfillment rate by efficiently processing pharmacy orders through an automated order processing solution from OpenText, significantly reducing human error and enhancing operational efficiency.

⇨ The integration of OpenText's capture technology has increased order processing automation from 70% to 90%, saving Haleon at least 20 hours of manual data entry work per week and allowing their team to focus on customer engagement.

⇨ With the improved accuracy of data flowing into its SAP system, Haleon has raised its OTIF delivery rate from 98.5% to over 99%, demonstrating the success of leveraging automation to strengthen supply chain processes.

Delivering on time, every time to hundreds of pharmacies in Hong Kong requires Haleon to orchestrate a lean supply chain and logistics network. The company aims to deliver a 99 percent on time in full (OTIF) fulfillment rate. To hit this target, the company must process all orders received before 3 p.m. by the end of the current working day.

Haleon is a global consumer health company. With a portfolio of leading brands in oral health, vasomotor symptoms, and over-the-counter (OTC) medicines, millions of consumers around the world use the company’s products every year.

“Order processing is one of the most important stages of our fulfillment process,” said Joe Ho, customer supply chain lead at Haleon. “That’s because any delays to entering orders into our SAP business systems could cause delays for picking and packing processes in our warehouse, and ultimately to the next day’s customer deliveries.”

Hundreds of pharmacies place orders for next-day delivery that must be processed rapidly, efficiently, and accurately. Smaller pharmacies do not have access to an EDI platform, and therefore send orders as faxes, emails, or PDFs. Manually re-keying orders into the ERP system increased the risk of human error, leading to rejected deliveries, reduced efficiency, and higher costs.

Recent SAPinsider research shows a continuing focus on mitigating the rising complexities and risks within supply chains, with 53% of companies noting that increasing complexities and risks is the top driver of supply chain transformation projects. In the recent research report, Building Resilient and Agile Supply Chains via Data, Analytics and Automation, companies also recognized the significance of AI/ML in supply chain operations, with 43% of respondents highlighting its increasing prominence on the corporate agenda. External pressures also influence the need to enhance data, analytics, and automation capabilities. Evolving customer expectations and demand (37%) and the pressure to run more sustainable supply chains (36%) indicate a growing societal and environmental consciousness among supply chain leaders.

Part of the Haleon group of companies, Haleon Hong Kong is a leading consumer healthcare enterprise that supplies well-known brands to pharmacies across the region—including Sensodyne, Polident, Corsodyl, and many more.

“Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated territories in the world—and at pharmacies, shelf space is at a premium. To help keep consumers across the region supplied with the products they need, we aim to deliver quickly and efficiently to the more than 200 pharmacies in Hong Kong,” said Ho.

For many years, Haleon and its parent company GSK have relied on automation from SAP solution build partner OpenText to streamline order processing. Approximately 70 percent of Haleon’s pharmacy customers used the EzTrade platform for electronic data interchange (EDI) to exchange documents such as purchase orders and invoices automatically. Operated by the GS1 consortium in Hong Kong, the EzTrade EDI platform is powered by OpenText Trading Grid and runs in the OpenText Business Network Cloud.

Ho continued, “While most larger pharmacies and pharmacy chains use EDI, 30% of our customers sent orders to us manually via email and fax. To enter these orders into our SAP system in time for next-day delivery, our order processing team were working late into the evening. Manually re-keying data from paper or emails into SAP also increased the risk of human error, resulting in rejected deliveries, reduced efficiency and higher operational costs. We’ve increased OTIF deliveries from around 98.5% before to over 99% today. Thanks to our OpenText capture solution, we’re shaping a more efficient and robust supply chain, so our customers can keep their shelves stocked.”

To streamline its approach to B2B integration in Hong Kong, Haleon engaged OpenText to help automate order processing for non-EDI customers. Using data capture technology from OpenText, the new solution minimizes the need for error-prone manual work.

Haleon Hong Kong chose to deploy OpenText™ Trading Grid, which leveraging modern data and application integration to enable true business-to-anything (B2A) integration on a cloud-native platform, as well as OpenText™ Information Capture and Data Extraction, which optimizes data quality, accuracy and insight for any organization

Based on more than a decade of success using OpenText technology via the EzTrade platform, Haleon selected OpenText to help deliver a capture solution that could offer high levels of accuracy, speed, and reliability for mission-critical B2B flows.

“As well as having extensive geographical reach, OpenText has a great deal of industry experience across both fast-moving consumer goods and healthcare,” recalled Ho. “We were looking for a robust, dependable solution, and we were convinced that OpenText had the services, solutions and experience to help us realize our goals.”

Working closely with Haleon, OpenText designed the business logic for the new data capture solution. Running securely in the Azure cloud, the solution extracts the relevant data from customer orders sent as faxes, emails or PDFs and automatically enters it into the company’s SAP® system for onward processing.

“As the main technology provider behind the EzTrade platform, OpenText is already responsible for processing B2B data on behalf of some of the largest companies in Hong Kong,” added Ho. “As a result, we were confident that OpenText was the optimal choice for Haleon, and our experience on this project confirmed we made the right decision. The OpenText team listened carefully to our requirements and delivered an automation solution that met all our needs—on time and within budget.”

Midway through the solution implementation process, Haleon separated from its former parent company GSK. Haleon found that the OpenText solution was perfectly aligned to its needs as a newly independent business.

Ho explained, “In the past, we could rely on the technical support resources of our parent company, but after the divestiture we had much leaner resources available to support the digital systems for the Hong Kong business. OpenText designed their capture solution to be lightweight and easy to manage, which allowed us to avoid any significant increase in IT administration workload. We see OpenText as an ideal partner for supply chain innovation. In the future, we’re excited to work together to identify ways to harness automation to enhance other process areas.”

The new capture solution from OpenText is completely transparent to Haleon’s customers. Customers continue to send their orders to Haleon in their preferred format, and the capture solution automatically extracts the necessary data.

Haleon has realized the following business benefits from the OpenText solution:

• Boosted order processing automation to 90%. Through its work with OpenText, Haleon has achieved its goal of automating order processing for non-EDI customers, enabling higher levels of straight-through processing. “We have boosted the level of order processing automation from 70% to 90%, covering almost all of our customers across Hong Kong,” said Ho. “The final 10% represents customers that either do not place regular orders or that require more complex automations. Thanks to the time we’re saving, we can easily process these orders manually.”

• Saved 20 hours of manual work per week. By freeing its order processing team from manual data-entry tasks, Haleon is empowering its employees to focus on value-added activities. “We have two full-time equivalents dedicated to order processing, and previously it was the norm for them to work on data entry until 5 p.m. every evening,” Ho confirmed. “Today, we finish all our order entry tasks by 3 p.m., which saves at least 20 hours a week of manual work. As a result, our teams can spend more time engaging with our customers, contributing to greater customer satisfaction.”

• Lifted OTIF delivery rate to over 99%. With clean, accurate order data flowing into its SAP business systems, Haleon has slashed the risk of human error—helping it to deliver the right products on time. “We’ve increased OTIF deliveries from around 98.5% before to over 99% today,” commented Ho. “Thanks to our OpenText capture solution, we’re shaping a more efficient and robust supply chain, so our customers can keep their shelves stocked.”

Looking ahead, Haleon plans to explore further opportunities for process automation. Ho concluded, “We see OpenText as an ideal partner for supply chain innovation. In the future, we’re excited to work together to identify ways to harness automation to enhance other process areas.”

What this means for SAPinsiders

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Data capture is part of supply chain efficiency puzzle. With robust data capture, supply chain processes like order fulfillment, warehousing, and procurement can be automated and streamlined. For example, data from IoT sensors in warehouses can improve inventory management by reducing manual tracking, enhancing accuracy, and minimizing excess stock​. Also, continuous data capture provides insights into where resources are under or over-utilized. By identifying inefficiencies and bottlenecks, companies can optimize resource allocation, reduce waste, and ultimately lower operational costs​.

Push SAP, OpenText to maximize OTIF rate: OpenText Extended ECM for SAP automates document workflows and integrates seamlessly with SAP solutions, ensuring that invoices, purchase orders, shipping documents, and compliance certificates are processed quickly and accurately. By reducing manual data entry and human error, document automation decreases delays, ensuring that orders can be fulfilled on time​. With OpenText’s document management capabilities, companies can securely store, organize, and retrieve documents necessary for regulatory compliance. This reduces the likelihood of shipment delays due to missing or non-compliant documentation, supporting OTIF objectives by ensuring that all necessary paperwork is available in real time.