Dr. August Wolff GmbH & Co. KG Arzneimittel

The owner-run company, Dr. August Wolff GmbH & Co. KG Arzneimittel, sited in Bielefeld, is specialized on research, development, and marketing of innovative and highly effective pharmaceutical products. The company’s special focus lies on dermatological and gynecological products as well as medical products and cosmetics. In fiscal 2015, Dr. August Wolff’s 240 employees generated sales of around EUR 75 million.

About the Project

Exact Planning Creates a Competitive Edge

Dr. August Wolff GmbH & Co. KG has been researching, developing and marketing pharmaceutical products for over 100 years. In 2014, growth outside Germany, in particular, ensured greater additional turnover. This made it necessary to optimize the supply chain in order to render production more efficient and facilitate the best possible planning. To this end, the Bielefeld-based company decided to have its long-standing partner, NTT DATA Business Solutions, launch SAP APO Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling (PP/DS). Since SAP ERP was already in use, SAP APO PP/DS was installed as an add-on on the existing ERP system, as a result of which there are no further hosting costs. At the start of production in January 2015, Dr. August Wolff GmbH & Co. KG was thus one of the world‘s first companies to use this installation option for production purposes.

Machine Utilization and Setup Times under Control

Bulk production and packaging at Dr. August Wolff takes place in a multi-stage process. Detailed planning for the coming three months is made on the basis of scheduled and production orders, but is checked daily, and changed if necessary. First of all, the production sequence is created for the packaging. The resulting setup and cleaning costs are mainly caused by a change of packaging, product or batch. In order to keep the setup outlay as low as possible, this traditional company in Bielefeld now benefits from wide-ranging planning aids using the SAP APO PP/DS.

Secondly, production of the bulk goods is planned. These plans are based on the scheduled dates and times of the assigned packaging orders. At the same time, campaigns are scheduled where the setup time is optimized, taking into consideration minimum and maximum product life and storage times of the bulk goods.

SAP APO PP/DS Can Do More

As an add-on, PP/DS benefits from the standards of SAP ERP and also offers functions that have been specially adapted to detailed planning. In the PP/DS, requirements planning offers considerably more flexibility through the use of analytical procedures. And while in the ERP finite plans are not allowed, it is possible to perform multi-stage finite and infinite planning procedures and capacity plans in the PP/DS.

In addition, the material and component availability check – which used to be done manually – is performed and monitored automatically in the SAP APO PP/DS. Once planning has been completed, production lists are defined and distributed to the lines. With these additional functions, Dr. August Wolff has a future-proof production and detailed planning system and can readily handle further corporate growth.