The Harvard Drug Group is a drug distribution company, operating from three facilities around the United States. Their primary facility is in Livonia, Michigan, with additional distribution centers in San Diego, California and Indianapolis, Indiana. Harvard Drug is the only company that distributes both generic and name brand drugs. They supply retail pharmacies, as well as medical professionals, and managed care providers. Harvard Drug also distributes over the counter medications.
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Situation
In response to numerous instances of drug counterfeiting around the country, the federal and state authorities are cracking down by enacting regulations to electronically track and trace prescription drugs from the manufacturer through distribution, all the way to the end customer. This requires extensive chain of custody documentation. While Harvard Drug was bound to comply with these new Pedigree state and federal regulations, they had to continue to provide on time delivery to their customers.
As a secondary supplier, the ability to meet the customer’s needs with a product they cannot find elsewhere means that Harvard Drug becomes their first choice the next time they order. The company did not conduct an ROI, because meeting the mandates while maintaining a high level of customer service was a do or die situation.
Approach
Harvard Drug Group chose Vocollect Voice to help implement a voice activated system that would work with their existing warehouse management system to track products and create a legally binding paper trail through the entire process. The system was installed in their 25,000 square foot San Diego facility, as well as their primary operations center in Livonia, Michigan. The system allowed employees to validate product lots and expiration dates, and made it possible to stay within a two-hour window between customer order placement and shipment to the customer while meeting all of te mandates of the Pedigree laws.
The only other alternative, according to Harvard Drug senior vice president of information technology and CIO Dale Swoffer, would have been to tag each bottle of product with a unique LPN and use bar code scanners to select orders. The new voice activated system replaced a RF technology system in one facility and a paper based pick list system in the other facility.
Impact
According to Swoffer, the new system provided the company with 100 percent payback on the first day, because they would have gone out of business without it. The system offered integrated and real-time direct interface with the warehouse management system without the need for middleware software.
It gave the company the ability to validate product lots and expiration dates and allowed them to come into complete compliance with pedigree laws. It also improved order accuracy, and allowed workers to generate the legal oaths necessary to verify each order leaving the facility was correct. Additionally, the new system kept them within the two-hour processing time necessary to meet the demands of their customers. It improved productivity and efficiency within these facilities, even while adding the time-consuming task of validating lots to fulfill the requirements of the law. [/show_to]
