CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT

At-a-glance• Industry: Pharmaceuticals and

biotechnology• Location: Edinburgh, UK

Key Challenges• Highly regulated manufacturing

environment• Move from public to commercial

sector operation• Varied and complex customer

requirements• Production at full capacity

Solution• Solarsoft’s Tropos ERP

Key Benefits• Better order tracking, production

planning and inventory control• Faster deliveries, excess stock saved• Improved efficiencies throughout the

supply chain• Helped meet regulatory requirements• Improved customer satisfaction• Platform for commercial expansion

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WE COULDN’T LIVE WITHOUT TROPOS.It has helped us to achieve great efficiencies and cost savings for everything.Ian Buckingham, Head of Sales and Marketing.

ALBA BIOSCIENCE

SOLARSOFT FOR MANUFACTURING

CONTACT SOLARSOFT FOR A DEMONSTRATION

SOLARSOFT EUROPE+44 (0)8447 700900

SOLARSOFT NORTH AMERICA+1 (905) 224 2222

SOLARSOFT ASIA+86 21 6328 7596

www.solarsoft.com

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Alba Bioscience is a division of the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS). Its role is traditionally to develop and manufacture diagnostic products – typically, reagents for blood grouping and haematology - for use by the NHS in Scotland and in international markets.

A Tropos ERP system from Solarsoft is at the heart of Alba Bioscience’s ambitious plans for global expansion. Tropos has helped position the organisation as a viable commercial organisation over the last nine years. Management sees the system as “an ingrained part of the business”, as Alba Bioscience prepares to go independent of its SNBTS public sector parent.

“We couldn’t live without Tropos,” says Ian Buckingham, Head of Sales and Marketing. “It has helped us to achieve great efficiencies and cost savings for everything from order processing and customer service, to manufacturing, planning and inventory control.

“It has also enabled us to meet the exacting standards of our industry and international regulators, such as the Food and Drugs Administration in the US. Now we are looking to Tropos to provide the web enabled services our international customers increasingly expect.”

WORLD CLASS STANDARDSSince the mid 1990s, Alba Bioscience has been pursuing a commercial strategy in parallel with its NHS commitments. It supplies contract services to the bioscience industry, and manufactures products for major global players in the IVD, biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors.

Critical to its success in Western European, Asian and US markets has been the organisation’s careful adoption of world class standards of operation. Alba Bioscience has a manufacturing plant in Edinburgh, built to European Community (EC) specifications of Good Manufacturing Practice for Medicinal Products. It is accredited to Annex IV of the EC’s IN Vitro Diagnostics Medical Devices Directive. It follows the rigorous Statements of Purpose discipline required by its markets.

Tropos delivers the management controls and process efficiencies demanded by Alba Bioscience and its exacting clients. Introduced in 1997 to consolidate a variety of bespoke systems that were becoming increasingly difficult to support, Tropos modules manage sales order processing, customer relationship management, production planning, stock control, quality recording and release control with full online traceability through multiple levels of manufacture.

“We are a very efficient and productive operation,” says Ian Buckingham. “We only employ 60 people, and most of us are directly involved in production, quality or sales. Tropos has helped to make us more efficient. I have no doubt that Tropos also saves us money by keeping control of our raw materials requirements and minimising excess expired stock.”

SATISFIED CUSTOMERSOne of Alba Bioscience’s critical success factors is production planning for its 200

or so products, to meet customers’ varied and sometimes complex requirements. Some customers want product deliveries from stock, delivered fast. Others require ‘made to measure’ contract orders on a longer lead time, where tracking the order throughout the production process is critical to optimised deliveries and satisfied customers.

Ian Buckingham says that the major contribution made by Tropos is in manufacturing planning and scheduling. “Tropos is invaluable to us in marrying up requirements and production forecasts,” he says. “Doing that is what keeps our customers happy, and us in business.”

“As soon as an order comes in,” Ian Buckingham says, “the system allocates stock efficiently and gives an up to date position on the inventory situation. As the order goes through, we can get products into despatch quickly, and be able to tell our customers accurately when they will be sent. Our turnaround time from order to despatch is very fast, and that’s largely down to Tropos.”

SUCCESSFUL PROCESS AUDITSIncreasingly important to Alba Biosciences’ commercial operations is its ability to meet the rigorous standards of its major global customers, and the regulators of their markets. The first of Alba Bioscience’s products was given FDA (510k) clearance in 2005, and a number of product applications are currently being considered.

“We have had an FDA pre audit and major customer audits in recent months, and Tropos has provided excellent support because of its strengths in traceability and controls,” Ian Buckingham says.

CONTACT SOLARSOFT FOR A DEMONSTRATION

SOLARSOFT EUROPE+44 (0)8447 700900

SOLARSOFT NORTH AMERICA+1 (905) 224 2222

SOLARSOFT ASIA+86 21 6328 7596

www.solarsoft.com

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PREPARING FOR THE FUTUREAlba Bioscience is being prepared for sale by SNBTS into the private sector. Management recognise that in order to survive in its competitive markets outside the financial umbrella of its public sector parent, the organisation must seek continuous improvement to its processes and its customer service.

The Tropos system is web enabled, and can be configured to allow customers to get real time web access to comprehensive information about their order status and delivery. “This will be really important to our customers, especially those who are on the other side of the world and working in different time zones. We have been talking to Solarsoft and we are confident that Tropos will give us the system we need for the future.”

Alba Bioscience is also gearing itself for growth with plans to develop greater manufacturing capacity and capability. “As we get more products approved by the FDA,

we expect to expand our markets in the US and in other international markets, and so the Tropos system requires to grow with us,” Ian Buckingham says.

“It makes that investment decision a lot more comfortable, knowing that Tropos will be controlling the production facilities,” he says.

Tropos has enabled Alba Bioscience to develop a highly successful commercial business alongside its public sector role. As it expands that business, Tropos will be critical to its competitiveness, delivering efficient process management and control.