Outside the office. We automate specialized processes in a medical manufacturing company.

In the transition to the SED, companies primarily automate the processes of office and contract work. Contractual and organizational documents exist in all companies without exception, and there are many ready-made applications on the market for automating related processes. But it happens that after automating typical workflow processes there is a need to automate specialized ones, but there is no ready application.

Real situation

The main activity of the company Z is the production and sale of radioactive pharmaceutical products. Buyers are clinics that use nuclear medicine technology to diagnose and treat cancer.

The process of organizing production and shipment takes place in several stages:
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1. Clinics apply for the supply of products under the contracts. Applications can be in the form of e-mail, fax or phone call - at the discretion of the client.
2. Sales managers process applications and, on their basis, issue orders to the production department to produce products. In parallel, managers give orders to conduct product quality control.
3. The production department produces the necessary preparations, and the quality control and radiation safety services then check them.
4. At the specified time, the logistics service receives products from the warehouse for delivery to customers.

A linking role in this process is played by sales managers who negotiate deliveries with clinics, issue production orders and control shipments of output.

In the process, the following documents arise: an agreement with the clinic, an application from the clinic for the delivery of products, an order for production, an invoice for the products, an invoice, an invoice. In addition, there is a production schedule that is used to optimize monthly production based on specific radionuclides.

The main problem is that when preparing documents, sales managers enter most of the data manually, several times. All applications are logged for products, from which then manually transfer information to the Access database. Namely: they check the current contract and match the price (if necessary, recalculate), choose the counterparty, the type and amount of the drug, the date of shipment and the date of the specified activity of the drug. Then manually assign each type of packing and container number. On the basis of these data form the waybill, the order for the production and tags for containers. In order to prepare the necessary forms of documents on the basis of the production schedule, manually select the optimal production date for each drug. The manager prepares release orders for each drug manually, even if production of several drugs based on different radionuclides is planned on the same date.

In parallel, the manager issues and monitors the execution of production tasks, quality control and product shipment. At the same time, he maintains an additional shipping journal in order to control the departure-arrival of multi-return containers - lead containers for transporting products. All in manual mode.

It is logical that such a process entails increased labor costs for sales managers, frequent errors in documents and, as a result, a decrease in the efficiency of the entire process.

In addition, there are problems with the security of data storage and access. Data on customers, product listings, prices and packaging for products are stored in the Access file on the department’s network folder. This solution does not meet the storage security requirements and does not allow multiple users to work with the database at the same time. There is no seamless integration with the contractual system. As a result, sales managers are forced to use at least two systems: the SED, where there is information about the concluded contracts, and the Access database, where there is information about client applications for these contracts.

Decision

Since the company exploits EDS applications on the ECM / BPM platform, it is possible to automate the process of production and shipment management on it.

Components that were created for the application:

First, reference data. It was required to create reference books on radionuclides used in production, on products, on containers, on cars. In addition, make changes to the structure of existing directories of contractors and employees.

Secondly, to refine the existing cards of documents and create new ones. In order to integrate the data on the products supplied with the contractual system, the existing contract card was finalized. It added the necessary tabs and fields with the ability to select the desired product from the directory.

Third, we created new purchase requisition cards, a production order card, a production schedule card. The necessary card states appeared, we set up automatic routing of cards for events and automatic filling of data in cards from reference books. As well as the necessary analytical reports.

As it became

The basic principle when an employee works with an application is one-time data entry. The manager enters the missing data to form the task for the release of drugs at the time of registration of the client application. He begins to form an application with the choice of counterparty, then the system automatically selects a valid contract and a list of drugs that are supplied for it. The employee indicates the required quantity, the date of shipment and the date of activity of the drug. The system automatically determines the type of packaging, container number, delivery method, calculates the total cost of the order.

On the basis of a client application, the system generates an order for production and issues tasks for the production of drugs. The system selects the optimal production date on the basis of the approved production schedule. In parallel, the system sets tasks for departments that check the quality and radiation safety of products. After completion of the release of drugs and the completion of the assignments issued, the system transfers the disposal card to an archival state. At the press of a button by the manager, the system generates the necessary printed forms of consignment notes for products that the logistics service receives along with the released products.

Special conditions

Before being sent to the clinic, radioactive pharmaceutical products are packaged in a reusable lead container. It is always important to know that there is a stock in the warehouse. To do this, you need to track the shipped containers and monitor their return from clinics. To improve this process, a report was implemented that provides information on the location of all containers and the number of free ones in stock. The system allocates the container number for a specific delivery at the time of the production order. The manager always knows for sure which clinics should return containers in what quantities.

For convenience, the logistics service implemented a report in which the system presents data on all deliveries. Logistics staff always knows what, where, when and how to deliver.

According to the results of the project:

- the sales department has eliminated errors in the preparation of the necessary documents;
- three times reduced labor costs of department managers;
- received a centralized archive of documents on shipments.

The project implementation period is 2.5 months.
The payback period, taking into account the reduction in the number of employees in the sales department, is 6 months.

In the near future:

- integration of the application with the accounting system for automatic data exchange;
- connection of the module for stream scanning, recognition and registration of accompanying documents, which return clinics after acceptance of products.

Recommendations when choosing an ERMS

Since the basis of any application of EDS are three elements: cards, workflows and reports, then the implementation of the necessary logic will require convenient tools for working with these elements, namely:

Designer cards and their states . Using these tools in a short time it is possible to develop new and quickly make changes to existing cards: draw the necessary buttons, tabs, fields, tooltips, both in the web and in the Windows client; create the necessary states to the cards. With the help of a flexible rights issuance model, users can quickly access users to the right cards in the right states - right down to specific fields and buttons.

Productive workflow module, process designer, connectors to external systems will allow you to more efficiently implement the necessary business logic for creating and routing cards, manage the creation and change of states by events, automatically fill in fields in cards, exchange data with internal components and external systems, form printed forms of documents.

Report Designer , which allows you to collect the necessary data from certain fields of cards and present them to the user in the right form.