TECHNOLOGY
SAS Intelligent Planning Suite
Intelligent Planning at Polska Grupa Farmaceutyczna: Managing 20,000 Products Across 13 Units
Polish Pharmacy Group/Polska Grupa Farmaceutyczna, abbreviated as PGF, stands as the cornerstone of Pelion Healthcare Group, a prominent pharmaceutical conglomerate boasting a 6 billion PLN revenue. Operating across Poland, Lithuania, and Sweden, Pelion encompasses pharmacies, beauty stores, and logistics services. PGF's extensive reach spans over 10,000 pharmacies throughout Poland, facilitating the daily sale of over 1 million drugs. This accomplishment is made possible by a sophisticated network of 13 centrally managed warehouses and strategic partnerships with 850 producers.
Polska Grupa Farmaceutyczna (PGF) – Facts & Figures
6 billion PLN
revenue
over 10,000
pharmacies throughout Poland
13
centrally managed warehouses
Challenge
Polish Pharmacy Group (PGF) consistently deploys innovative solutions in the field of Inventory Management to assure the best right-on-time service, as well as the loyalty of its business recipients: Pharmacists, Manufacturers and Patients. As time passed by, relying solely on the traditional analytical methods in the Forecasting & Replenishment field turned out to be insufficient. In addition, analytical and operational constraints have prompted PGF to further discuss how to expand its capabilities beyond its inventory management department.
Solution
Recognizing the need for advancement, SAS advocated for the adoption of Machine Learning algorithms to enhance order forecasting and drive sales at PGF. The new forecast enables:
- Analysis of warehouse stock and sale of assortment in distribution centers,
- Inventory monitoring to ensure the availability of products within a given product group,
- Continuous availability of products in the warehouse,
- Creating short and long-term delivery schedules. While giving unlimited possibilities of using variables explaining the specificity of the preparations (e.g. promotions, prices, availability, weather).
The solution provides a high-performance, modern modeling technological stack with the interface of SAS® Viya Intelligent Planning, which can be used in optimization of price policy, promotion scenarios (Sales Department) and work on cashflow and analysis of financial budgets (Finance and Controlling Department).
Results
PGF now has unlimited possibilities for tuning forecasts at a general and detailed level (changing model parameters, changing models to others, different modeling synthesis approaches, etc.). The company uses two forecasting processes: one to monitor pharmacy sales (60k products x 750 pharmacies) and the other to manage warehouse orders (20k products x 13 units). With everything embedded in the cloud - Microsoft Azure – PGF is able to operate faster and more effectively than ever before.
“In response to our individual needs, the SAS team was able to prepare a tailor-made solution that gives us unlimited development possibilities in the forecasting area, as well as take into consideration further analytical improvements in the Sales department. By combining modern time series analysis with Machine Learning techniques, we are constantly strengthening our position as a market leader.” Marcin Gusta Supply Chain Management Director Polish Pharmacy Group (PGF)
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