x
Subscribe to our blog

CASE STUDY: More batch releases with smart FIFO in a QC lab

Smart FIFO in a QC lab

Our chemical and microbiology lab teams with a headcount of 140 analysts perform release and stability testing for multiple products that are manufactured in our site. The teams are mainly technology-oriented and perform a part of the full test panel.

Improvement potential

Teams optimize their schedule on a weekly basis and take into account the agreed SLA (Service Level Agreement). However, there is no visibility across the teams. It’s not exceptional that team 1 is pushing to get tests done for a batch, while team 2 has to postpone testing for the same batch. There is also a lack of communication concerning the supply chain priorities.

Binocs solves the lack of communication between the lab teams concerning the test status and the supply chain priorities. This has a direct impact on the GRPT KPI (Goods Receipt Processing Time).

 

How Binocs helped

Binocs gives us a full demand visibility for all teams and for all batches. We have supply chain priorities directly wired between Supply Chain Planning (SAP APO) and Binocs. The team planner applies what we call ‘Smart Fifo‘. Not just the ‘ordinary’ FIFO like before. The Binocs scheduler algorithm takes into account instrument and analyst qualitification and availability constraints and maximizes the timely release of priority batches at the site level. We schedule weekly but with a single push on the button we can cope with unattended events and start again from an optimized schedule. This has a direct impact on the GRPT KPI (Goods Receipt Processing Time).

 

Planning with Binocs scheduler