Bushu Pharmaceuticals specializes in the contract manufacturing of pharmaceuticals and investigational drugs, delivering products to global markets in 56 countries around the world.
Taking advantage of the expansion of business following the merger of the Aizu Factory, the company consolidated its core business systems, including accounting, sales management, procurement, and production management, into SAP's ERP "SAP S/4HANA," and transformed and standardized its business processes. This was the result of various challenges, efforts, and ingenuity aimed at success.
Case Study Video
Bushu Pharmaceuticals CIO Masaru Ogawa talks about the significance and benefits of implementing SAP S/4HANA for Bushu Pharmaceuticals
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Issues before implementation
- Standardization and streamlining of core operations is urgently needed to accommodate business expansion due to factory mergers
- Strengthening accounting and financial compliance
- Speeding up the management PDCA cycle
Effects after implementation
- Realization of commonality and standardization of core business operations and establishment of IT platform
- 業務電子化とプロセスの見える化による法規制対応と内部統制の強化の実現
- It enables the real-time collection and aggregation of performance data, accelerating management PDCA cycles
Implementation Points
- Based on top-down decision-making, the organization established a system in which the most skilled personnel from each relevant department were dedicated to working on the implementation of "SAPS/4HANA."
- With a system that involved mainly engineers from the technical department and involved staff from each relevant department, they worked thoroughly to improve the master data and to standardize the item code system and lot system between each factory.
- By adopting the "Fit to Standard" approach, which involves adapting the company's operations to the standard functions and processes of SAP S/4HANA, the company was able to keep development of custom modules to a minimum.
Implemented Products/Solutions
SAP S/4HANA template "B-EN-Gp" for pharmaceutical manufacturing industry
Project Scope
The company has introduced SAP S/4HANA modules such as "Financial Management (FI)," "Management Accounting (CO)," "Sales Management (SD)," "Inventory Purchasing Management (MM)," "Production Planning and Production Management (PP)," and "Quality Management (QM)." By linking with the manufacturing execution systems (MES) and laboratory information management systems (LIMS) of each factory, the company has achieved system standardization and business operations.
Background of introduction
Taking advantage of the expansion of the factory, a top-down decision was made to introduce "SAP S/4HANA" to the entire company.
Akiyoshi Fukuda, Director of the Production Division at Bushu Pharmaceuticals and one of the leaders of the implementation project, explains the background to the introduction of SAP S/4HANA as follows:
"The impetus for introducing SAP S/4HANA was the addition of the Aizu Factory to our company, bringing our total to three factories. In order to maximize the business benefits of this expansion, we decided to standardize and standardize the core business systems and business processes that had previously differed from factory to factory using SAP S/4HANA, and to optimize our management resources overall. This transformation was decided upon at the strong discretion of our top management (Takano Tadao, President and CEO). The background to this decision was the aim to increase both our company's value and reliability in the global market through the use of SAP products that are widely used in the pharmaceutical industry around the world."
Masao Hasegawa, General Manager of the Accounting and Finance Department at Bushu Pharmaceuticals and another leader of the SAP S/4HANA implementation project, explained the background to the implementation as follows:
"Before implementing SAP S/4HANA, the Accounting and Finance Department had been using SAP's ERP products, but they were merely a tool for accounting and were not used for standard cost calculations. In addition, because they were not linked to sales management, procurement, or production planning and production management systems, information could not be collected quickly from those systems, making it difficult to grasp actual results in real time or to improve the speed and accuracy of budget and forecast formulation. In addition, there were many operations that involved transcribing paper information submitted by each department into the system, making it difficult to flexibly respond to various legal and compliance requirements, such as the invoice system and the Electronic Bookkeeping Act. One of the aims of implementing SAP S/4HANA company-wide was to solve these problems all at once."
Project Goals
Major goals and measures to achieve them
The major management goals that Bushu Pharmaceuticals set for itself when implementing SAP S/4HANA company-wide can be summarized into the following four, centered on optimizing resources and developing IT in accounting, sales, logistics, and production.
- Responding to business expansion (improving business speed and quality)
- Realization of management PDCA cycle (improving budget formulation and forecast accuracy / early settlement and rapid action)
- Compliance with legal regulations, compliance, and strengthening governance (compliance with consumption tax and invoice systems, compliance with the Electronic Bookkeeping Act, and strengthening internal controls)
- Improving business efficiency (standardization and efficiency of each business through the realization of an integrated system)
In implementing all of these measures, the company focused particularly on improving its master data and standardizing the item code and lot number systems across all factories.
Factors behind project success
We responded flexibly and promptly to the following issues 1 to 4.
- Master Maintenance
The problem was solved through a change in the structure to focus on engineers and through daily regular meetings. - Unification of item codes and lot number systems
"Strong will" based on the determination to absolutely realize unification - Improved accuracy of standard costs
Through the implementation project, members' master maintenance skills improved and their understanding of the link between production and costs deepened. - Changes in field operations
- Because the project was top-down, there was relatively little resistance to changes in operations.
- The project reporting line is the management's advisor, so decision-making is quick.
- Holding morning and evening meetings during times of heavy workload
上記に加え、B-EN-Gの、豊富な知識から来る具体的な提案、プロジェクトのあらゆる段階での円滑でスピーディーなやり取り、SAP S/4HANAへのデータ移行など難しい作業を成し遂げるまで粘り強く支援した姿勢はメンバーの励みとなった。
Project Outcomes
- Going paperless and improving the accuracy of cost management
- 拠点間のスピーディーな情報共有を実現
- Procurement planning optimization and data utilization
Comment from Tadao Takano, President of Bushu Pharmaceuticals
"The purpose of introducing SAP S/4HANA this time is to centrally manage data from manufacturing to sales and finance, improve the speed and accuracy of operations, and gain further trust from our customers. In fact, through the introduction of the system, the work itself has been redefined, and various changes have occurred due to the strengthening of information sharing between departments. In order to continue to meet the needs of our customers, we want to master SAP S/4HANA and have them say, 'Bushu Pharmaceuticals is the company to rely on.'"
Case study company introduction
| Company Name | Bushu Pharmaceuticals Ltd. |
| Establishment | August 3, 1998 |
| Head Office and Kawagoe Factory Location | Takeno, Kawagoe City, Saitama Prefecture |
| Business Activities | Contract manufacturing of pharmaceuticals and investigational drugs |
| Main business locations | Kawagoe Factory, Misato Factory, Aizu Factory, Kazo Packaging Center, Soka Packaging Center |
| Company website | https://www.bushu-pharma.com/ |
*Please note that organization names, positions, numerical data, etc. in the article are based on the time of the interview and may have changed by current viewing.
If you would like to know more about Bushu Pharmaceuticals’ SAP S/4HANA project, please download the case study below.
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