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Simplifying Multi-Site Processes
Technology Category
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - API Integration & Management
- Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Application Development Platforms
Applicable Industries
- Healthcare & Hospitals
- Pharmaceuticals
Applicable Functions
- Discrete Manufacturing
- Quality Assurance
Use Cases
- Predictive Quality Analytics
- Process Control & Optimization
Services
- Software Design & Engineering Services
- System Integration
The Challenge
Nipro Europe Group Companies (Nipro) is part of a global conglomerate led by Nipro Corporation Japan, that runs a wide-range of medical-related businesses, including medical device and pharmaceutical packaging divisions. Nipro’s regional headquarters in Belgium is responsible for a global footprint that spans Europe, Africa, the Americas and Russia. Departments like marketing and HR had a challenge when it came to sharing workflows across 26 different sites employing 3,500 people. Whether in paper form or as email attachments, there was much information shared – which inevitably ran the risk of documents getting lost or emails falling through the cracks. Even when Nipro went from paper to digital, each different site often had different approaches - an email could contain a spreadsheet, word document or PDF. A move to Microsoft 365 and SharePoint Online advanced the pursuit of standardized workflows, but there was still the need for a process automation tool, ideally a ‘no code’ solution that everybody could use, rather than an IT driven service.
About The Customer
Nipro Europe Group Companies (Nipro) is part of a global conglomerate led by Nipro Corporation Japan, that runs a wide-range of medical-related businesses, including medical device and pharmaceutical packaging divisions. Nipro’s regional headquarters in Belgium is responsible for a global footprint that spans Europe, Africa, the Americas and Russia. The company employs 3,500 people across 26 different sites. The company has departments like marketing and HR which had a challenge when it came to sharing workflows across these different sites. The company had moved to Microsoft 365 and SharePoint Online to advance the pursuit of standardized workflows, but there was still the need for a process automation tool.
The Solution
Four employees were initially trained on FlowForma Process Automation and were soon putting what they learned into practice. Katherine Cox, Program and Editorial Manager, went big from the start, creating a flow around Marketing Approval, a massive quality management process applied to the development of marketing collateral, such as brochures, product data sheets and artworks. Since the flow went live in 2019, 416 marketing assets have passed through a process that involves 18 different steps. Nine signatories are responsible for everything from copy edits and design to clinical and regulatory approvals. A dashboard was created for stakeholders to instantly see the status of the approval process, giving the business a level of visibility it never had before. A game-changing piece of work, it informed the many flows and forms that quickly followed as more use cases were found. This was the plan when the need for a simple-to-use solution was identified. “The no code setup means the process owners are heavily involved; they can understand what is happening without requiring any knowledge of systems or coding language,” said Dennis Mingeroet. “It motivates people to learn how to maintain their own processes and extend them beyond their own sites.”
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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