Quarantine your goods: a must-have functionality for pharma

Pharma is a very specific subcategory of the logistics industry. A challenging one. Just like regular logistics service providers, you work with in- and outgoing pallets. However, in pharma, you often have to take an extra step. For example, it is very common that you can only ship pallets once they are approved by, for example, your customer. In that case, you do want to add the pallets to your stock but, to prevent errors, you do not want these pallets to be available for shipment. A commonly requested functionality. And to meet the quality demands of your customers, it is often a must to set up this functionality in your WMS. In 3PL Dynamics, you can do this with status characteristics.

This is not only a common functionality in pharma. Also for regular storage, this functionality helps streamline your processes. For example, when you receive goods that are not complete yet. Or, when certain VAL activities must be executed before shipment.

Receipts with status characteristics. How does it work?

For starters, you create the characteristic. Depending on for instance the customer or reason for the so-called quarantine. In this example, we use ‘Quality Cust’. Then, you determine the statuses which the goods can have. In the pharmaceutical industry, ‘Quarantine’ is a common example. In the image below, you can see how these statuses can be set up.

In case of a receipt, you can choose the correct status on the document line. In that way, your goods enter your warehouse with different characteristics. Because the box ‘initial status’ is ticked for ‘available’, the shipments are standardly filtered on goods that are ‘available’. That means that goods that are blocked or in quarantine are automatically ruled out from allocation.

Making quarantined goods available

You can make quarantined goods available manually in the Item Transfer Journal. Or, you can set up this action in your scan process. However, the most efficient way is to have your customers or suppliers change the status of the goods themselves. Via a web portal.

Assign status characteristics per customer

The created status templates can be linked to multiple customers. That means that this functionality can be assigned per customer. It is also possible to create multiple (quality) status templates and set up different statuses for different customers via the customer card.

Your operation: flexible and quick

Give your customers control over the availability of the goods. With the web portal, your customers have the possibility to change statuses of batches or carriers in real-time. That saves time!

When you click on the batch number in the web portal, your customers are redirected to a scan screen. On that screen, your customers can change the statuses of the batches. By doing so, you provide your customers with extra flexibility. And, you do not have to correct the inventory manually after an email from your customer in which they request you to do so. In that way, your already busy colleagues have time for other activities. Win-Win.

More information? 

Do you need help setting up the status characteristics for your quarantine goods? Or do you want to learn more about how this functionality can help your logistic operation? Mail to marketing@boltrcs.nl and discover it yourself!