Merck is a leading science and technology company in healthcare, life science and performance materials. Merck South Africa is a local subsidiary and has been active in the Sub-Saharan Africa Region since 1971. Embrace was first implemented in 1991 to meet their complex, challenging and cutting edge business requirements.
The company's business model has completely changed and evolved over the years. “Ours is a complex and challenging environment. We are a multi-national company. Embrace has had to evolve to meet our changing business requirements," states Paul Palm, Director-Information Services Division.
Manufacturing chemicals is very complex. What goes into the mix is vastly different from what comes out and chemicals have yield variances. The Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) have a shelf life, as do the the finished products made from these ingredients. The enhanced monitoring of the raw material use-by dates and batch quality control, in Embrace, ensures that Merck is not left with expired stock and that there is no wastage!
Merck SA operates in three different markets and Embrace caters for all these business models. They sell a wide range of chemicals, from routine to speciality, used in mining and cosmetics, all of which are classified, controlled and tracked within Embrace. These include hazardous chemicals and “fridge” stock, which need to be stored separately. Restrictions are in place within Embrace to prevent incompatible chemicals from being stored, packed or sold together.
Merck SA sells in multiple currencies, have many different pricing models and have full control and traceability of their products within Embrace. “To keep abreast of our changing business and global reporting requirements, ACS-Embrace has had to remain an agile, world class solution. They have written many interfaces for a range of third parties, to facilitate our business and enable us to meet our objectives.”, added Paul Palm.