As a distributor of special nutrition products, Pfrimmer Nutricia is characterized by continual growth and a complex marketing set-up. The required transparency is maintained by a business process analysis whose results were used to formulate a process structure within a documentation program.
Pfrimmer Nutricia specializes in the sale and distribution of tube and liquid feeding products and associated medical application technology - where hospitals themselves have limited budgets and resources for patient care. The company based in Erlangen, Germany, can credit their continually growing market share over the last ten years to their comprehensive business concept combining dietary products, technology, as well as care and consultations.
Three Distribution Lines
Pfrimmer Nutricia is a subsidiary and commercial enterprise of the Dutch company Numico. They are responsible for distributing and marketing special and liquid feeding products (e.g., parenteral and enteral preparations) and all associated application techniques, on the German market. The structure of business operations at Pfrimmer Nutricia is divided into three distribution channels: The clinic service delivers goods to hospitals, the wholesale department conducts business with the pharmaceutical industry as well as complete care facilities and retirement homes, while the Pfrimmer nutrition team is one of the first nursing services in Germany to provide care and counsel to hospital patients after they have returned to their homes.
Optimized Business Processes
The different sales departments each address a broad segment of the market which results in very complex business process structures in each department. The fact that different accounting procedures need to be used for wholesale, the pharmaceutical sector and the different private and public health insurance companies strongly contribute to this situation. The significant administrative hurdles associated with filling prescriptions - everything from ordering to billing - can't be conquered using a common stock control system. The multiplicity of new business processes and working procedures that have arisen and been embraced over the past few years as a result of Pfrimmer Nutricia's continued growth required structuring, outlined presentation and the optimization of business processes.
Clear Structure
For a clear structure, processes should be presented as links and be able to be analyzed and continuously documented. Starting point for this project at Pfrimmer Nutricia, was an in-depth business process analysis (BPA). Process structures recognized by this analysis were then documented using a software tool. The goal was to establish a comparison between the process structures of the group companies in different locations, thereby generating a foundation for other potential adjustments. In addition, the clear structuring of business processes creates the framework for the planned introduction of a broad-reaching Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system.
Process Documentation
The prerequisite for the process representation in the areas of distribution, internal operations, marketing, accounting, controlling, materials management, personnel, quality management and regulatory affairs, was a process analysis in these departments. The people who know and understand Pfrimmer Nutricia's existing processes and structure best - their employees - conducted the analysis of business processes. According to Burkhard Böcker, who led the project as the IT director, "The fact we were able to independently conduct the analysis and documentation can only be credited to the effectiveness and competency of our team which, in addition to normal business operations, also took on the role of analysts."
Internal Know-how
This team had the task of interviewing the people with know-how in each department and to then apply this information to document each process exactly. Holger Dittrich, the group leader for distribution in internal operations and member of the analysis team, ran the analysis of business processes for developing contracts. His conclusion of the project, "The advantage of analyses and documentation conducted independently by employees, comes from the fact that as part of the process they gain undeniably profound internal know-how in relation to both business processes as well as analysis and documentation tools."
The Tool
The interviewers cooperated closely with the IT department both while they conducted research and when they were generating uniform, outlined documentation. The project started with a two-day training that introduced the analysis team to the Income Process Designer documentation software that was used for conducting the BPA. To ensure the quality of documentation defined in the system, consultants from Promatis AG (the tool's developers) were available for coaching and quality control after the training was over.
After setting up the framework for uniformly presenting analyzed processes, the team members began focusing on their assigned departments. The team interviewed department heads with specific know-how to determine the most important procedures, production processes and decision margins for work processes. The interview team then entered this information in the Income Process Designer analysis and documentation program.
High Degree of Automation
This way, all processes at Pfrimmer Nutricia were standardized and made comprehensible. Additional descriptive documents, such as lists, tables, forms and vouchers are stored in the software for presenting processes through Petri nets, which made process administration, such as managing prescriptions, much more efficient. "The area of prescription management was able to immediately benefit from the business process documentation through an increased degree of automation. By exactly mapping all possible processes for every incoming order, there have been reductions in the administrative effort associated with the order all the way to invoicing," summarizes Burkhard Böcker on the success of his team. |
