Laboratoires Boiron chooses Reflex WMS to manage logistics at its four production sites

The project at a glance

The homeopathic medicines specialist chooses Reflex to manage logistics at its four production sites, replacing the WMS developed in-house around its ERP.

Context and objectives

Homeopathic medicine manufacturer and distributor Boiron currently employs nearly 4,000 people, including 3,000 in France. It has four manufacturing sites as well as thirty or so local facilities for distributing medicines to 22,000 dispensaries throughout France.

From receiving the raw materials needed to make the medicines, storage, supplying production lines and preparing packaging right through to domestic and international delivery, all the company’s logistics flows are managed entirely in-house. For its four manufacturing sites, Boiron had been relying on a WMS module developed in-house around its ERP system but the tool could no longer meet needs and the costs and timescales involved in upgrading it were becoming excessive. In early 2013, Boiron’s logistics department decided to replace is with off-the-shelf warehouse management software.

The solution

After eight months of research, tests and meetings with five software vendors, Reflex WMS was chosen at the end of 2013. Boiron’s logistics teams were won over by the Hardis Group solution’s functional coverage and ease of use, as well as its ability to adapt to existing processes. But it was the communication with Hardis Group teams that ultimately proved decisive.

Reflex was deployed in mid-2015 following functional analysis and parameter setting phases. The solution was initially configured to correspond exactly with Boiron’s processes but a subsequent phase involves using it to optimize order preparation and communications with the company’s suppliers, carriers and customers.