Pharmavite® Reconciles Inventory 90 to 120 days Faster with RapidReconciler® — and Saves 20 Man-days a Month

For almost 40 years, Pharmavite LLC, has been a leader in the dietary supplement industry and has earned and maintained the trust of healthcare professionals, consumers, and retailers by manufacturing high-quality products that are safe and effective.  Nature Made® vitamins is the number-one selling broad-line vitamin, mineral and supplement brand in the United States. SOYJOY® is an all-natural snack bar made from whole soy and real fruit. VitaminID® offers consumers a customized daily vitamin packet made just for you. 

This same level of commitment is applied to its operational chain, which uses technologically advanced equipment to do their jobs effectively. This is no small feat, considering that Pharmavite’s headquarters (in Northridge, California) and two other California-based facilities include 600,000+ square feet of manufacturing, packaging, distribution, research and development space to produce 11.5 billion tablets, softgels and capsules per year.

“Yet, operational excellence does not only depend on superior equipment and facilities,” says Kiran Khandare, senior business analyst for Pharmavite. “It takes sophisticated software systems and stringent logistical processes to package more than 120 million bottles and cartons and to send 35,000+ domestic and international shipments per year. We have to account for all of this production and shipping,” he continues. “And of course, we must adhere to stringent tracking procedures and auditing requests — that’s why RapidReconciler is so critical to us!”

The Challenge

Pharmavite has depended on JD Edwards’ world-class ERP solution as its enterprise system since 2005. However, because of the complexity and sheer number of transactions within Pharmavite’s operations, there was one, ever present challenge — reconciling actual (perpetual) inventory to general ledger (G/L). Many hours were spent each month running reports, manually assembling data and researching problem transactions.

The Approach

To Kiran, it was obvious that some kind of program would have to be written to significantly automate the reconciliation process, and then, it would have to be maintained with each new JDE release. This could take several weeks to complete. That’s where the well-proven RapidReconciler product from Andrews Consulting Group (ACG) became a tactical alternative for Pharmavite — as you will see, though, RapidReconciler has also led to strategic results.

ACG has been a well-recognized JDE consulting firm for decades. As such, its technologists are intimately familiar with the JDE mappings and touch/update points within its logic. This is important because RapidReconciler is “spot on,” according to Kiran, who was involved in the one-day effort (in December 2008) to get it up and running. After two days of training, Kiran and Gina Casalda, Senior Accountant, were busy cleaning up bad JDE data that RapidReconciler had immediately indentified.

The Results

So, what has happened in the first year since the implementation of RapidReconciler, which works for both JD Edwards World and JD Edwards EnterpriseOne?

Gina is able to look at a refreshed RapidReconciler report every morning, which shows variances on a daily basis. She can research each issue, which is much easier when the transaction has occurred within the last 24 hours. Then, she can correct it by journal entry and document findings directly in the product. Kiran and Gina have seen their entire workload shift. Their time is now spent on much more productive issues.

Pharmavite now takes inventory snapshots on a daily basis and can trust what they are seeing. Having daily access to accurate inventory numbers literally impacts the bottom line.

Phamavite has benefited in other ways that provide savings. RapidReconciler has given the IT and finance departments a better understanding of the JDE logic flow and transaction timing — pointing out patterns and root causes that were triggering variances. This has prompted changes to some plant floor, packaging and shipping processes. In other words, RapidReconciler supports Pharmavite’s goal of always seeking to improve efficiency. RapidReconciler also facilitates the company’s need to respond to auditor requests for data and reports.

But, oh wait, there’s more… both Kiran and Gina were recognized within Pharmavite for their outstanding contribution managing the Inventory Reconciliation process.