Medical devices company deploys Kewill solution in move to optimize shipping processes worldwide
Marlborough, MA — April 29, 2004 — Medical device manufacturer Smith & Nephew has tapped Kewill Systems to provide a shipping solution as the company works to optimize its shipping processes worldwide.
One of the top medical devices companies, specializing in orthopedics, endoscopy and advanced wound management, Smith & Nephew employs about 7,000 people and has annual turnover of $1.4 billion.
The Largo, Fla.-based U.S. wound management (WM) division of Smith & Nephew ships $800,000 worth of vital medical supplies and equipment all over the world every day. As the division's shipping volumes increased, the company needed a process and solution to optimize its shipping process.
The company's requirements for a shipping solution include FDA-regulated needs such as pack verification capabilities and such shipping optimization features as rate shopping and zone skipping. In addition the solution needed to integrate with Smith & Nephew's AS400-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) system without sacrificing processing speed.
Smith & Nephew opted to implement Kewill's shipping solution and currently is operating 10 integrated Kewill.Ship workstations, including eight in Georgia and two in Florida. The company has plans to implement the Kewill solution at its Clearwater, Fla., and La Jolla, Calif., facilities, too.
"Within six months of going live the company has saved over $150,000 due to rate shopping and 100-weight consolidation support," said Susan Simpkins, logistics coordinator for Smith & Nephew WM, Largo.
Simpkins said that the Kewill solution provided all the features that the company was looking for in a system. She added, "Kewill's shipping solution was also much less user-intensive and eliminated the need to hire additional personnel to manage the entire process."