Interview with Bernard Devriendt and Pascal Perin of EPC Familia

About EPC Familia

EPC Familia, Wallonia’s leading pharmaceutical group, operates 100 points of sale across Belgium and processes two million prescriptions every year. Mecalux spoke with Bernard Devriendt, the company’s Supply Chain and Quality Expert, and Pascal Perin, Purchasing and Supply Chain Manager, to learn how the business achieved full medication traceability and improved service quality with the Easy WMS warehouse management system.

Mecalux spoke with Bernard Devriendt, EPC Familia’s Supply Chain and Quality Expert, and Pascal Perin, Purchasing and Supply Chain Manager, to find out how the Easy WMS warehouse management system has transformed the business.

• You’ve been operating in the pharmaceutical distribution sector since 1953. What led you to implement the Easy WMS warehouse management system?

  Pascal Perin: Our network already includes around 100 pharmacies, and we want to continue growing. So, we felt it was essential to have a digital solution to manage our logistics operations. We wanted to maximise the return on our investments, automate our headquarters and, ultimately, expand the network, which is our main goal.

  Bernard Devriendt: In Belgium, pharmaceutical warehouses are regulated by a federal agency that conducts regular inspections and grants operating licenses based on the results. That approval could have been jeopardised due to the lack of reliability and traceability in our previous IT systems.

  Mecalux’s solution has had a direct financial impact on our group because higher inventory accuracy has boosted our productivity

• How were EPC Familia’s logistics operations organised?

  Bernard Devriendt: When I joined the company, everything was managed using paper lists, which led to a lot of errors. Warehouse operators would check off completed tasks by hand, and then all that information had to be entered manually. The process was extremely time-consuming, unreliable and offered very limited visibility into expiry dates. On top of that, we were required to comply with a European traceability standard that we simply couldn’t implement with our previous systems. But with Easy WMS, we were finally able to make that transition.

  When we ask our operators about it, none of them wants to go back to the way we used to work. Pick-to-light systems make order picking much more convenient for them. Now they can focus on completing their tasks instead of constantly reading from sheets of paper.

• What benefits has Easy WMS brought to the group?

  Bernard Devriendt: Before implementing Easy WMS, our shipments had an error rate ranging from 0.1% to 0.7%. Our inventory reliability has since improved, with errors dropping to below 0.2%. During our most recent annual inventory count, we found discrepancies in only three items out of a total of 30,000 products reviewed. That’s a result 10 times better than in previous years. We now know exactly what we delivered and to whom, and we have greater control over the batches and expiry dates of the orders we send to each pharmacy.

  Pascal Perin: Mecalux’s solution has had a direct financial impact on our group because higher inventory accuracy has boosted our productivity. When pharmacies place orders, we know with certainty that the products are available, and that has clearly streamlined our operations.

  Operators would check off completed tasks by hand, and then all that information had to be entered manually; it was extremely time-consuming

• How would you evaluate Mecalux as a provider?

  Pascal Perin: We implemented Easy WMS because we wanted to continue expanding our network, which already includes around 100 pharmacies. Our goal was to maximise the efficiency of our headquarters and our various investments by automating as much as possible. After weighing several options, we decided to work with Mecalux. For us, the reliability of the system was a key factor. Just as important was the collaboration with the Mecalux team, whose expertise and day-to-day support were instrumental.