Founded in 1971 as a patent medicine manufacturer, Poli Medical Company has become one of Singapore's top pharmaceutical manufacturers, operating an HSA-certified GMP facility. Read on to see how they streamline production and manage inventories with Zetta's innovative solution.
Streamlining Medicine Manufacturing with Zetta
At Zetta Solution, we are passionate to help our clients simplify business making decisions. We are confident in delivering a customized solution for our clients from varying manufacturing industries. The Zetta team caught up with Dylan Hu, the Regional Director of Operations for medicine manufacturer, Poli Medical, where he talked about the company’s experience with Zetta.
From Humble Beginnings to Pharma Manufacturer
Poli Medical has its roots in a traditional medical hall (Eng Hong Medical Hall) back in the 1950s. It enjoyed a strong following among the locals in the center of Singapore’s heartland. After years of study into Traditional Chinese Medicine, Poli Medical was founded in 1971 by Eng Hong’s second-generation owners. Poli Medical specializes in the manufacture, wholesale, and distribution of high quality Traditional Chinese Medicine. Through the years, Poli Medical has consistently upgraded and modernized its manufacturing capabilities.
Today, it continues to provide comprehensive contract manufacturing/OEM of private-label health and food supplements and marketing/distribution services for related health products/supplements. You can find their products here.
Now, another generation of leaders has taken over the helm at Poli Medical. Dylan is one of them and as its Regional Director of Operations, he is constantly looking for ways to bring Poli Medical to greater heights. The first start was digitalization.
Going Digital & Implementing Zetta's Production Module
On his journey towards digitizing his business, Dylan learned that IMDA offered grants for businesses in Singapore looking to digitise their businesses. He found out about the Productivity Solution Grant (PSG) and decided to look for a vendor on that list to help Poli Medical.
“I stumbled across Zetta as one of the pre-approved vendors on that list and headed to the website to find out more. Moreover, one of our suppliers who are also in the medicine manufacturing line mentioned that they have been using Zetta as well, so I got even more curious.”
“During the presentation, what caught my attention was Zetta’s production module. As a medicine manufacturer, it is tough to find an affordable solution that can track the number of raw ingredients we use and the number of finished goods/products produced.
The inventory reports are especially helpful. It offers customization to suit our business needs. This beats having to rely on standard inventory reporting that might display information that we do not find critical.”
Prior to using ZETTAPPs, Poli Medical was managing their stocks manually through paper stock cards. “This was messy and not the most efficient way to manage stock. We had a dial-up system that connected via VPN to access our internal server just so I could access confidential documents. It was very slow and cumbersome, and not the most secure way to store and access files. I was often afraid of potential hackers making use of any loopholes to access our data.”
Since adopting Zetta, however, we still use stock cards, but only limit their use to stocks that Poli Medical does not use very often. It is a lot more convenient now that we are able to access inventory numbers almost instantly and at a single glance, as opposed to going down to the warehouse and retrieving physical stock cards.
- Dylan Hu , Director at Poli Medical Company
A Smooth Transition
When asked if he had any concerns or considerations before implementing the ERP system, Dylan said that the biggest and maybe only worry that he had was the take-up rate by older employees.
“Incidentally, we came to a point where we could not wait anymore and had to move towards upgrading and moving forward. If not, how would I be able to access these numbers when I’m physically overseas? I would not be able to have access to such critical information and it might possibly affect any potential business decisions. I need round-the-clock access to this information and I need to know what’s going on with the business, no matter where I am in the world.”
“There were not many obstacles, but there was clear hesitancy amongst the employees. Fortunately, the Zetta team provided support on training staff and helped to iron out any issues we had during the transition. Working on setting up was good! I felt like generally, the inquiries and issues raised were addressed promptly. I appreciate the level of convenience working with Zetta as opposed to working with other bigger companies.”
Dylan's Verdict
I specifically like the way the Zetta team handles things when something goes wrong. There is always someone who is there to guide us. Prior to choosing Zetta, I had come in contact with other vendors, but Zetta gave us the personal touch when it came to support, and I like this a lot.”