System Software Associates (SSA) has announced that SmithKline Beecham has gone live with BPCS Client/Server V6 in the first two sites of a 46-site worldwide roll-out. The first two sites in Heppignies, Belgium, and Irvine, Scotland went live in under 12 months, and will soon be followed by sites in Cork, Ireland and Mayenne, France.The project is being driven with remarkable speed, as the 42 remaining plants, ranging from Tianjin in China to Philadelphia in the US and South Africa, and encompassing every continent, will go live over the next 12 months. In total, SmithKline Beecham will have achieved full enterprise implementations in 46 sites around the world in less than two years. SSA`s BPCS Client/Server Version 6 software is being used to support both primary and secondary manufacturing and supply chain management of pharmaceutical and consumer products.Gail Devenney, SmithKline Beecham`s Director of Manufacturing and Supply Systems, says: "I am delighted that our first sites have gone live successfully. We selected BPCS Client/Server for our MRP II systems because of SSA`s traditional strength in supporting the pharmaceutical sector, and because we felt it was the least-risk solution in achieving our goal of implementing the system in time to address millennium requirements."We are achieving rapid rollout as a result of taking a core systems approach and developing a `blue book` to ease site implementations. More importantly, the core approach is enabling the introduction of standard operating practices worldwide, which in turn, are supporting a major initiative in our management of the enterprise wide supply chain."Jon Erickson, SSA VP Client Solutions, says: "The fast results achieved by SmithKline Beecham demonstrate once again that SSA leads the enterprise management software industry in time-to-benefit. Global industrial sector firms are finding BPCS Client/Server is the most effective way to integrate their supply chain operations worldwide."SmithKline Beecham is a leading global manufacturer of widely prescribed medicines such as Amoxil and Tagamet, OTC pharmaceuticals such as Beechams Powders, Panadol and Veno`s Cough Mixture, as well as consumer products such as Aquafresh Toothpaste, Lucozade, Ribena and Horlicks. SmithKline Beecham reports almost $8 billion in sales with 53 000 employees in 130 countries. In all, the company manufactures and sells some 300 brand-name products.
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