This piece was written in collaboration with TraceLink. Learn more about TraceLink here. 

Today’s supply chains have evolved into complex networks demanding greater visibility and traceability from all stakeholders, including partners, consumers, and governments. To remain compliant with traceability regulations—and reduce the impact of all manner of supply chain disruptions—life sciences companies need a complete end-to-end view of the supply chain, from ingredient sourcing and manufacturing to distribution and dispensing to patients. That kind of visibility and real-time orchestration requires digital integration with both direct and indirect partners across the supply chain. 

With that in mind, companies are looking for solutions that easily integrate with existing solutions and their partner network to give them an end-to-end view of their supply chain. However, many solutions lack the holistic view needed for this kind of supply chain management.

As a manufacturer of pharmaceutical products, you may already be using platforms from companies like TraceLink for product serialization or data validation to help your company stay Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA)-compliant. Today, that same network is being used to enable fast, simple, and cost-effective digital integration and orchestration between manufacturers and all of their supply chain partners.  

What does that mean for you? Real-time collaboration, visibility, and business transaction exchange with all supply chain partners at the industry’s lowest price point. It’s all powered by TraceLink Multienterprise Information Network Tower, or MINT, for short.  

TraceLink MINT

TraceLink MINT links into the proven TraceLink network (291K+ verified members) using a powerful Integrate-Once, Interoperate with Everyone™ capability to enable integration with 100% of your supply chain partners at a fraction of the cost and time of EDI or point-to-point connections. A single link to the TraceLink network enables the real-time exchange of the complete set of B2B transactions, including forecasts, purchase orders, PO acknowledgements, advance ship notices, inventory balances, and much more to provide up-to-date information and improve collaboration. 

Orchestrating External Manufacturing Operations through the TraceLink Network  

Here is one real-world example from a manufacturer that leverages TraceLink’s proven capabilities for orchestration to integrate with its contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs): 

A $10B+ global biopharma company, relying on 73 CMOs accounting for 30% of annual sales revenue, implemented TraceLink to enable collaborative information exchange with its CMOs through direct ERP integration, improve OTIF delivery performance, and reduce inventory and associated carrying costs.  

The Company’s Challenges 

CMO partners were delivering products on-time and in full less than 60% of the time. This directly impacted the biopharma company’s customer service levels. The company was also forced to carry $800 million+ worth of safety stock to cover for unpredictable CMO performance. Much of that inventory included biopharma medicine products with short shelf lives. 

The company spent more than 100 hours per week “managing” CMOs across different regions. Convincing CMOs of the benefits of digital integration proved challenging because many were hesitant to change the traditional methods of engagement, which included countless phone calls, spreadsheets, and emails.  

Project Overview 

The company chose TraceLink to integrate CMOs to improve visibility and collaboration, giving TraceLink full responsibility for proactive CMO network verification and onboarding for digital collaboration. 

Leveraging the TraceLink network, the company integrated directly with its CMOs’ ERP systems to exchange purchase orders, confirmations, batch documents, and delivery notices in real time. Some of the key business outcomes included: 

• Service: CMO on-time delivery increased by approximately 10%, which improved customer OTIF and reduced the risk of failure-to-supply costs. 
• Cash: Predictable CMO supply enabled a 1-3% reduction in finished goods safety stocks, a savings of more than $15 million. 
• Quality: More frequent updates and reviews of supply chain plans increased supply chain agility and resilience for the biopharma company and its CMOs. 
• Cost: Data integration reduced 50% of work hours attributed to unnecessary labor-intensive tasks, lowering operational costs and allowing the redeployment of resources to higher-value tasks. 
• Quality: Enabled external manufacturing team to shift from reactive firefighting to proactive CMO management and engagement. 

“At the beginning we had to convince them to participate in the project,” a spokesperson for the biopharma company said, “but after six months, most CMOs were quite impressed with this solution.” 

Business Benefits 

Some of the key business benefits of TraceLink MINT include:  

• Share Forecast Planning Schedules: Improves alignment on products, quantities, due dates, order frequency, and lead times to lock in production capacity and ensure product supply. 
• Increase Visibility and Collaboration: Real-time data exchange ensures you and your suppliers and customers are aligned on goals and can quickly respond to demand changes and supply chain disruptions. 
• Improve Planning: Real-time PO confirmations, inventory balances, and shipment updates from your CMOs, 3PLs, and suppliers ensure supply plans are more accurate and products ship on-time, in-full with less buffer inventory. 
• Track Production Completions: Real-time visibility to production completions and delivery dates improves available-to-promise and on-time, in-full shipments. 
• Improve Supply Chain Partner Relationships: Timely and accurate invoice payments ensure strong supplier relationships and better responsiveness to unexpected changes.
• Flexible Modes of Integration: Your company and each supply chain partner simply use the integration format that they already have, or any one that works best for them, including EDI (ANSI X12, EDIFACT), IDocs, EPCIS, XML, CSV, and API. Customer-specific integrations are also supported. And if a trading partner doesn’t have an enterprise system, a universal user interface is also available through MINT. 

Why Partner with Clarkston Consulting and TraceLink for MINT Implementation? 

Today’s supply chains are moving more and more to an interconnected ecosystem of suppliers, manufacturers, partners, and end customers. TraceLink MINT helps to bridge the visibility gaps between numerous supply chain stakeholders and provide the needed data and insight to satisfy the visibility and traceability demands of consumers, governments, and regulatory bodies. Compliance is required, and visibility across the supply chain is a necessity to compete and win. Organizations now have the opportunity to further leverage their investment in compliance to achieve the supply chain management needs of the future. 

Clarkston Consulting has a long history of working with pharmaceutical manufacturers to implement serialization and track-and-trace solutions and is now working with clients to create visibility across the supply chain leveraging TraceLink MINT, ensuring that it meets the specific needs and challenges of their supply chains. 

The strategic partnership between Clarkston Consulting and TraceLink supports clients in their digital transformation journeys, helping them to modernize their supply chains and adapt to the rapidly changing industry landscape. 

Clarkston Consulting offers the full spectrum of strategy, operations, implementation, and managed services with a change-focused, data-driven approach. Leveraging decades of client commitment and industry experience, we deliver solutions that work for your business and people to drive growth, innovation, and transformation. Contact us to learn more and get started with your TraceLink MINT implementation today.