“SYSPRO’s well-planned roadmap ensures the product is futureproof, which allows the
solution to grow in line with our expansion.”
Fu Shou Jeen – Executive Director, Wen Ken
Customer Profile
Founded in 1937, Wen Ken Group has more than 80 years’ experience in the research, development, production and marketing of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), natural medicine, pharmaceuticals and Over-the-Counter health products. The company employs over 1,000 staff and operates 40,000m2 of factories and offices in Southeast Asia. Wen Ken’s customer base encompasses TCM stores, major hypermarkets, pharmacy chains and convenience store chains from South East Asia to the Middle East.
The Mission
To support business growth, Wen Ken needed to replace its existing disparate systems with a fully-integrated, robust planning solution. Visibility into real-time stock information was lacking, and all the company’s data was in separate systems.
The Solution
Wen Ken selected Version 7 of the SYSPRO Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution based on its well-established track record in the manufacturing and distribution sectors. The company has 31 SYSPRO users across five companies – two each in Singapore and West Malaysia, and one in East Malaysia.
The Outcome
Since the implementation of SYSPRO 7 in 2014, Wen Ken has improved the reliability, accuracy and timeliness of its data. This has in turn led to significantly enhanced decision-making.
Why SYSPRO?
Wen Ken’s selection of its new ERP solution was guided by a stringent list of criteria. Fu Shou Jeen, Executive Director of Wen Ken, says: “We needed a system capable of managing multi-site, multi-company operations, with visibility into other companies’ stock information where appropriate.
“We also needed to apply and track sales promotions, run customer credit checks and do material requirements planning with load levelling.”
Additional factors contributing to the decision included the ability to: track and manage material and operational costs; perform traceability of lot to source; manage inter-company sales and purchases; and run mobile sales order collections.
SYSPRO and its channel partner Cosmo Synergy demonstrated a proven track record of successful implementations for manufacturers. “The Cosmo team displayed exemplary professionalism and customer service levels. Cosmo encourages its team to pursue certification in industry best practices, and SYSPRO’s well-planned roadmap ensures the product is futureproof, which allows the solution to grow in line with our expansion,” Fu says.
“In addition, SYSPRO’s single DNA architecture guarantees that maintenance and upgrades will be easy and cost effective.”
Optimizing the Potential of ERP
Cosmo Synergy completed Wen Ken’s SYSPRO 7 implementation in six months, focusing on the core functionality in the Financial and Distribution modules. The remaining modules were implemented in phases over the following 6 months. In total, the entire SYSPRO system took about a year to implement.
“The implementation went smoothly,” Fu says. “One of the challenges was training our staff from using separate, disparate systems to optimizing the functionality of a fully-integrated system. Once everyone was up to speed, we were able to stabilize on the new system.”
Enhancing Financial Insight
“One of the major benefits we’ve experienced has been the improvement of inventory and costing accuracy from 92% to 99.5%,” Fu says. “We use SYSPRO to plan out purchasing in a way that is integrated with production planning. This has reduced our stockholding by an average of two weeks for finished goods, and we have also experienced a 20%-30% reduction in packaging material as well as raw material.”
The real-time, accurate data has also enabled Wen Ken’s management team to make financial decisions with greater insight.
Cosmo’s dedicated helpdesk provides unlimited support to Wen Ken’s SYSPRO users. At least twice a year, Cosmo evaluates Wen Ken’s usage of SYSPRO and consults on leveraging technology to boost productivity and gain efficiency improvements.
Looking Ahead
Wen Ken is considering extending its SYSPRO solution with the SYSPRO Mobile ERP solution for its mobile sales force. The management team is also investigating SYSPRO’s Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM) capabilities to enhance visibility and control of its production systems.
“As an organization, we sell about 400 million products a year, and our mission is to double this in the next five to seven years. We need a robust ERP system that will grow with us in our different territories and with the different manufacturing facilities we intend to have. Our evaluation of SYSPRO 8 shows that it is moving in the right direction to meet our needs,” Fu says.
