Hewatele breathes easy, delivering medical oxygen across Africa

Source: Supplied. Cameron Beveridge, vice-president of SAP Enterprise Solutions at VC ERP.

Hewatele is a social enterprise in Kenya that produces and supplies medical oxygen to the country's healthcare system.

The first production plant was opened in 2014, providing oxygen to multiple counties across Kenya. Ten years down the line, Hewatele has scaled its operations to five Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) production plants in Kenya and one in Uganda, supplying more than 150 medical facilities. PSA is a technology used to produce medical-grade oxygen.

Zulfiqar Wali, chief executive officer at Hewatele, says the organisation realised during the peak of the pandemic that its current manufacturing model was not sustainable in the long term.

Upgrading operational efficiency

"The cost of manufacturing was quite high. We identified liquified medical oxygen via an Air Separation Unit (ASU) manufacturing model as the future for our production capabilities.

"This kicked off a lengthy due-diligence process to raise capital for investment into the more energy-efficient manufacturing technology, after realising that our PSA manufacturing dispensation were not fit for supporting our scale-up."

The older business-planning software Hewatele was dependent on could not deliver inventory and financial information timely and accurately, leading to delays in decision-making.

"We had trouble explaining to the board that our systems just couldn't deliver financial information in real time. SAP (Systems, Applications, and Products in Data Processing) has always been the blue-chip ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) solution.

"Considering our need to scale up information processing as we build out our new production capabilities, we made a strategic decision to migrate."

Streamlining business processes

The company has since embarked on the first of a two-phase implementation process. Phase One focuses on financial- and inventory processes as well as some manufacturing. A second phase, set to commence in Q1 of 2025, will cover the remaining areas of the business.

Hewatele chose implementation partner VC ERP Consulting in Kenya to design and deploy the solution, which includes the flagship S/4HANA Cloud. The solution, designed and deployed by VC ERP Consulting, will streamline Hewatele's operations and improve decision-making by providing real-time insights into key business processes.

Tejas Chhabra, vice-president of SAP Enterprise Solutions at VC ERP, says: "We invested time upfront to delve deeper into the problem statement to allow us to develop a solution that goes to the root of the problem. The input and support from process owners within Hewatele, from finance to sales and inventory, was critical to our ability to design the solution."

Tejas Chhabra, vice-president of SAP Enterprise Solutions at VC ERP Consulting, says: "We invested time upfront to delve deeper into the problem statement to allow us to develop a solution that goes to the root of the problem. The input and support from process owners within Hewatele, from finance to sales and inventory, was critical to our ability to design the solution."

Enhancing process automation

Pooja Chhabra, finance SME and solution architect for the SAP S/4HANA solution at Hewatele and the driving force behind the implementation, adds: “We were laser-focused on mapping the processes in a way that the MIS reporting became much simpler and more automated, which was a critical requirement for Hewatele and its investors."

A component of the solution also looks at building a foundation for the future adoption of new technologies such as artificial intelligence. Dr Wali says there is huge potential of AI in the business. "Technologies such as AI can add value through greater efficiency, improved user experiences, and greater automation.

"Ultimately we want to achieve the highest levels of automation to ensure our customers get the best product at the best price, driven by efficiency and optimisation."

The team is now busy centralising production to ensure the highest standards of quality and reliability. "Through SAP’s world-class technology deployment, our organisation will also be future-fit for regulatory compliance, while our team members will have access to some of the latest technology to support the vital work they do."

Speaking of the project, Hardeep Sound, regional sales director for Emerging Africa at SAP, says: "Organisations throughout the region are making vital investments in technology to unlock greater efficiency, optimise core processes, and establish a strong foundation for future innovation.

"Hewatele's outstanding implementation, supported by experienced partners at VC ERP, positions the organisation well as it prepares to scale up its life-saving production capabilities."