Laboratoria Wolfs celebrate
3 years of efficiently managing their quality processes with Scilife

About Laboratoria Wolfs

Laboratoria Wolfs is an independent, GMP-certified contract manufacturer in the pharma and food supplement space. Their main focus over the past 70 years has been developing, manufacturing and packaging tablets and capsules. Their company mission? To work together with customers to sustainably deliver top quality products, thereby improving the health of end consumers.

Our Customer Success Manager Trine Michelsen video chats with Gregory Coucke (COO and former Quality Manager) and Joran Smout (Quality Manager) about their Scilife experience over the past three years, and what impact it’s had for Laboratoria Wolfs.

The Search

Laboratoria Wolfs began their search for an electronic quality management system around three years ago. The goal? To find a simple yet powerful quality management system that would grow in tandem with changing company needs. Gregory explains that he wanted to take as few risks as possible when he was in the process of choosing the eQMS; 

‘We wanted to have a simple system, easy to set up, easy to teach to other employees and as fast as possible. When we were starting out we also wanted to have a system which would not be super expensive, like some of them are, without certainty for the success of implementation.’ 

Gregory Coucke, COO Laboratoria Wolfs

Scilife was the best option on the market to meet these needs, Gregory quickly discovered. 

The Set Up

When Trine asks about the overall Scilife learning experience, Gregory describes it as being fairly fast, and that It's pretty easy to get comfortable with Scilife software. He mentions that it depends a bit on the feature his team needs to get to grips with and that occasionally a colleague might make a rookie mistake, so what he really appreciates is that missteps on the platform don’t have disastrous consequences;

‘What is nice is that you really can't do anything wrong in the system. It always needs approval and if something is not right, then okay, we'll do it again. It's just a learning mistake.’ 

Gregory Coucke, COO Laboratoria Wolfs

Joran adds that Scilife really lends itself well to learning by doing, he can train new employees easily one on one on the platform and go through quality processes with them step by step.

Favourite Features

Adaptive system

When asked about their favourite Scilife features, the quality experts agree that they were won over by flexibility, to be able to start off small with only the features that are really needed at that moment, with the option to expand to more advanced functionality later. 

Intuitive Dashboard

Scilife’s user-friendly design and intuitive dashboard are another firm favourites.

'I like the look and feel of Scilife. It looks simple. It has an attractive dashboard, in comparison to other systems that I've seen which are less structured.’

Gregory Coucke, COO Laboratoria Wolfs

Instant Notifications

Electronic notifications act as handy reminders, and are incredibly useful, explains Joran; 

‘What I like the most is the immediate notification if something is logged or documented. I have my emails organised through the modules so I can see, oh, I have a new document to sign, or there’s an event which was logged’

Joran Smout, Quality Manager at Laboratoria Wolfs

Centralised & Paperless Efficency

Going paperless really helped Laboratoria Wolfs gain efficiency. Gregory mentions that before switching over to Scilife, it would be time intensive and frustrating to search for paper documents and find out who took what. He appreciates that now everything is digitally centralised and that documents are accessible from anywhere which also enabled remote working - an impossibility before. 

Version Control & Approval Flow

Joran adds that finally having proper version control and tracked approval workflows has been a game changer in his document control management. 

‘You can easily see which version needs to be signed, and which person needs to sign anything in the flow. You don't have to look for documents anymore.’ 

Joran Smout, Quality Manager at Laboratoria Wolfs

Having your voice heard

Finally, Gregory mentions that he values being able to have an input in how Scilife evolves and that Scilife takes suggestions on board and actually implements them;

‘We were able to have an impact on the product itself, it was nice to be able to ask Scilife to have some new features in place’

Gregory Coucke, COO Laboratoria Wolfs

Expert Advice

When the experts at Wolf’s are asked about tips for fellow quality professionals on the lookout for quality management software, Gregory stresses not to think too rigidly initially, and to give out-of-the-box quality software such as Scilife a try;

‘It is very nice to be able to customise everything, but it shouldn’t be a limiting factor to get started with ready-to-use software. Maybe just adapt your quality system a bit too. Every company has its own little details, but if a certain quality software works at one company, why wouldn't it work at yours? So don't overcomplicate it.’ 

Gregory Coucke, COO Laboratoria Wolfs

However, he also adds that the system must be flexible too - and that this should be a key point to look for in your eQMS or quality platform search.

‘Look for a flexible system. Most quality systems are really rigid. And flexibility is something that can be helpful for your goal.’ 

Gregory Coucke, COO Laboratoria Wolfs

When asked about what to keep in mind when starting out with a system such Scilife, Joran has a crucial tip from a lesson he learnt the hard way; think ahead when creating your document types and futureproof them!

‘We organically created some document types and now we're a bit stuck with them. When everything was on paper, this was not a big issue. But, the printing of forms, has become a bit inconvenient. We have forms that we hang on the wall for people to see and we have forms to fill in, but these are all only one document type now. So to change these would've been a lot easier to do in the beginning.’ -  Joran Smout, Quality Manager at Laboratoria Wolfs

The Results

Laboratoria Wolfs gained robust digital document control and paperless efficiency with Scilife, enabling the team to manage quality operations effectively from anywhere. As the company evolves, Scilife will be right by their side, hopefully for many years to come!

Imagine what Scilife can do for your company! Reach out, we're always happy to chat.