Illumina Technology: Automating logistics to deliver time-critical health diagnostics
Integration cuts out manual bottlenecks to speed genomic delivery
Genomic sequencing drives breakthroughs in rare disease diagnosis, oncology treatment, and clinical research, but discoveries mean nothing if products don’t arrive on time. Illumina Technology eliminated manual, paper-based transportation planning with the SAP Transportation Management (SAP TM) application and SAP Business Network for Logistics. The company automated carrier coordination to ensure temperature-sensitive diagnostics reach hospitals and laboratories when delays of hours or even days can mean the difference between life and death.
| Industry | Region | Company Size |
| Life sciences and healthcare | San Diego, California | 9000 employees |
globally at 21 Illumina and late symptomatic plants across two phases
faster new carrier onboarding throughout the Americas and Europe
Associate Director for IT, Illumina Technology
Supporting mission-critical research through reliable delivery commitments
Genomic sequencing technology drives medical breakthroughs across rare disease diagnosis, oncology research, clinical diagnostics, and drug development—including pandemic vaccine development. Illumina Technology’s DNA sequencing and array-based technology serve thousands of hospitals, research institutes, and laboratories worldwide, with applications extending into plant genomics, animal health, and agricultural breeding. Contributing to human health through genomics innovation keeps Illumina’s teams motivated despite challenging day-to-day operations, complex global business demands, and stringent regulatory requirements.
Illumina operates globally with temperature-sensitive consumables and precision instruments. The company also manages warehousing, distribution, planning, and transportation across multiple business functions to ensure products maintain integrity throughout delivery.
For hospitals and research institutes depending on Illumina’s technology, delivery delays create cascading consequences. When field service engineers need replacement parts for machine breakdowns, or laboratories or medical research facilities need Illumina products for critical diagnoses, same-day or next-day delivery becomes critical for business continuity. Research programs operate on tight timelines with scheduled experiments and staffed laboratories. Hospitals conducting genetic sequencing for critically ill patients face time-sensitive diagnostic windows. Pranesh Senthamarai, Associate Director for IT overseeing global logistics and procurement, explains the stakes: “If the end user doesn’t get the product on time, it’s stopping their business operations, stopping research work, or directly impacting a hospital waiting for our products. Any delay significantly impacts customer experience and their mission.” Vinod Nagarahalli, Director of IT, adds clinical context: “Imagine an infant undergoing critical treatment. We have days to get sequencing done to identify genetic disposition. If we don’t keep commitments delivering on time, it could impact somebody’s life.”
Associate Director for IT, Illumina Technology
Bringing transportation planning into an integrated SAP ecosystem
With decisions made outside of system controls and manual, paper-based transactions requiring employees to email logistics partners for booking confirmations, Illumina sought to transform transportation operations. The goal: system-driven decision-making with automation, data-driven visibility, and optimized processes. Another aim was to eliminate manual coordination across business functions for shipments and emergency service deliveries that require precise timing and temperature control throughout transit.
SAP Transport Management and SAP Business Network for Logistics integrate tightly with Illumina’s existing SAP ERP Central Component (SAP ECC), SAP Global Trade Services application, SAP Environmental Health and Safety Management application, and SAP Extended Warehouse Management (SAP EWM) application. This integration provides the intuitive data integration that’s crucial for end-to-end transaction flow and systematic decision-making. The solutions enable electronic booking confirmation exchange with 15-20 bulk carriers across all geographies, while warehouse data automatically feeds transportation planning for accurate package quantities, pallet sizes, and dry ice requirements.
Senthamarai describes the automated workflow: “Starting from order entry to order-based transportation planning, we get cartonization and master data from our ECC ecosystem distributed to Transportation Management. Internal customers get visibility for advanced transportation planning, send booking confirmations electronically through Business Network for Logistics to carriers, and receive confirmations from them. Previously, all this was done manually outside the system. Now everything is within SAP Transportation Management.” SAP Business Network for Logistics is key to this essential part of Illumina’s solution. SAP’s business network enables Illumina to collaborate directly with their carriers, while staying within their core processes.”
Associate Director for IT, Illumina Technology
Optimizing delivery performance through systematic carrier coordination
Using SAP TM with SAP Business Network for Logistics, Illumina gained visibility across channels, eliminated disjointed invoice processing through embedded optical character recognition, and centralized transportation management with complete audit trails.
Since implementation, Illumina has eliminated time-consuming manual booking processes by leveraging automation. This has enabled it to secure appropriate carrier capacity through accurate warehouse data that feeds transportation planning. System-guided lane and route optimization with rate comparison functionality enables the selection of optimal carriers and service levels while managing shipping costs. Cost per transportation booking has decreased because manual selection was replaced by data-driven carrier determination; this was fed by rates directly from carriers and then validated by systematic rate analysis and service level matching.
The two solutions, SAP TM and SAP Business Network for Logistics, strengthened compliance with healthcare and life science regulatory requirements. This provided complete traceability by showing who performed each transaction. It also included timestamps and error patterns for corrective actions and continuous improvement.
By transitioning from user-dependent manual decisions to systematic, validated processes connected to Illumina’s logistics partners, Illumina’s logistics team gained the ability to track orders, identify delayed shipments, and intervene proactively. The company now communicates accurate delivery dates electronically rather than ship dates only, allowing customers to plan operations and prepare receiving activities. Carrier performance measurement through data-driven analytics tracks booking cancellations, pattern repetitions, and reliability metrics.
Most importantly, these improvements have reduced delivery delays. They support business continuity for research institutions as well as hospitals conducting time-sensitive genetic sequencing for critically ill patients and mission-critical clinical diagnostics.
Laying foundations for AI-powered supply chain intelligence
As Illumina pursues SAP S/4HANA transformation with SAP TM, SAP Business Network for Logistics, and SAP EWM embedded during deployment, the company anticipates leveraging emerging AI capabilities. Following its phased supply chain deployment strategy that, according to Nagarahalli “de-risked our S/4HANA program” and “paid off big time,” Illumina is exploring SAP technologies, including the Joule copilot and supply chain optimization for agentic AI across processes. These technologies will help the company move beyond KPI measurement toward intelligent automation, closing loops across planning, warehouse management, and transportation execution with real-time orchestration.