An insight into Pharmaceutical and Biopharmaceutical manufacturing

The use of Excel spreadsheets for production planning and scheduling is surprisingly widespread in the manufacturing environment. The software is familiar to many planners, and it can be seen as a quick and easy option when it comes to production scheduling. However, there are sophisticated software solutions are available which could transform the way you manage production planning. Is it time to leave Excel behind?

Having scaled up significantly, the global pharmaceutical company wanted to maximize capacity and get the most from every batch.

The UK government has invested an extra £100m in a new state-of-the-art centre to scale up Covid-19 vaccine and gene therapy manufacturing. It says this will be vital for the UK’s ability to respond to viruses like the new coronavirus and other potential future pandemics. Rod Schregardus, a pharmaceutical manufacturing expert at The Access Group says this is great news, but warns that consideration must also be given now to the facility’s manufacturing planning and scheduling systems to ensure it can meet its full potential.

The outbreak has shone a light on the supply chain and its capabilities. With some nations struggling to access the resources needed to manufacture health care products already on the market - let alone look to deliver vast amounts of vaccines and treatments at large scale - what does the future hold for pharmaceutical manufacturing?

Working within the pharmaceutical industry, you will know that rapid growth in the market brings with it a number of challenges. We’ve unpacked some of the pharma challenges currently affecting the sector, along with some perfectly prescribed antidotes to fight them.

Ongoing development of manufacturing sites is essential to provide future-state readiness of a continually evolving business environment.

Using Access Orchestrate, Baseline Controls’ consultants were able to conduct a detailed analysis of capacity long before full production had begun. Since Access Orchestrate was first implemented to prove capacity, the pharmaceutical company has scaled up its use of the software across the site for day-to-day production scheduling.

Pharmaceutical companies using Access Orchestrate as their day-to-day production scheduling and capacity tool are also exploiting its functionality to address key strategic issues.

In this case study, we learn how one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies is using Access Orchestrate Planning and Scheduling software every day in a production facility producing vaccines and self-injected prescription medicines.

Access Orchestrate helps Surepharm Services with greater management, control and visualisation over orders, which has improved production, as well as heightened morale and collaboration.

Terms such as ‘efficiency’ and ‘sustainability’ have long been key talking points for pharma manufacturing. Indeed, in an industry that’s facing increasingly complex pressures, particularly as it adjusts to the changing demands seen as a result of Covid-19, the need for resources and processes that reduce wastage and maximise productivity, profitability and reliability are essential.

Access Orchestrate helps a major US Biopharma company with greater management, control and visualisation over orders, which has improved production, as well as heightened morale and collaboration.

There’s a buzz on the pharmaceutical manufacturing block about personalized medicine. Its promise will not have escaped the notice of most readers, growing in prominence with very real potential to treat previously incurable diseases and minimize human suffering on a grand scale.