Repost, with comments: AstraZeneca's Focus On Supply Chain: With Change Comes The Obligation To Respond

Pharmaceutical Online recently posted an article on the need for tight collaboration within a pharmaceutical company's supply chain in order to respond to changing market conditions.

 

They also mentioned a Gartner study defining the five steps that a company needs to make in order to ensure an effective supply chain: React, Anticipate, Integrate, Collaborate, and Orchestrate. For years, we have been saying that using solutions such as MES and Workflow can be the underpinning of a responsive, agile supply chain.

Why?

The intersection of food, and drugs

I read an article today about Nestle developing foods with "real" health benefits: Nestle to test effect of nutrients on human cells.  At first glance, the title infers to activities that are scary, ominous.  But further reading, you find that Nestle is developing foods that are good for you--provide health benefits beyond nutrition.

This is interesting for a number of reasons

Repost: A Shift In Focus: The Value Of Serialization, with comments

http://www.pharmaceuticalonline.com/doc/a-shift-in-focus-the-value-of-serialization-0001?sectionCode=editor&templateCode=Departments&user=2120959&source=nl:38067

 

Serialization, or the ability to capture individually-identified product elements within a final version, is integral for any product that has compliance requirements.  Serialization has always been a foundational function of a Manufacturing Execution System.  The ability to track components prior to assembly, or blending, allows manufacturers or processors better visibility into the performance of these components, as well as a firmer handle on quality and any remediation efforts that occur if a product fault occurs.

Wonderware MES, coupled with ArchestrA Workflow, provides the backbone for providing deep and complete serialization tracking of components and lots.  It reinforces compliance efforts with closed-loop track/trace/genealogy.  We'll be talking more about ArchestrA Workflow in pharmaceutical at our Users Conference-- so join us and see why we say it's a Revolution.

Trends in Outsourcing by Big Pharma

http://www.lifescienceleader.com/magazine/current-issue-3/item/4521-trends-in-outsourcing-%E2%80%94-what%E2%80%99s-going-on-in-big-pharma

Whether it's for pharmaceutical drugs, or consumer packaged goods, outsourcing is now commonplace for manufacturers. This study referenced shows the expected behaviors of the pharmaceutical "giants" to use outsourcing for the next year.  What's interesting to me is the very, very slight uptick--you might even attribute it to a sampling error--in the use of outsourcing for 2013/14.  Could it be that the benefits expected aren't there?  Or that it's just easier to regain those internal competencies?  In any case, this study doesn't, in my opinion, show a strong, sustainable drive for outsourcing for this industry in the future.

Repost: Serialization's a-Comin'!

By Neal Collier, Avanceon, originally posted January 9, 2013

With the start of 2013 we take a moment to anticipate what changes lie ahead for our industry and what impact they will have in the new year and beyond. Have you considered the impact that Serialization will play?

Read the entire article here: http://www.avanceon.com/blog/bid/81442/Serialization-s-a-Comin

Using BPM/Workflow in the Pharmaceutical Industry

A primary focus of the pharmaceutical industry is the capture and standardization of operating practices.  Repeatability, documentation, and compliance to regulations are at the forefront of any pharma operation. 

A typical pharmaceutical manufacturer will have industrial automation and software applications that manage the physical operations--Programmable Logic Controllers or Distributed Control Systems, handling the temperatures, speeds, movement and packaging; batch recipe management to handle recipes,  procedures and processes, such as Clean In Place; Recipe validation; audit trails; and version control; and sensors and other discrete automation devices which contribute to authentication, confirmation, and location of the products as they travel through the process.

There is something more that these manufacturers can do...add workflow to their solution stack.