MES for Pharmaceutical Production
Increasing competition, global operations and stricter national regulations put pressure on medical-device manufacturers. Innovation can make products more complex and incorporate drugs or other active ingredients. Achieving low cost, high quality and high returns is difficult. To compete while meeting applicable pharmaceutical and medical-electronics requirements, manufacturers need sound quality mechanisms, factory visibility, complete traceability and production-data archives.
Pharmaceutical MES focuses on optimizing the whole production process. Timely communication, interaction, integration and sharing of information support optimized scheduling, flexible dispatch, simpler and improved processes, and rapid responses to abnormalities. The aim is coordinated, stable and efficient production and control.
Functions include production scheduling, process control, operational optimization, acquisition and analysis, batch management, production tracking, equipment management, personnel management and production documents.
Optimized production scheduling
Scheduling analysis, materials control, energy management and costing support flexible scheduling. Detailed schedules derived from the ERP master production plan allocate people, equipment, materials and energy to develop a suitable production plan.
Production-process control
Translate schedules into operating-process steps, issue them to execution and optimization modules and supervise execution. Current batch conditions, equipment status and employee information prepare subsequent production. The module also supports responses and rescheduling when unexpected events occur.
Production-document management
Manage production plans, formulations, process routes, parameters, standard operating procedures, plan-change notices and shift-handover information. Record and retain detailed production history.
Production-operation management
Manage process parameters, monitor control and optimize operations. Process routes from scheduling are broken into operating instructions. Acquisition and analysis supervise control-system and equipment execution. Comparative analysis of processes and operating conditions supports improvement.
Batch management and quality tracking
RFID, barcodes and integrated acquisition equipment collect online parameter values and offline measurements for each medicine batch. When quality problems are detected, managers trace back through the batch's production records and report results to ERP and scheduling modules for tighter quality control.
Human resources
Standardize records of workers' current status and operating activities, including time, attendance and skills. Exchange information with scheduling to optimize assignments and provide basic data to the enterprise HR system.
Equipment management and maintenance
Compare operating status with maintenance-standard parameters to guide staged, periodic and preventive maintenance. Alarms support urgent responses, while histories of incidents and problems help address recurring issues.
Data analysis and processing
Acquire production data from underlying industrial control systems in real time and send execution instructions back to control systems. Provide detailed operational data for batch management, production tracking, equipment maintenance and personnel management.
Pharmaceutical MES connects production and management through an information-system implementation tailored to enterprise requirements.
System diagrams and screens
