In recent months, high-profile drug shortages have brought pharmaceutical manufacturing operations into the spotlight. To meet rising global demand for new therapies for diseases like cancer, diabetes and obesity, pharmaceutical companies will need to adopt strategies and technologies that enable them to increase throughput while continuing to meet safety, quality and efficacy standards — all without increasing costs. 

The right approach to facility and process management — one that’s digitized and data-driven from the outset — can empower pharma manufacturers to achieve more with less. By building a proactive asset management strategy incorporating cohesive governance and the right portfolio of foundational technologies, they can create a robust digital backbone for their operations. Doing so will make it possible to improve asset performance and reliability while containing costs over the long term. In a world where a pharmaceutical company’s reputation is just as important as its bottom line, this focus is key for maintaining consumer trust and meeting the growing need for innovative therapies.

Taking a smart, proactive approach to asset management

Thinking holistically sets the foundation for an intelligent asset management strategy. Deploying a connected ecosystem of technologies, all working together and sharing data, across production facilities enables pharmaceutical manufacturers to reduce risk in their operations, optimize yields, decrease downtime and make better decisions.

“The more that the technology solutions deployed across operational processes interact with one another, the more value they can deliver,” explains Peyton Griggers, executive industry consultant at Hexagon Asset Lifecycle Intelligence, which offers data-driven insights for designing, constructing, and operating industrial facilities. 

For instance, Griggers says, companies can leverage data they gathered while planning and executing a new project to optimize that asset’s care and management plan. Performance and management data collected over the course of that asset’s lifecycle can inform maintenance timing and end-of-life replacement planning. Quality management systems can interact with enterprise asset management (EAM) systems to aid in incident investigations when defects are detected and to drive corrective action. 

“All of this data—and much more—can help the business make better decisions about equipment performance, costs and overall efficiency,” Griggers says. 

When pharmaceutical manufacturers take full advantage of their asset data, they can better understand how to meet production demands. At the same time, they can use factual evidence about risks, performance and quality to guide product development and capital replenishment decision-making.

Covering the digital manufacturing backbone’s full lifecycle

An intelligent asset management strategy should encompass all phases of the asset lifecycle. Each phase impacts the others, so having integrated solutions that allow data to flow seamlessly across phases is critical. 

Stakeholders interested in reliability, maintenance and ongoing operations should be engaged from the start of each project to support efficiency and reliability before the asset even becomes operational. Pharmaceutical manufacturers should be able to track activities across all project phases, from planning and designing to building and implementing, and then through operating and maintaining. This allows them to build long-term maintenance and refresh cycles that minimize disruption and maximize asset performance.

This kind of data-driven approach also makes it possible to track all costs throughout an asset’s lifecycle to understand how its failure risk changes over time and to identify the optimal replacement window. Incorporating data from a broad array of sources — ranging from the design tools used to conceptualize its structure all the way through to its ongoing performance monitoring — can ensure that the asset continues to operate in a controlled state that meets regulatory requirements and supports its longevity.

“Real-time visibility into asset performance makes it possible for a pharmaceutical manufacturer to optimize maintenance based on current conditions,” Griggers says. “When you digitize your manufacturing backbone, you can automatically share data about risks and upcoming tasks with everyone involved in managing asset lifecycles. This makes it possible to implement processes and workflows that improve collaboration — and with it, efficiency — across the entire organization.”

Simplifying compliance

Maintaining regulatory compliance while maximizing asset performance, longevity and uptime has long been a challenge in pharmaceutical manufacturing. Organizations must maintain strict control of the asset’s configurations, environmental conditions and part replacement schedule. These regulatory requirements make change control management complex. 

“Digitization enables automatic compliance tracking,” Griggers says. “With the right connected technology portfolio in place, you can implement monitoring to ensure procedures are executed consistently and accurately, manage reviews and approvals, and keep track of product quality. All these capabilities help to ensure that products are safe for consumers because they’re produced in ways that are consistent, repeatable and dependable.”

Becoming future-ready

Technology will continue to evolve. As it does, pharmaceutical manufacturers will encounter new opportunities to improve asset performance and longevity while automating compliance assurance. Industry leaders are already harnessing machine learning and AI to predict failure patterns and optimize maintenance schedules. These predictions will become increasingly precise and actionable, so equipment standards can be fine-tuned. A day may come when asset systems and analytics are able to make design recommendations for future improvements — almost as if the assets were improving themselves independently.

Until then, pharmaceutical manufacturers can partner with a leader in digital reality solutions to help them combine sensors, software and autonomous technologies to enhance their production processes from end to end. To learn more about how Hexagon helps life sciences companies bridge the digital and physical worlds to realize new efficiencies, visit us at https://exploreali.hexagon.com/process-manufacturing-industries.