Significant improvements in efficiency within the pharmaceutical industry are difficult to imagine without a modern Manufacturing Execution System (MES). This system acts as a crucial link between business and production processes, ensuring that the correct quantity of high-quality products is produced in the right way, and then delivered to patients.
MES systems have rapidly evolved in recent years, incorporating advanced functionalities that earlier solutions did not offer. Below, we describe the key functionalities that you can use to evaluate the capabilities of your MES, or as a guideline if you are considering implementing such a system.
Real-time Production Monitoring: Traditional pharmaceutical production relies on manual data entry and tracking, leading to errors, delays and potential inadequacies. The core MES functionality is the ability to monitor and control production in real-time. This feature allows continuous oversight of key performance indicators (KPIs), tracking production progress and making immediate adjustments to processes, when necessary. This enables pharmaceutical companies to respond quickly to disruptions, reduce downtime and act immediately when quality could be compromised.
Regulatory Compliance: The MES plays a crucial role in ensuring compliance in pharmaceutical production, where quality, safety and traceability requirements are extremely stringent. Its function is to ensure that all processes are precisely controlled, documented and executed in compliance with standards & regulatory requirements.
Advanced Work Organization: Modern MES algorithms can optimally organize production based on various factors such as machine availability, worker skills and material stocks. By considering order statuses and internal resource constraints, manufacturers can achieve higher throughput, reduce bottlenecks and improve Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), allowing for more flexible production planning.
Quality Management: Compared to traditional end-of-process quality control, a modern MES enables real-time quality measurements and the detection and elimination of defects during the production process. This approach reduces production rejects and improves overall product quality.
Connectivity: A modern MES easily integrates with shopfloor operations and machines as well as with other business systems, such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Warehouse Management System (WMS). The flow of data ensures a comprehensive overview of business and production operations, enabling better control and decision-making at both operational and strategic levels.
Accessibility: Mobility allows operators, managers and supervisors to monitor and manage production processes regardless of their location within the production facility. Operators or maintenance workers can receive real-time alerts, view production dashboards and control production processes even if they are not directly at the production facilities, increasing flexibility and responsiveness.
Ensuring Traceability: Traceability is designed to track the origin and path of each material or raw ingredient, which is particularly important in production with strict regulatory requirements. In the event of a recall, the MES ensures the quick and accurate identification of non-compliant products, minimizing the impact on business customers or consumers and the manufacturer’s reputation.
Digitalization of Work Instructions: Traditional instructions are paper-based, static documents that are difficult and time-consuming to update, and prone to errors and damage. Therefore, an important MES functionality is the integration of work instructions into production processes. Such instructions include text, images, photographs, videos and augmented reality elements that guide operators, maintenance workers and other employees in managing processes and machines. Additionally, they contribute to paperless operations and environmental responsibility.
Worker Management and Training: This functionality is aimed at assigning tasks to individuals and teams based on their competencies, monitoring their work in real-time and measuring performance. This makes it possible to optimize worker utilization, increase productivity and identify the need for additional training, contributing to their development and production flexibility.
Maintenance Management: By monitoring equipment status and analyzing historical data, the MES can predict when certain production equipment will fail. Predictive maintenance reduces unplanned downtime, which can be a significant productivity factor, and extends the lifespan of machines and other devices. The MES also facilitates the scheduling of regular maintenance, tracks maintenance activities and provides maintenance history records for each piece of equipment.
Analytics and Business Intelligence: Data analytics within MES goes beyond traditional reporting, using artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to predict future trends, optimize processes and recommend improvements. The vast amounts of production data are a goldmine of information for enhancements, giving pharmaceutical manufacturers deeper insights into their production processes, making it easier to identify root causes of problems and make informed decisions.
How Can Metronik Help You?
All the functionalities described above, and several others, are available in Metronik’s advanced MePIS MES/LS solution, which is used by numerous pharmaceutical companies across Europe.
Because it is built in a modular way, you can deploy it in stages, according to your needs and capabilities, to reliably improve the efficiency of your production processes.
In addition to the IT solution, we also offer expert consulting to optimize your pharmaceutical production with the MES system, helping you achieve the desired results more easily and quickly.
For more information, contact Saša Sokolić, Director of Business Development and Sales, at sasa.sokolic@metronik.si.
