Quoi de Neuf ?

In this issue:

• Automation Today - Life Sciences Special Edition
• ProsCon acquisition adds process knowledge and boosts expertise
• Meeting performance and quality goals
• Extended capabilities for Life Sciences Manufacturing Execution System
• Electronic batch recording: the path to paperless production
• Pharmaceutical giant aims to improve clinical trial supply chain
• Cutting-edge batch production
• Packaging pharmaceutical products: at Imanpack the care is clear to see
• Raising overall equipment effectiveness (OEE)
• Enterprise-wide visibility: the future is within your reach
• Streamlining production processes with MES
• Managing energy costs
• Pharma Automation
• Pharma MES

Ingredients for success

What makes Rockwell Automation a leading supplier to the Pharmaceutical and Cosmetics industries?

According to a recent ARC report in 2007, "CPM Systems for the Process Industries Worldwide Outlook," Rockwell Automation
is the market leader for "Collaborative Production Management" in the Pharmaceutical and Cosmetics industry. How did we achieve that? There are the three key ingredients for this success.

About RS PMX MES Rockwell Automation’s MES software package, RS PMXTM MES, was developed specifically for the Life Sciences industry. It collects production information during drug development and manufacture and uses this information to deliver value. Reviews of the production audit trail are completed much faster because the user can retrieve reports on past batches much more easily. As it includes integrated XML data transfer functions, it enables users to put together a formula in a test environment first, then approve it and forward it to the actual production process.

First is the maturity of the product.
Rockwell Automation's Life Sciences MES "RS PMX MES" is the foundation of the success of many of our clients. Evolving over time, it is functionally shaped by leading pharmaceutical customers and technically matured on the latest proven platforms.
The upcoming release RS PMX MES 4.3 will provide a series of additional values. Because the industry has an increasing focus on handling fragile material that must be controlled in a cool chain environment, RS PMX MES 4.3 features a set of tracking and management functions to monitor the time out of refrigeration. This allows an integrated check within the batch release process to compare whether or not the temperature boundaries were maintained. This further shortens the product lifecycle.
The new version also builds additional mobile capabilities into the inventory management. Warehouse operations are physically distributed. Having all necessary inventory control functions available on a mobile device allows a decrease of non-value warehouse operations and in the end leads to a higher material throughput. The support of portal-technology allows RS PMX MES to be integrated into an enterprise environment. With that, the information provided to the user can be shaped to their individual needs.
RS PMX MES is a comprehensive MES solution, tailored around paperless production with EBR (Electronic Batch Recording). It manages and controls all material, equipment and people activities for biotechnology and pharmaceutical production, quality control, warehouse management and maintenance.
The second factor is the "people experience".
Regardless of whether you do smaller single-site projects or global MES roll-outs, you need people who understand the potential of business optimisation, and who are able to design a solution and implement that at the lowest risk. Rockwell Automation has a global presence of more than 4,000 project managers, implementation- and validation engineers, all with experience in operations within the Life Sciences environment.

Finally, there is customer satisfaction.
The product and people count for nothing if there are not satisfied customers at the end. According to ongoing customer satisfaction surveys, Rockwell Automation gets high scores. This has been achieved by realising the responsibility as a true provider for our customers. One of the most important examples of Rockwell Automation's commitment is the Customer Advisory Board (CAB). This is where Rockwell Automation works together with customers, in shaping the strategic direction of MES offering.
These three ingredients for success are easy to talk about and hard to achieve. According to ARC, Rockwell Automation has achieved it.

For more information, please e-mail us at: info_at@ra.rockwell.com, ref: RS PMX MES 4.3