Pharmaceutical Manufacturing and Life Sciences are of the most heavily regulated industries in business today. 2020 has turned out to be the most challenging year in their history as the world battles COVID-19 and races to provide a vaccine.
Part of the regulation and licensing that Pharmaceutical Manufacturing and other regulated industries have to adhere to refers to Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) and the requirement to have a current, supported system in place. The lack of which would result in non-compliancy.
BPD Zenith recently upgraded the Maximo 7.1 EAM system for one of the UK’s largest Pharmaceutical Manufacturers, who had a stable and reliable solution but one which was out-of-support and therefore failing to meet current regulation.
They selected BPD to implement the upgrade to 7.6.1 as well as Mobility (Maximo Anywhere), Calibration and Cognos Reporting. We were selected because of our experience and knowledge in highly regulated industries such as Pharmaceuticals, Oil & Gas and Nuclear.
Our client also saw this as an opportunity to incorporate new functionality and enhancements they could not access previously due to system version limitations, as well as the difficulties in implementing change (due to regulation and our client’s own self-certified set of high standards).
These enhancements were centred around reporting. There was a need to access real-time data in one place without having to employ external system tools. This goal would rely upon clean and accurate quality data throughout which the current system and processes could not guarantee.
Ensuring Quality Data – Make Maximo Mobile!
To ensure data quality throughout an EAM system, we begin at the source of the data – the point of entry. For our pharmaceutical manufacturing client, Work/Asset information is updated and entered by the user. This is usually done at the end of the day, after all work is completed, using desktop devices.
Work order information is usually based on memory and from any notes collected while the work is carried out. After a long day’s work, users tend not to be as focused and could forget some of the detail from earlier that day. While facilities are in place to document all required information, they were very easy to bypass with little information required to complete a work order – often none. This can result in minimal, unreliable data.
Happy Mobile Workforce = Happy Data Analyst
By enabling the workforce with mobile devices, users could now enter Work Order information while they actually carry out the work, avoiding the desktop and documentation at the end of a tough day. With devices and new process requirements in place, we can now prevent such Work Orders from being completed incorrectly.
However, by ‘forcing’ the user to enter this info, we risk adding too much activity to their workload, and will disengage the user and end up with minimal, basic, unreliable WO data again.
We had to look at ways to make data entry as easy and painless – and valuable – as possible while engaging the user so that reaching for their device becomes second nature.
With some clever configuration from BPD’s team of talented developers, Maximo Anywhere was able to offer a range of helpful, handy functions, such as Hands-Free, Voice-Activated data entry (even within a busy industrial environment), and Job Start/Job Finish with one touch – all designed to improve the user experience and ensure correct and efficient use of the devices.
Users can now access all previous asset and work history information and can contact colleagues and peers whenever necessary to assist with potential issues, sharing image/video/audio files to support; reducing the need to return to an unfinished job at a later date.
Maximo Calibration is Key
With accurate data now entered into the system, to ensure this accuracy continues throughout, data has to be managed and processed correctly – calibration is key. This is particularly important in such a highly regulated industry and became an essential part of the project.
Not only does calibration ensure data quality continues across departments and variations in processes, but it also becomes essential for successful maintenance planning and scheduling, and certification compliance, offering detailed documentation, traceability requirements, data validation and auditable reports.
With the upgrade in place, the opportunity arises to include AI and other tools and solutions to take calibration and analytics even further. Check out this video on how AI can assist visual inspections in IBM Maximo…
http://http://https://youtu.be/6_V8-STy4qY
BREAKING NEWS: COGNOS – Reporting Live from New Maximo!
Our Pharmaceuticals client employed a range of reporting solutions as well native Maximo reporting to meet their specific requirements. They used Query Based Reports from Maximo which had to be manually exported and did not offer the real-time information they required.
BPD configured the Cognos business intelligence tool, to bring data into one central dashboard, taking analytics and optimisation even further than expected – visualising live data through a variety of different formats to suit business needs – retrieved directly from Maximo 7.6.1 queries.
Our client was now able to take a deep dive into operation performance, with Cognos offering new ways to analyse their data such as maintenance hours spent in a particular location or resource used on unplanned Work Orders in a chosen period of time.
Unplanned work due to asset failures and breakdowns can now be documented and monitored in the moment – with a live ‘snapshot’ of current performance, in any department, at any time.
Maximo Offers Results
With the new system live, and as part of the overall programme of improvement, the client realised a 40% reduction of unplanned manufacturing and production work orders in just 6-months.
This positive impact continued with reductions of 25-30% across other departments in the same period.
Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Case Study
BPD recently published a case study after completing a large EAM upgrade project with a major UK pharmaceutical manufacturer, use the link below for more information.
Learn more about how the project was successfully implemented, on time and within budget, with improvements in unplanned work within just 6 months!
We will be holding a live online industry event regarding Pharmaceutical Manufacturing on Tuesday 26th January 2021…
Pharmaceutical Manufacturing:
Enterprise Asset Management Within a Highly Regulated Industry
Tues Jan 26, 2021
2:00 PM GMT
You can also find more information from BPD Enterprise Asset Management in Pharmaceuticals and Life Sciences here. If you’d like to get in touch to discuss your business requirements, we’d love to hear from you
