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Product inspection specialists Mettler Toledo PCE and contract manufacturer R-Pharm Germany GmbH are working together under a new partnership agreement to provide pharmaceutical customers with the support they need in the conception and planning of serialisation and aggregation solutions.
As a result of their collaboration, customers can now experience Track & Trace systems at first hand in a live production facility, enabling them to understand the available options and develop solutions to meet their specific requirements more effectively.
Implementing or upgrading serialisation systems is becoming more time-critical as the industry prepares for compliance with the Falsified Medicines Directive, which comes into effect in February 2019.
In addition to helping customers develop their own Track & Trace solutions, The R-Pharm facility – equipped with the latest Mettler Toledo PCE technology – can also provide a bridging service for pharmaceutical customers until their own plant is upgraded.
Contract manufacturer R-Pharm, once part of the Pfizer production network, has been implementing Mettler Toledo PCE systems and solutions for guidance-compliant serialisation and aggregation of pharmaceutical packaging for more than seven years.
In that time, nine packaging lines at its Illertissen plant have been updated to offer more flexible operation and rapid product changes.
As a result, all of the globally valid scenarios for pharmaceutical coding can be realised at this one site. Because R-Pharm works for many different clients, particular value is placed on flexible data management in the selection and implementation of the solutions from Mettler Toledo PCE.
“Our clients expect from us a direct connection to their own ERP or MES systems, or would like to use serial numbers of cloud systems such as Tracelink,” explains Michael Unbehaun, Engineering Manager at R-Pharm. “Therefore we make sure that our software systems are always state of the art and successively expand the interface palette. In this way, we can ensure efficient and rapid onboarding of new clients, and enable them to exploit the potential of our lines.”
Active knowledge sharing
The new partnership agreement ensures that the experiences gained by R-Pharm and Mettler Toledo PCE in recent years are passed on to their customers.
Interested parties can now see – live in the production plant – the performance and functional scope of the PCE systems within the framework of reference visits at R-Pharm.
Accompanying presentations provide visitors with comprehensive background information on conception and implementation options and inform them of the organisational requirements that R-Pharm uses in the implementation of global Track & Trace orders.
R-Pharm and Mettler Toledo PCE have now also started to offer combined workshops to provide a more intensive discussion of selected topics, from line integration and its process organisation to data exchange with cloud providers.
For those who want to delve even deeper, subject-specific training will be offered via a new T&T User Academy, including sessions on topics ranging from the development of so-called SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) to pharmaceutical validation of machines or OEE management tactics.
