Beyond equipment, pharmaceutical production processes need supporting Services to deliver their full potential. Syntegon offers manufacturers comprehensive Lifecycle Services and a long-term partnership to keep operations running smoothly.
Key takeaways
- Syntegon Lifecycle Services keep pharmaceutical production efficient, flexible, and compliant.
- Preventive and predictive maintenance help maximize OEE and reduce downtime.
- Smart spare-parts planning and retrofits increase production flexibility.
- Expert support accelerates qualification, validation, and compliance.
- Service Agreements provide better predictability of costs and planning certainty.
From first development to finished product, manufacturing OSD (oral solid dosage) and liquid pharmaceuticals can be full of pitfalls. An inflexible production set-up can hamper operations just as much as machine defects and unscheduled downtime. Ensuring compliance with strict regulatory requirements as well as lengthy qualification and validation processes can further delay production goals and time-to-market. Navigating these challenges alone is time-consuming and detracts from companies’ core business – making an experienced partner invaluable. Syntegon supports manufacturers not only with high-quality equipment but also with Lifecycle Services designed to keep production efficient, compliant, and reliable over the long term.
Services to maximize efficiency and OEE
This hinges in no small part on ensuring efficiency, one of the core challenges of any pharmaceutical production. Machine defects and unplanned downtime, aging equipment, inefficient use of utilities, unsuitable process parameters or formulations and suboptimal product yields can all reduce overall equipment effectiveness (OEE). Syntegon addresses these issues with a broad range of Lifecycle Services. Helpline and remote support enable rapid diagnosis, troubleshooting, and reviews of machine settings to get operation running smoothly as fast as possible. Experienced service technicians provide hands-on assistance on site.
To avoid unplanned downtimes and product loss, planning ahead is key. Preventive maintenance, optionally aided by Syntegon’s Preventive Maintenance Kits, containing all spare parts and consumables for specific maintenance tasks, helps manufacturers schedule service activities efficiently – complemented by predictive maintenance based on data monitoring via Synexio. Performance Improvement Services and audits identify inefficiencies and provide targeted recommendations to improve productivity and machine performance. When it comes to harmonizing formulations, equipment, and process parameters, Syntegon’s Pharma Customer Centers for liquid and OSD pharmaceuticals allow manufacturers to test their products and processes under real-world conditions on equipment from lab to industrial scale, resulting in concrete optimization measures.
Improved performance for a healthcare customer
Our collaboration with a South African healthcare consumer goods manufacturer shows how effective Performance Improvement Services can be. After issues with equipment performance and operational cost, Syntegon carried out a one-week, on-site assessment that laid the groundwork for a further process audit, trainings, and modernizations. The direct result: a 30% increase in OEE!
Flexibility through smart parts management and retrofits
Having the necessary expertise at hand for handling breakdowns swiftly is only half the battle. The other half is immediate access to the right spare parts when they are needed. Being prepared and able to react flexibly does not require keeping every component in stock. Instead, Syntegon’s Recommended Parts Inventory identifies the most critical parts for each machine configuration, enabling manufacturers to prioritize their inventory which can be ordered conveniently via the mySyntegon web shop.
Flexibility beyond maintenance is crucial for CDMOs. They must be able to meet changing demand in terms of capacity, products, and formats to remain competitive. Equipment should therefore not only handle a broad range of applications, but also support fast, efficient changeovers. Retrofits and modernizations can increase the flexibility of existing machinery, allowing manufacturers to adapt production without complete replacements. One example is the successful RABS retrofit on a liquid fill-finish line for Spanish CMO Inibsa: their modernized production helped to meet new customer requirements and resulted in winning a new customer thanks to the equipment’s full Annex 1 compliance.
“Once the line was running smoothly, it significantly reduced contamination risks and increased quality – which is exactly what the inspection authorities and our customers expect from an industry leader.”
Raquel Arenós, Chief Operating Officer Inibsa
Streamlining qualification, validation, and compliance
Qualification and validation are major factors in a pharmaceutical product’s time-to-market and should therefore be efficiently planned and executed. Considering the complexities these steps entail, this can be a real challenge. Both equipment and processes must also comply with numerous regional and international regulations that are subject to change.
Syntegon Services support manufacturers throughout qualification and validation and help ensure compliant equipment and processes from development to commercial production. Experts well versed in international GMP requirements advise not only on production processes and technology, but also on storage, distribution, documentation, and data transparency. They also provide qualification and validation services tailored to specific production environments. The Syntegon Pharma Customer Centers around the world are the perfect testing ground to ensure compliant processes work as designed and are qualification- and validation-ready. Remote and on-site training helps operators implement them consistently and stay up to date on compliance requirements. Syntegon’s Pharma Customer Centers are also host to events like the OSD Academy that allows pharma professionals to advance their knowledge through hands-on training and expert exchange.
Manufacturers do not need to invest in entirely new equipment to comply with evolving regulations: retrofits and modernizations offer more than increased flexibility. Implementing, for example, digital monitoring systems, glove testing, or RABS as shown in Inibsa’s case, can bring existing production equipment in line with current regulations.
Your Lifecycle Service partner
For pharmaceutical and biotech manufacturers looking to focus on growing their business, an experienced lifecycle partner like Syntegon provides long-term value beyond equipment installation. And for even greater planning certainty, predictable costs, and reduced production risks, Syntegon offers Service Agreements with standardized or customizable packages for proactive maintenance and expert support. The result: pharma operations that simply work – efficiently, flexibly, and compliant. Contact us to find the right Services for your needs!
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