< PreviousTRAINING AND SKILLS DEVELOPMENT 20 Pharma Business International www.pbiforum.net generation, and they also have the money to simply buy and acquire new staff via takeovers and acquisitions of smaller companies – which is fast becoming the most reliable way to find high-quality and experienced staff nowadays. One way many companies are trying to get around the graduate issue is to take them on as apprentices and use government-funded levies (depending on the country) to offset costs and time wasted. This is unattractive to many graduates for the obvious reason that one does not go to university to become an apprentice, but it is a tested method if a business can find graduates willing to accept the position. The danger, of course, is that said graduates might be looking for “real” jobs in other companies while apprenticed. In terms of developing new teams there have been some advances in technology that came about as a necessity of the pandemic and lockdown. VR and AR training were put into use during those times to some success, but the technology was relatively new and many businesses were inexperienced in how to implement it. Time has developed that experience however, and there are many training companies now specialising in distance learning and VR simulation for training purposes. These can simulate real-life examples of work in a pharmaceutical environment, even simulating stress- factors and crisis moments, and allow new staff (or candidates for recruitment) to show off their skills and how they would act in such a situation. Mobile learning, like working, has seen a meteoric rise since the lockdown, and businesses may need to adopt it more with regards to recruitment as well. While it’s always better to have a candidate come in so they can be judged on body language, clothing and their personality, this is neither convenient nor realistic. Remote interviews may have to become the norm. A norm that has to change however, is the profile of the pharma industry. The sector has, as said earlier, experienced a rise in popularity after discovering the vaccine for COVID-19, but it also faces misinformation and pressure from conspiracy theorists and politicians. More needs to be done to promote a career in the pharma industry, both in terms of the wealth and jobs available – most high paying compared to other sectors – but also more needs to be done to convince people that the work can be fulfilling and interesting. STEM studies have suffered a lot over the last ten years, partly because the sciences seem “boring” to younger students. More needs to be done to show off the kind of work undertaken, and how interesting it can be. This will hopefully cause interest in careers in the industry to grow, but it is only possible if more in the sector reach out to schools and show off the kind of work they do. It is not enough to say the money is there and the jobs are myriad, because that doesn’t mean much to children between the ages of 11-16. With how conscious teenagers are of others and the environment, it might do more to entice them if companies start talking about what they have “achieved” rather than how much they have “earned”, and just how big an impact the sector has on people around the globe. Pharma Business International 21 www.pbiforum.net TRAINING AND SKILLS DEVELOPMENT © stock.adobe.com/GorodenkoffFLOW MEASUREMENT AND CONTROL 22 Pharma Business International www.pbiforum.net F or any pharmaceutical business dedicated to the details of product integrity, quality and effectiveness, controlling and measuring the flow of ingredients should be of utmost concern. After all, optimal performance will define every patient’s wellbeing, and any customer’s trust in each batch you ship out. Especially where fluid handling is instrumental to a medication or healthcare product, flow measurement and control are fundamental to its stability and safety. But beyond the essentials of profitability and meeting regulations, in providing valuable insights into fluid dynamics, they also enable efficiency, reduce waste and ultimately contribute to your best possible success. There are many intricacies to the need for accuracy in flow measurement. First and foremost, it ensures that the right amounts of fluids or gases are delivered when and where needed. Whether it’s in the precise dosing of ingredients in pharmaceutical manufacturing, or the controlled distribution of fluids in chemical processes, accurate flow measurement and control enable consistent product quality and performance. Monitoring and controlling your stream of raw materials, such as chemicals and solvents, helps ensure that the right amount is delivered every time. This is critical for maintaining consistent product quality in a field where the right dosage is crucial to public health. If applied to pre-existing quality assurance methods such as batch processing, attention to flow provides detailed levels of control to the collection and handling of ingredients. Raw materials are often subjected to various processing steps, such as mixing, heating and cooling, reaction or purification, and each may be happening simultaneously across multiple batches. Making and controlling measurements allows for keeping track of the multiple liquid or gaseous ingredients that may well be needed for certain pharmaceutical products, throughout these many complex systems of combining and refining. When your equipment capacity or specialisation makes batch processing an essential, your desired production Optimising operations Ensuring product integrity, quality, and efficiency in the pharmaceutical industry relies on accurate flow measurement and control. We explore how precise monitoring and regulation help to enhance safety, compliance, and long-term business success. 24 ÁPharma Business International 23 www.pbiforum.net © stock.adobe.com/Quality Stock ArtsFLOW MEASUREMENT AND CONTROL 24 Pharma Business International www.pbiforum.net requirements can be determined by flow measurement. For example, the capacity of pumps, reactors, heat exchangers or other equipment is determined based on the anticipated flow rates. Accurate flow measurement data is used to calculate the required size and specifications of the equipment, to ensure it can handle the anticipated flow rates without exceeding its capacity. Once equipment is installed and operational, your measurement data can then be used to verify its actual performance against its stated capacity. Flow meters or other measurement devices may be installed in the system to monitor flow rates easily in real-time. By comparing measured flow rates with your machines’ expected capacity, you can assess that all equipment is performing as intended. Any discrepancies can then be identified and addressed promptly to ensure optimal performance. If deviations do go unchecked, they may lead to variations in product composition, compromising efficacy at best and, at worst, putting lives at risk. Accurate flow measurement and control further contributes to risk mitigation in the workplace as much as across your customer base, preventing overflows, leaks or hazardous situations caused by excessive pressures or flow rates. By maintaining optimal flow conditions, these systems enhance operational safety and protect both personnel and equipment from potential harm. This hazard aversion of effective flow is also vital for regulatory compliance. The pharmaceutical industry may be subject to severe quality standards and guidelines, but they are necessary to ensure the safety and consistency of your products. Accurate flow measurement eases adherence to these regulations by providing the necessary data and documentation to demonstrate process control, precision dosing and your observance of validated manufacturing procedures. This enables your business to meet the requirements set by regulatory bodies, maintain a reputation, and build trust with both customers and stakeholders. While maintaining product and process integrity needs a lot of attention for these immediate reasons, flow measurement and control are equally essential for optimising your business model’s long game. By monitoring and regulating flow rates, businesses can identify inefficiencies, bottlenecks or potential issues in their operations. This knowledge allows for targeted improvements and adjustments to Pharma Business International 25 www.pbiforum.net FLOW MEASUREMENT AND CONTROL © stock.adobe.com/wacomka maximise productivity, minimise waste and reduce production costs. Moreover, precise flow control enables more efficient resource allocation, ensuring that energy, materials and time are utilised optimally. If your pharma business is looking to grow productivity, precise flow measurement enables better process control, reducing the risk of errors and variations that could affect product quality, or cause a need for rework or recall. This level of control is also crucial in optimising your energy usage. If you have industrial heating or cooling systems installed, for instance, flow meters help monitor and control the rates of water or other fluids for heat exchange. Accurately measuring how your liquid ingredients are moving helps identify inefficiencies, optimise machinery operations and adjust flow rates to match the actual demand. This enables savings and reduces operating costs, maximising the overall energy efficiency of systems. No business owner needs reminding how important stripping away energy and material wastage is to an economical process. Here, measuring contributes by ensuring accurate dosing and material handling, avoiding overfilling or underfilling containers. Material spillage can also be better moderated in conveyors, feeders or transfer systems, while monitoring effluents and emissions helps control waste outputs. Each of these being managed with care contributes to passing yet more regulations, this time for environmental compliance, identifying areas of waste generation for the application of targeted reduction measures. As an added bonus to offset the constant assessment demands, reducing where you can cares for our planet in the most vital long game, keeping your negative environmental impact to a minimum. Making this observance a part of the daily running of your production line goes hand in hand with a consistent view of every component requiring an even flow. Especially when assisted by machine sensors, real-time monitoring allows your pharma business to identify any deviations promptly for immediate action. This continuous feed of information will help you allocate cost, make the most of your resources, and identify subtle ways to improve your products as well as the operations that help them better serve patients and customers. Whether you’re budgeting, perfecting, or boosting your business’s reputation, flow measurement is a fine detail you’ll be nonetheless grateful for having taken a closer look. WAREHOUSING AND DISTRIBUTION 26 Pharma Business International www.pbiforum.net © stock.adobe.com/Petinovs Adapting to change The supply chain is being stretched, which means it’s up to warehousing and distribution centres to adapt to the demands and find a solution. Pharma Business International 27 www.pbiforum.net WAREHOUSING AND DISTRIBUTION © stock.adobe.com/panuwat E fficiency and cost-reduction has traditionally been the most important factor in running a warehouse or distribution centre. The balance between minimising costs and maximising throughput, isolating and identifying factors that cause delays or problems becomes increasingly important. While social isolation and distancing have thankfully come and gone, fresh pressure from rising fuel prices, inflation and a lack of staffing has led to a whole new raft of issues. Given the new and unpredictable world we live in, perhaps it’s time to spend less time worrying about how to squeeze the most out of your warehouse, but more on how to keep it running no matter what hits. Resilience, more than efficiency, may be the industry’s latest keyword. It might come across as though these outward pressures are being touted as beneficial for the industry, and they’re really not. Adaptation rarely comes willingly, or happily, but the optimisations that will result from them can serve the sector well, and the lessons learned should not be forgotten. The largest of which now is inflation surrounding workforces, with low unemployment and wages combining to make warehouse workers in high demand. For those companies who cannot afford to offer exceptionally attractive packages to maintain and attract staff – and this approach isn’t very sustainable long-term anyway – the alternative is to look at ways to minimise the reliance on staff in the first place. We’ve long since touted the benefits of automation here, but with the fresh advent of AI being used in many industries, there may be a method to combine the two. It’s worth noting that automated warehouses don’t truly attempt to live in a world where humans don’t exist (even were they run by AI). There is likely to be a team monitoring an automated warehouse from another location, ensuring that everything runs efficiently and running the warehouse, and yet more staff in the warehouse itself to respond to problems or keep everything running smoothly. It would still mean smaller teams, however. Invaluable when finding staff isn’t always easy. By cutting out manpower there is less risk for accidents or mistakes. While `to err may be human` is all well and good, it’s not something that will placate major customers who haven’t received their shipment on time, or who now have lost or damaged stock. Automated systems reduce the chance of human error. Of course, they do not completely remove the potential for accidents, such as a wooden pallet splintering – a fully automated system also cannot be injured by the resultant mess. 28 ÁWAREHOUSING AND DISTRIBUTION 28 Pharma Business International www.pbiforum.net Software, specifically Supply Chain Management Software, can help with summation of stock incoming and outgoing, but also where it is stored and what employees will be available at the time that it is required to be shifted. Any delays at the distribution part of the supply chain, especially if caused by not having the correct SCM in place can be catastrophic, as it is distribution centres which commonly deal with directly with the final client – introducing that age-old risk of failing to satisfy and thus losing a key contract. Combining SCM with AI is still in its infant stages, but certainly something to be explored. Early adopters will be the ones to enjoy the greatest benefits after all. So, what is holding companies back? Costs remain an important factor, with a fully automated warehouse system requires not only specialist machinery and software, but also a lot of planning and preparation. For existing warehouses, it might mean alteration, or removal of all existing systems, which would lead to a lot of wastage. While for new builds, there is already such high investment being utilised for distribution centres that adding another facet to the mix in what is already a tough economic climate, simply isn’t desirable. Return on investment tends to be a little slower with fully automated systems, despite high labour costs. Naturally, all this is compounded thanks to the uncertainty of Pharma Business International 29 www.pbiforum.net WAREHOUSING AND DISTRIBUTION © stock.adobe.com/warloka79 factors like the war in Ukraine, inflation and the cost of living. On top of that there are also concerns about the flexibility of automated systems vs their more standard counterparts. When creating a new warehouse there is always the possibility that sales fall, or the space is not fully utilised in some way. In the event that a warehouse suddenly finds itself only operating at 50% capacity for instance, it is a relatively simple affair to move the racking around, designate the space to a different sector, rent out the space – or even just cut down on the size of the workforce to save costs. With a fully automated system this just isn’t quite so simple. Excess equipment could be sold for some quick capital, but that just leaves the warehouse unable to pick back up if sales increase, while leaving half of the warehouse inoperable will only result in marginal savings in terms of energy costs. Automated systems that are locked in place are not as easy to move around as workers, and even if a company was able to rent the space out to another – software systems and operating procedures would need to be adapted to the new products, causing further confusion. Ultimately, many companies are forced to adapt some kind of balance, reaping the benefits of automated systems where they can, while also keeping a certain degree of manual labour in place to work around it.Next >