Based in Las Vegas, Med-Health is a combination of three independent businesses where Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) technology from SAP will play a key role. Currently operating is a Med-Health business that sells medical supplies like gowns, gloves, sutures, and other "consumables." Opening this summer was a pharmaceutical drug wholesaler. And some time around January of 2008 will be the opening of a Med-Health pharmaceutical repackaging arm.
A typical tablet packaging line at the repackaging facility will consist of a bottle unscrambler, a counter/filler, a cottoner, a capper, a labeler, a shrink bundler, and a robotic palletizer. The company plans to automate the entire process by implementing an IT platform that will include a fully integrated warehouse management system as well as compliance capabilities for the FDA's Current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) and 21 CFR Part 11 (Electronic Records & Signatures).
"Full automation and complete compliance with all FDA electronic recipe requirements has never been done in pharmaceutical packaging," says Sam Haddad, vice president of operations at Med-Health. When the packaging operation goes into production, orders will be communicated automatically from ERP to packaging machines on the plant floor.
"To our knowledge, no one out there has automated to this extent," says Haddad.
Key suppliers in Med-Health's pharmaceutical repackaging operation in addition to SAP include SAP-certified channel partner KiSolutions, life sciences consultancy Pharmatech Associates, and the packaging line integrator ATS.
--By Pat Reynolds, Editor, Packaging World
