Aggregation Proves Beneficial in a Contract (and Compact) Pharma Facility

Implementing new equipment where space is at a premium, PCI was able to incorporate aggregation and decrease inconsistencies in reconciliation.

PCI Pharma Services is an outsourcing provider delivering manufacturing, clinical, and commercial supply chain services for the biopharmaceutical industry. In preparation for FDA’s DSCSA regulatory requirements, the company made a strategic decision to integrate aggregation with serialization across a wide variety of products and packages.

When searching for a technology partner, PCI focused on the user-friendliness of the system for its production teams on the floor, as well as the ability to perform printing and inspecting along with aggregation all in one process. A key factor in PCI’s decision-making was for its partner to not only understand aggregation but also to have first-hand experience of having built a system around it, incorporating serialization at the same time.

PCI selected Antares Vision and its Antares Tracking System, which was implemented on certain strategic, customer-funded lines. Specific lines needed new modules in order to integrate this tracking system and were equipped with a number of Antares Vision machines along with hardware and software kits as well.

“The biggest challenge in implementation was physical space on the lines,” says Ray Hook, Director of the Global Serialization Group at PCI. “We have very little room to work with.  Our needs were met by purchasing various small foot print Antares Vision machines and hardware kits to integrate into existing equipment, so the line space requirements were kept at a minimum.”

PCI also added new and mobile Print and Check machines from Antares Vision with built-in checkweighers and Tamper Evident Labelers—eliminating the need for separate checkweighers, conveyors and Tamper Evident labelers—fitting the tight space requirements. The company says very few issues occurred during the implementation of the software, so the next big issue was training its employees.

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