Unlike most industries in which it's the leading, large manufacturers that are sharing data between the plant and the enterprise, the pharmaceutical industry is widely adopting integration as a way to streamline operations and ensure compliance. The integration is being used to collect plant data, as well as sending ERP data down to the plant. AMR Research Inc. offers a breakdown of industry adoption of plant-ERP integration. While most of the data flow is from the plant to the enterprise system, there is also a counter flow from the ERP to the plant.
• 59 percent of pharmaceutical manufacturers now send automated inventory updates from the plant to the ERP system.
• 54 percent use automated communication of production orders from the ERP system to the manufacturing system.
• 39 percent use automated quality updates from the manufacturing system to the ERP system.
• 34 percent are sending automated updates from the plant to the ERP system on work-in-progress.
• 30 percent synchronize recipes between the ERP and manufacturing systems.
• 24 percent of plants communicate equipment availability from the plant to the ERP system.
--By Rob Spiegel, Contributing Editor, Automation World
• 59 percent of pharmaceutical manufacturers now send automated inventory updates from the plant to the ERP system.
• 54 percent use automated communication of production orders from the ERP system to the manufacturing system.
• 39 percent use automated quality updates from the manufacturing system to the ERP system.
• 34 percent are sending automated updates from the plant to the ERP system on work-in-progress.
• 30 percent synchronize recipes between the ERP and manufacturing systems.
• 24 percent of plants communicate equipment availability from the plant to the ERP system.
--By Rob Spiegel, Contributing Editor, Automation World
