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Pharma Manufacturer Gets a Dose of Operational Efficiency

System integrator Grantek helped a Canadian pharmaceutical manufacturer update its legacy facility to provide better product routing and more plant data to prepare its operations for growth into the next decade.

A Canadian pharmaceuticals manufacturer sought help from Grantek Systems Integration to upgrade the automation engineering capabilities of its 180,000-sq-ft facility, which processes and packages intravenous (IV) and peritoneal dialysis solutions.
A Canadian pharmaceuticals manufacturer sought help from Grantek Systems Integration to upgrade the automation engineering capabilities of its 180,000-sq-ft facility, which processes and packages intravenous (IV) and peritoneal dialysis solutions.

Large automation upgrade projects for manufacturing facilities are driven by a multitude of factors, including increased regulations, changing consumer behaviors and the lure of greater operational efficiencies for legacy plants. But the path forward is not always simple.

When a Canadian manufacturer of intravenous (IV) and peritoneal dialysis solutions recently launched a multimillion-dollar upgrade for its 180,000-sq-ft processing and packaging facility, it called on Grantek Systems Integration to bridge the most complex engineering challenges of its automation initiative.

The project overhauled the manufacturer’s preexisting filler supply tanks and clean-in-place (CIP) system and updated all of the process piping to support better drainage, add product recirculation functionality and allow for automated connection of multiple tanks to multiple filling lines.

The facility consists of three filling lines serving two automated fillers and three manual fillers, and these lines are fed by the 13 solution tanks.

The initiative also added a comprehensive fleet of instruments on the processing side to help regulate and monitor solution flow. These included automatic solenoid valves, GEA Tuchenhagen mix-proof valves, analog control valves, back-pressure valves, Endress+Hauser mass and magnetic flow meters, and variable-frequency drives.

The challenge begins

The massive capital project encountered integration challenges after a third-party system integrator—followed by the pharmaceutical company’s internal automation staff—were unable to resolve control logic issues associated with the routing and fillers. The in-house staff tried on-the-fly patches, which only contributed more troubles as the company moved toward the validation stage.

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