Get ready to up your game

In a bid to tackle increasing counterfeiting of drugs, the authorities in Europe, the USA and elsewhere are tightening regulations on the tracking of legitimate pharmaceuticals. One such regulation is the EU Falsified Medicine Directive (EUFMD), which requires serialisation and barcodes on the smallest saleable units of drugs. The directive is expected to come into force in 2018, which gives pharma supply chains some breathing space to come up with solutions that will meet the new criteria.

Michiel Veenman, global solution manager pharmaceutical industry, Swisslog explains: "This will definitely impact processes. For example, instead of picking three cases of product X, you will need to identify which three cases, which adds levels of complexity, particularly when interfacing with ERP systems.”

The technology to scan individual units is already there, the issue will minimising the time taken to do so. Aggregation is important is this regard says Michiel.

"With the issue of aggregation, e.g. breaking down a load into say, 10 units in a carton, 50 cartons in a case, 20 cases on a pallet - from the lowest unit to the unit you handle it all needs to be tracked - we feel software is important here and our software can handle this now.”

"The trick will be in the interfacing because the pharma companies are not yet fully sure how they will handle this. For example, how information will flow down and which sub system will take responsibility for it.”

Swisslog has a portfolio of technologies for pharmaceutical intralogistics designed with traceability, compliance and temperature control in mind. The company has many customers in the pharmaceutical industry.

Like many supply chain areas, pharmaceuticals is becoming more complex. The market is seeing goods that may have shorter than usual shelf life, that are available in smaller quantities, and higher value, say for rarer diseases. 

"The increase in ranges, and smaller batches, has an impact on intralogistics operations, we have more movements within the plant with lower quantities, higher number of products, so we are changing to cope with that by  creating more capacity for movements, for example,” says Michiel.

There is also a trend towards delivering direct to pharmacy or even consumers. This has a knock on effect on logistics, with more case and item picking, especially with 3PLs in the pharma chain. Michiel adds that the pharma supply chain can perhaps learn from the retail sector and how it has adapted to the multichannel challenge with the emergence of eCommerce.

Even without these new developments, pharma is a tough industry to cater for, with the high value of goods, high quality requirements, temperature control, and track & trace making a real difference. In the realm of temperature control, what used to be loosely termed as ‘ambient’ is now strictly limited to between 15-25 deg C.

Pharma factories are also distinct, with typically tight spaces and frequent movements from room to room. So, how does the intralogistics system adapt to these requirements?

Michiel explains: "We start with speaking to the customer, listening to his understanding of his business. We carry out a lot of analysis, on the flow in the warehouse, the type of goods and the volume of stock.

"Automation helps with predictability of pallet placement, making units easier to trace. Then, it’s about the software, the track and trace requirements are largely dealt with by the WMS.”

Swisslog recently carried out a storage and handling revamp with a top pharma manufacturer. One issue the manufacturer had was lack of storage space within the manufacturing site. It was increasing production and needed the logistics to keep up.

"We replaced a manual warehouse solution with automation, including stacker cranes, so we could handle 60% more products in the same space,” says Michiel.

The company also had a need to send relatively small quantities of semi-finished products and packaging materials to packing lines.

To solve this, Swisslog provided a goods to person picking solution, which brings the right set of products to an operator when needed, who then saves a lot of movements as well as space around the workstation.

The Goods to person process is also arguably more accurate than sending a picker into the warehouse.