Managing Automation - December 2007 - (Page 17) volved in data entry, there’s that chance of error. So, people can focus on the job, not on punching keys on a keyboard to get data into the system. Q: Integration is an area often talked about, but where do you start? And how do you fill the white space? For example, we’ve talked a lot about standards from the corporate standpoint. Are you also looking at industry standards, such as the ISA 95, to help that integration between MES and ERP? A: We do incorporate ISA 95, predominantly in MES and automation approaches. Some of the foundation principles are incorporated in the interfacing and design that we use and what you would call the upper-level systems, such as ERP, but predominantly that’s more of a [shop floor] level. From an interfacing perspective, we build our own. However, it is built on a foundation that applies across all the systems within the network. Mainly, those deal with data ownership and what systems are the systems of record (which is a term you hear in pharmaceuticals a lot), so that we’re not trying to use systems for things they’re not good at. For instance, bills of material — we store those in the ERP system. They generate those and feed them to any systems that need the information. We don’t have duplicate bills and two different systems. That’s [owned] at the ERP level. We have done a lot of work in defining common data definitions for key data elements that are used throughout the manufacturing process so if you and I were in two different plants and we wanted to talk about a material number, I would know what that meant. I also would know the format of that information. By determining those basic foundation principles, it’s really a matter of saying what information does each system need in order to function? Where does that information come from? If it’s already sitting in an ERP solution, then don’t duplicate it by entering it again in a LIMS solution By matching process flow diagrams and these touch points, it was pretty easy to figure out where we should start with our interface work to integrate these solutions. We’re not done yet, but we’ve come pretty far. Q: In the four years that you have had the integration among the LIMS, the MES, and the ERP systems, have you been able to go back and show the results? A: We have. In MES solutions, you’re looking at [reducing] documentation errors, investigation reduction, and yield improvements, etc. We’ve seen improvements and efficiencies of head- count. We’ve been able to deploy people to other roles that were needed versus checking work somebody else did. We’ve seen productivity increases of 50%. Work that used to take two shifts now takes one. We’ve seen cycle time drops from 30 days to three or four. We have eliminated investigations due to laboratory and manufacturing issues by a significant amount. We publicize that all the way up to the highest levels of Wyeth management to show that we’re returning value. In Wyeth, we call it maximizing value for the customer. Q: We always hear about return on investment, but I read something about Wyeth achieving return on innovation. What does that mean? A: It is very similar. We like to look for new, creative ways to improve our business. That, in a lot of cases, takes money. Things such as diskless portable workstations, instead of PCs sitting in very expensive stainless steel [hard] cabinets on the shop floor, and [RFID] technologies have been put into place to further enhance the solutions that we’ve delivered to the business. It’s existing technologies, but the way we use them may be different. We’ve been aggressive in deploying those types of technologies into the hands of the users so they can get benefit from it — e-notebooks and things like that. It’s really paying off because we can tell from some of the benefits I mentioned earlier that we’re seeing a significant return from that. Q: Have there been any lessons learned that you can share with your peers? A: There have been many. I think that we’ve learned that sometimes it’s hard to change human habits and perceptions. Communication is key. You can’t over-communicate. On the plus side, we may have underestimated how fast we would see [benefits]. Some of the things have come faster than I had seen in the previous 15 years of being in this business. Having the pull from the user community — having them really want the process and the solution — is key. Without that, it’s very hard to be successful. Knowledge transfer can be a challenge. Our belief is that we need to have subject-matter experts at each site who understand the technologies and the processes. That means someone has to teach them, and then they have to internalize it so they can essentially be the advocates of it within their own facility. Depending on the site and location, that can be a short transition or a long transition, but you have to do it. — Stephanie Neil 17 December 2007
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