Pharma Manufacturing in the Digital Age: How Your Company Can Benefit From Digitalization

The pharmaceutical manufacturing industry is complex and ever-evolving, eager to implement any new processes that will allow it to keep up with the demand required of it. Unfortunately, shifting to more digitized processes has been tricky for an industry who has relied on the same practices since its inception.

“Our challenge as an industry is:

“How do we enable everyone to work digitally on a common platform?”"

- SHABBIR DAHOD, President and Chief Executive Officer, TraceLink

Now more than ever, it is imperative that companies adopt these newly developed strategies if they wish to remain competitive. Industry professionals responsible for these digital innovations have been sharing their insights in hopes of inspiring and influencing others to look towards the future when they begin changing their current practices.

Digitalization, or digital transformation, is the process of implementing digital technologies across the entire organization and all business areas to improve operations and customer experience. For the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry, digitalization means less errors, higher customer satisfaction, and an overall more efficient process. Throughout this blog post, you will discover 4 major reasons why your company should begin implementing digitalization into your pharmaceutical manufacturing strategies.

One major issue in the industry is an overall lack of consistency within companies, as each company uses different technologies and processes depending on their specific needs. This becomes challenging when collaborating with a supplier, because it can be difficult to get work done efficiently when they are using a separate process from your own. 

With digitalization, all of the different work nodes (potentially thousands!) that are usually separate can be connected through one single node. Companies can create their own network that interconnects with all those they work with. By implementing digitalization, it will be much easier to collaborate with suppliers and ensure the work is being done to your standards as you have more control over it.

Today still, the majority of the pharmaceutical manufacturing processes are carried out manually. For example, most of the communication is done by fax or email, making it the responsibility of a human to supervise the process from start to finish. This means that the industry still heavily relies on people to perform certain mundane or nuanced tasks, which can slow down the overall process tremendously. An issue arises when important decisions must quickly be made and the businesses success relies heavily on these issues being resolved.

Inefficiencies or inaccuracies in those processes can carry a significant business impact, but it can be avoided by moving all your mundane processes to digital. It also gives people the opportunity to focus their time and energy on more specific business related and process improving functions, resulting in a stronger overall business. 

When working with digitalization, all the information is stored digitally and processes are integrated much more seamlessly.  With this implementation, you can view what is happening at every level of the organization, which makes it much easier to track and trace where things are working and where there is need for improvement. It also allows for all different departments and functions to work together in a more cohesive manner, improving overall efficiency and productivity.

All information sourced from Shabbir Dahod, President and Chief Executive Officer, TraceLink

Companies who have been moving to more digitized processes have become industry leaders, because it allows for a more hybrid model when working with different suppliers. While some suppliers may still operate more on the manual side, many have gone digital.

There are many other benefits, including reducing costs, increasing production quality, and improving manufacturing operations that allows you to differentiate yourself from competitors.

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As technology continues to advance, each industry must find their own way to remain innovative and ensure their advancements are up to date. For the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry, this involves the implementation of digitalization, resulting in more cohesive and optimized processes. 

So, has your organization gone fully digital? Or are you ready to take the leap and join leading industry providers with pharmaceutical digitalization? 

Sources:

Dahod, Shabbir, President and Chief Executive Officer, TraceLink, "Digitalizing Supplier Management Operations to Improve Visibility and Collaboration with CMOs and Direct Suppliers"

Bermudez, John, VP, Product Marketing, TraceLink & Waldman, Karl, General Manager, Agile Process Teams, TraceLink, "Fast Path to Supply Management Digitalization: Accelerating Digital Transformation with Your CMOs/Suppliers"

Lehigh, Devin. “Digitalization in the Pharmaceutical Industry.” MECO, 10 Jan. 2023, www.meco.com/how-digitalization-affects-pharma-industry/#:~:text=Digitalization%20in%20the%20pharma%20industry,identify%20and%20improve%20packing%20processes.