Production Planning at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals

Modern production planning software tools provide vital decision support for pharmaceutical process design whilst streamlining production.

Planning and scheduling software solutions have major significance in the pharmaceuticals industry sector. Complicated processes, raw materials management, cost, value and the rate of development and change all come together to allow these technologies a particular place in strategic capacity planning, supply chain planning and also operationally to streamline resource usage and production throughput.

As Mike Straiton, Director at specialist planning and scheduling software company, Production Modelling, says: "When a pharmaceuticals company considers designing a factory, it not only needs to ensure that it has the capacity to meet the weekly demand, but also that it has the flexibility to accommodate developments pre-production. That means ensuring installation of all the correct equipment in the correct locations at the right time - as well as its efficient use when it comes to scheduling batches of product".

"That's where we come in with our Orchestrate production planning software. We use Orchestrate to look at supply chain processes before they become a problem. Businesses need to plan work now for drugs that may go to market a long way into the future," explains Straiton. "So companies like Wyeth Pharmaceuticals use our systems to help them understand their future global supply chain requirements. Based on estimated market demand, plant production capability, capacity and cost, they can then use Orchestrate to optimise the supply chain to ensure achievement of demand at minimum cost. Individual plants can then use the same software for day-to-day production scheduling."

Brian Kielty, Vaccine Planning Manager at the Grange Castle site of Wyeth Pharmaceuticals in Ireland, says that this is extremely important for his business as it operates in the biotech end of the pharmaceuticals industry, which invariably sees complex, high value production in expensive manufacturing facilities - the investment in the Grange Castle site is over $2 billion.

"Orchestrate production planning software has been invaluable in understanding the dynamics of how the many sections of the organisation interact with each other," he says.

"The software is utilised all across the various levels of our business, from strategic long term capacity planning to everyday operational planning and scheduling."

"We have many validated cGMP systems such as SAP, LIMS, and specifically tailored weigh and dispense systems, to support production, but their current limitation is finite scheduling," explains Kielty.

"These systems enable the tracking of the current status of material and operations throughout the whole manufacturing process, but are less effective in capturing constraints such as skilled personnel, equipment and process cycle times that must be considered to carry out a work plan in a timely manner."

"Orchestrate production planning software has been vital for closing the gap between these systems and providing feasible, robust schedules for supervisors and managers to carry out their respective tasks. Longer term, we believe that integrated finite schedules will considerably improve our performance, reduce variability and aid overall process time improvements."