Case Study
Prescribing Production: How Schering-Plough Optimized Production with TrakSYS
Decrease in production overtime
Increase in productivity
Reduction in the cost per unit of production
After implementing TrakSYS, we were able to increase OEE significantly. By providing real-time performance information, everybody was more committed to our improvement goals. On the shop-floor, having the ability to see performance information instantaneously became a major motivator for operators. TrakSYS made it possible to quickly identify the root causes of poor performance and to devise corrective actions for substantial gains in overall manufacturing productivity.
The Company
In 1971, German company Schering AG merged with American pharmaceutical company Plough to form Schering-Plough. In 2009, Merck & Co. acquired Schering-Plough and rebranded the business as Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada. Merck manufactures many over-the-counter pharmaceuticals, including Claritin, Clarinex, and Levitra, and is also the company behind Dr. Scholl's foot care and Coppertone skincare products.
The Challenge
As the pharmaceutical industry's regulatory requirements grew increasingly stringent and customer demand continued to increase, the Schering-Plough team needed to optimize production and limit process variability. The plant faced disparate implementations, a lack of real-time production data, and no real-time data to support statistical process control (SPC).
The Solution
To gain the tools and insight they needed, Schering-Plough worked alongside Parsec Automation LLC certified partner HSI Smart Solutions to design and implement a TrakSYS rollout that met all IT and validation standards while remaining user-friendly.
Solutions were designed for material handling, lyophilization and drying, tablet compression, inspection, filling, and blister packaging. TrakSYS was deployed in a distributed model, with the application, database, and web each running on a dedicated server, and was tied into existing sensors and machinery to accurately capture production data. Twenty-five operator-specific stations were installed throughout the facility so teams could view information, access reports, enter observations, and categorize events.
The Impact
- Decreased production overtime by 62%
- Increased productivity by 18%
- Increased production capacity by 14%
- Reduced the cost per unit of production by 25%
- Enabled root-cause analysis
- Optimized maintenance
- Enabled enterprise-wide visibility
- Motivated operators to support process improvements
Get the Full Schering-Plough Success Story
See how HSI Smart Solutions and TrakSYS helped Schering-Plough decrease production overtime by 62% and increase productivity by 18%.
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