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Automation in Pharmacy Production

How Automation Can Maximize Your ROI

Automation is not the future of industrialized production at scale; it’s the present. Currently, automation drives unprecedented levels of productivity among the world’s biggest brand names and most popular product lines.

As producers move towards more automation, they are increasingly realizing that each component benefits from the next one put in place. Implementing variable data printing controller systems, for instance, can bring about better quality control when coupled with scanning and coding devices. In this way, every piece fits together to form an automated ecosystem that runs efficiently while giving humans perfect control and oversight throughout the entire production process.

When this level of automation is realized, companies can truly begin to scale production while attaining unheard-of levels of ROI. To learn more about why end-to-end automation provides the best return on investment, consider the following benefits complementary automation systems can provide:

Reduced Labor and Overhead

The most obvious result of increased automation is a leaner operation. Repetitive tasks are transferred from a direct operator to a programmable controller unit, enabling one person to oversee and control operations on a large-scale basis as opposed to a batch-by-batch or item-by-item perspective.

Introducing automation can also add to the complexity of an operation without introducing additional risk and minimal resources. For instance, a system to catch scrap materials and autonomously handle their recycling and re-use is feasible with modern manufacturing ecosystems, whereas adding this level of complexity to a human-run operation would only increase costs rather than recover them.

Maximized Uptime

Automated equipment is smarter than ever. For example, modern inkjet printers can implement self-clean cycles during startup and shutdown, reducing the amount of manual cleaning needed to keep equipment running at its peak. Maintenance or operational changes can also be implemented upon equipment without halting production, letting operations flow uninterrupted while still adjusting to real-time conditions.

Another consequence of automating most or all of a production line is that systems can be managed from a higher-level perspective. Remote monitoring and control is possible, and sensors work together to anticipate possible downtimes and alert you before they become full-blown liabilities.

Improved Transparency and Oversight

In addition to remote monitoring, automated production systems improve oversight through procedural coding of each product and component. For instance, a building materials manufacturer can take every piece of electrical conduit produced from their line and imprint a product code upon it using rapid thermal laser printing. If a purchaser of these conduits has a major safety issue arise during construction, the product code can be used to trace the conduit back to a specific time, date, production lane, and possibly even process to identify where the compromise was introduced.

These coding and scanning systems allow for rapid, precise responses to quality issues without introducing the possibility of additional human error, protecting both the safety of customers and the reputation of the company itself.

Introducing Automation to Your Production Line to Achieve Higher ROI

The best place to start with automation is through purchasing labeling, printing, and controller systems that can work in tandem with one another. These systems alone can dramatically reduce costs while also lowering the risk of manufacturing errors and improving response time to defects that do occur. Together, these benefits help your production cut costs and achieve a higher ROI than has ever been possible.

You can learn more about how to reap these benefits for your production facility by getting in touch with one of our experts on autonomous industrial inkjet coding, print and labeling systems today.

Comments

  • Erik Seifert

    Interesting perspective ... the future is here.

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