Operational excellence at work: automation and new technologies help Wyeth achieve packaging line efficiencies at its pharmaceutical plant in Guayama, Puerto Rico

Food & Drug Packaging, Dec, 2007 by Lisa McTigue Pierce

Processing Unit: Solid oral dose

Packaging: Bottles, blister packs, dial/cycle packs

'From good ... to great'

Eric Cruz-Hernandez, technology PPU leader at the Guayama facility, points to an existing bottling line on one side of the hall and says, "From good ... to great," proudly pointing to a new line across the hall.

What makes this bottling line better? It's fast, flexible, automatic and takes advantage of state-of-the-art technology.

* Instead of the typical slat filler, Wyeth selected an electronic counter which uses vision technology to inspect tablets and is able to reject a single broken or chipped tablet at a time.

* The screw capper controls the power and conveyor speed of the induction sealer so the two operations are in sync.

* Packaging materials are fed to the line from hoppers outside the filling room. This, plus the fact that no corrugate enters the room, minimizes particulates around the exposed (unpackaged) product.

* Two side belts transport bottles from the filling room into the packaging area. With no conveyor beneath the bottles, Wyeth minimizes cross contamination by preventing anything else from leaving the filling room. It would simply drop to the floor.

* All in-process quality inspections and testing will be done automatically. "We want to rely less on the human factor," Cruz-Hernandez says.

* Initially cases will be manually palletized. But within two years, says Cruz-Hernandez, they will connect all packaging lines in the plant to one centralized palletizing system. "We're not sure yet if we'll put in conveyors or use AGVs [automated guidance vehicles]," he says.

* A Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system controls and monitors the line. However, they can switch the systems on the line to manual control so the line will still run if the SCADA goes down. (No, they haven't had a problem with this on the other lines. It's just something they thought of and added.)

Bottling Line BA is being set up to handle containers from 60 to 200 cc, but Cruz-Hernandez shrugs and says, "It could run anything.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

by Lisa McTigue Pierce

Editor-in-Chief