Also known as the “Smart Factory”, Pharma 4.0 is the industry’s move towards digitalisation throughout the manufacturing process using AI, Machine Learning, Cloud Computing and the Internet of Things ((IOT).
Manufacturing has gone through three phases of technological development; mechanization, mass production and automation. Pharma 4.0 represents the shift of pharmaceutical manufacturing into a fourth evolutionary phase, the large-scale computerization of BioPharma manufacturing with cyber-physical systems.
Cyber-physical systems are those which utilise networked databases to enhance the manufacturing process all the way from the start of the supply chain through the factory floor and onto delivery. In essence it means each stage of the process will be connected. Once this is achieved, big data techniques can be applied to increase automation of routine processes and to enhance the decision making of managers, by increasing the quality and breadth of information available to them.
These systems can be put to a wide variety of uses, such as automatically adjusting manufacturing schedules in response to new orders, making quick corrections to delivery plans in the face of supply chain delays or the rapid detection and correction of equipment failures.
The BioPharma Industry is especially suited to this new mode of manufacturing, as it is already a high-tech industry with strong regulatory requirements. This means it has already achieved high levels of digitization, producing large reservoirs of data for use by its highly skilled workforce.
These developments are sure to expand the skillsets required by the BioPharma sector, meaning that Software Developers, Data Analysts, Cloud Developers and Network Engineers will sit alongside Microbiologists, Laboratory Technicians and Regulatory Specialists as crucial parts of the BioPharma Industry. These skill sets will be required in the ongoing transition from existing processes to modern networked systems and in the ongoing maintenance and upgrading of those systems.