A track and trace success
The introduction of anti-counterfeiting track
and trace regulations by a growing number of countries
is leading major drug multinationals to launch
new pilot projects to select their own technological
partners. Antares Vision reveals its involvement
in one such project.
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The processed image inside
a case packer.
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The choice of a supplier for a large strategic
project such as track and trace is not an easy
task, particularly because it involves many key
aspects that need to be evaluated. To enable the
selection of the right supplier, a major drug
group set up a team that included experts in the
fields of production, engineering and information
and communication technology, and coordinated
by a project manager with considerable experience.
All relevant aspects were assessed, including
the overall software architecture, the ergonomics
and functionality of machines, the capacity to
provide all related services (such as installation,
training and maintenance) for the long term and
on a worldwide basis to the organisational and
structural details of each company, while considering
financial aspects.
The first screening involved major industry players
and led to the final selection of two companies:
Antares Vision was one of those candidates.
Antares Vision is an Italian-German company that
provides inspection systems to the pharmaceutical
sector. The firm is the technological partner
of the IMA Group for all its artificial vision
and inspection applications and has quickly become
a force to be reckoned with within the track and
trace sector, thanks to its pragmatic approach
to the issues of packaging lines being integrated
with a powerful software architecture. Antares
has enjoyed increasing success over the years
and now has over 250 serialisation and aggregation
lines installed across Europe and Turkey.
To the test
In selecting the best supplier, the pharmaceutical
group compared the two technical solutions with
a pilot project: the competitors were to implement
a complete aggregation system on two separate
lines with similar characteristics and demonstrate
their capabilities in every critical aspect of
the supply, covering performance, product ergonomics,
lead times, installation times, reliability, adequacy
of documentation and training.
The test took place in Turkey, where in just
a few months the entire plant (one of the country’s
largest) was to be adapted according to the second
phase of the Turkish regulations.
Comprehensive solutions
Because the Turkish deadline for phase II (aggregation)
was quickly approaching, the time schedule to
set up the pilot line was very short. Despite
the tight schedule, Antares implemented and demonstrated
a global solution . one that not only met the
specific requirements of the single line in question,
but also set up a showcase of solutions that would
become essential for other types of lines in other
countries.
omplete range of solutions in aggregation provides
the ability to construct the parent/child relation
in any condition on the lines. Normally this relationship
is best done by directly reading the serial codes
during the aggregation phase (wrapping and/or
case packing), but what happens if, due to machine
and line configuration, this is not feasible?
It raised the following questions:
- How can such a relationship be constructed
when multiple layers of products are stacked?
- How can the problem be solved if the plastic
wrapping is preventing a direct read from the
cameras?
- What should be done when old wrappers or case
packers have no physical space to host the cameras
inside?
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"The
Antares Tracking System is a complete track
and trace solution designed specifically for
the pharmaceutical sector." |
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Thanks to its long experience in this field,
Antares Vision could demonstrate solutions of
all these potential problems. Its strict respect
of the tight time schedule was crucial in its
selection, particularly with the Turkish deadline
for aggregation quickly approaching. After the
pilot, over 30 production and distribution lines
with different layouts, machine manufacturers
and operating procedures have to be implemented.
This is one of Antares Vision's strongest points:
the ability to develop customisations in very
short time frames to fulfil the client's specific
needs. This capability is becoming more crucial
as the time to meet standards set by the US, Brazil,
Korea, India and European countries nears. In
Antares, customers will have a reliable, attentive
partner who is ready to keep up with technological
advances, quickly develop the necessary software
customisations, and construct new machines calibrated
to the
specific requirements of plants. Antares' tracking
taskforce
includes the world's best specialists who are
always on hand
to share their experience with line personnel
in order to build
the best solutions together.
"We listen to and understand the client's needs,"
explains
Antares Vision's technical director Massimo Bonardi.
"We
established a clear, constructive relationship
with all members
of the client's team to create new developments
in line with
requirements and with very rapid implementation
times."
A flexible ability
One of Antares Vision's strongest points is its
ability to create
highly flexible products that meet the needs of
production
lines rather than imposing standardised products
with little
capacity for adaptability.
"We have demonstrated skill in subject areas
such as IT,
machine construction and integration into lines,"
said Bonardi.
"For us, every project is a challenge and that
challenge lies
in being able to quickly create the right response
to the
client's needs."
A widespread track and trace solution
Thanks to this model of business, Antares Vision
has quickly
gained a share in the track and trace market,
and this
continues to expand as more customers turn to
the firm to
implement their aggregation phase so that they
comply with
Turkish regulations after having developed the
serialisation
phase with minor suppliers.
With over 250 lines . 40 with full aggregation
. operational
starting from 2008, and at least 120 lines that
will be fully
operational in aggregation by the end of 2011,
Antares Vision
demonstrates a very high commissioning capability.
The Antares Tracking System (ATS) is a complete
track and
trace solution designed specifically for the pharmaceutical
sector. It includes a suite of software modules,
printing and
reading systems especially designed for drug tracking.
The
reasons for its success are simple:
- It has eight different models for serialisation
with printing,
checking, labelling, and weighing options.
- It has a high-performance inkjet print system
for obtaining
excellent print quality.
- it offers a complete set of high-performance
cameras
for monitoring all aggregation phases, from
cartoning
to palletising.
- Antares Vision's powerful software architecture
is capable of
integrating all production and warehouse data
with the
enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.
- Its flexible, user-friendly interface facilitates
the operator's
daily tasks.
- The ATS taskforce is a team of technicians
and engineers
with multidisciplinary skills ranging from ICT,
production,
warehouse to product inspection.
ATS has its own database that is updated in real
time with
information from all the packing cells in the
line, including
which serial was produced, where and when, and
which
container it was placed in and where it was shipped.
At a
higher level, ATS modules interface with the company's
ERP
systems to receive the univocal codes and transmit
the parent/
child relations for each package (wrap, box and
pallet). At the
end of each production batch, the system communicates
the
database data to the company's ERP. It is this
very integration
between ATS and the ERPs that enables each product
to be
tracked after shipment, updating the product's
history until it
has been used/destroyed.
| "The
Antares Tracking System
is a complete track and trace
solution designed specifically for
the pharmaceutical sector." |
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The general philosophy is that in each packaging
cell the
control cycle is carried out by vision systems
specially designed
for the different levels of the production and
packaging line,
starting from the single package to the wrap,
the box and finally
the pallet. Each packaging cell checks the codes
at the inlet
and, once the container is complete, prints the
relevant code,
checks it is legible and that it contains all
the content. Even
partially filled containers can be dealt with.
Each cell is
independent of the others, thanks to the inlet
and outlet
controls: the ensuing redundancy allows for absolute
reliability
and maximum OEE, even if the packages are removed
or
damaged in the conveying zones between two stations.
Ready for more
Pharmaceutical packaging lines are under pressure
by the
implementation of serialisation and aggregation
procedures:
any unmanaged exception that may occur along the
packaging
line may potentially result in tracking errors,
because it would
break the chain of parent/child relationships.
Typical
production faults, such as conveyor belt jamming,
pack
damage, incorrect closure or bad application of
labels on packs
must be immediately detected and corrected.
The implementation of tracking systems, as well
as a
software solution at plant and line level, requires
specific
operations on lines, which may have to be designed
on a caseby-
case basis and have an effect on production organisation.
"For this impact to be kept to a minimum, systems
need to be
absolutely reliable and extremely simple to use
for supervisors
and line operators," explains Antares Vision CEO
Emidio
Zorzella. "We have clearly demonstrated that we
are capable of
designing and commissioning such systems as projects
of this
type are exactly what our business model is all
about."
After its success in Turkey, Antares Vision is
ready for the
new challenges once the next countries start implementing
track and trace.
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