Monday 17 December 2018

Biologics project recognised.

A project which has made a significant contribution to the advancement of industry in Ireland through the use of Automation Technology.

The Award-winning Team at BMS Ireland
Back in November 2014 BMS Ireland announced plans to construct a new $1 Billion (€0.88b) state-of-the-art, multi-product Biologics manufacturing facility in Cruiserath (IRL).  The primary challenge was to meet the business need and complete the project and start up product qualification batches in Q4 2018.

Key to supporting the start-up of the BMS Cruiserath facility was the delivery of a complex IT and Automation architecture’s. Delivery of this architecture involved a number of innovative approaches to technology.

A temporary mobile data centre was used to take the IT Infrastructure server and network build and test off the project critical path.

During skid vendor FAT’s, which were held all over the world, a cloud based Process Automation system was used which allowed devices to be manipulated saving FAT set-up and execution time. MES and Process Automation recipes are generic and make extensive use of formulas and parameters enabling a flexible multi-product facility.

Process Automation software was designed, built and tested at the system integrator with BMS oversight allowing the FAT’d software to be leveraged significantly reducing the CQV time at site. There has been extensive use of data analytic tools to monitor the process such as the HETP tool for ensuring that the chromatography columns are correctly packed and multivariate monitoring tools to monitor bioreactor performance.

The project has been a resounding success, since the start of October 2018 immuno- oncology drug substance is now being produced for patients. The plant was designed, built, commissioned, qualified and put into production in three years which is among the best in the world for a plant of this size.
Finally and most importantly this delivery could not have been achieved without a highly committed, competent and passionate IT and Automation team which at peak grew to almost 200 team members.

This project was selected by the Ireland Section of the International Society of Automation for their Innovation Project Award presented at the annual Honours & Awards ceremony in historic University College Cork earlier this month (December 2018).

@bmsnews #PAuto #Pharma @IrelandISA

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