Case Study - Clonmel Healthcare

Vertical: Pharmaceutical

Teritory: Tipperary - Munster

About Clonmel Healthcare/STADA Production Ireland

Clonmel Healthcare Ltd./STADA Production Ireland are Stada owned pharmaceutical manufacturing, Sales and Distribution companies employing over 270 staff across two locations - the manufacturing plant in Clonmel and the Sales and Marketing office in Dublin. Together the companies have a combined turnover in excess of €60 million in Ireland with a strong growth of 11% and also have a substantial export business to Europe along with a strong position in the generic antibiotic market in the United States.

In 2006 Clonmel Healthcare embarked on a brand redevelopment strategy following the findings of a major customer research report commissioned by the company. In early 2007 the new corporate identity was launched. The new distinctive brand mark represents Clonmel Healthcare’s core values of quality, customer service and dynamism and retains the strength of our heritage and strong link to our Irish roots.

Clonmel Healthcare currently has a large portfolio of products covering three distinct business units; Prescription medicines, Speciality medicines and the ClonMedica Consumer Division. Their prescription products cover a wide range of therapeutic areas including CNS, cardiovascular, NSAID, gastro-intestinal and anti-infectives. Within the Special Products Division we have medicines for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease, Testosterone Deficiency Syndrome and the management of diabetes. The ClonMedica product range focuses on three main areas; women’s and babies health, skincare and health supplements.

Clonmel Healthcare is committed to providing less expensive, quality medicines to the Irish market.

The Requirement

Clonmel Healthcare/STADA Production Ireland, as part of the Stada Group, was tasked with implementing the Global SAP project in the Tipperary production, warehouse and distribution facilities.  As with any world-class pharmaceutical manufacturing facility the requirement for state of the art scanning and printing equipment would prove paramount.  Secondary to this requirement was a reliable in-country supplier who could advise on the best equipment to allow smooth integration of production, warehouse and back office processes.

As well as a focus on actual production facility within the Clonmel plant there was also a requirement to automate the warehouse facility to accurately monitor and reconcile throughput of in-bound ingredients and out-bound finished products.

Having established an excellent working relationship over many years Clonmel Healthcare selected VisionID as the best fit to advise and supply AutoID materials for the production and warehouse facilities. Having close ties to the worlds leading manufacturers of AutoID equipment and a dedicated in-house Service and Support team VisionID were able to deliver the best solutions for a busy pharmaceutical manufacturing, sales and distribution facility.

The Solution

VisionID work in conjunction with IT and engineering management were quick to identify which solutions would work best for production and warehouse end users. The first stage was a comprehensive wireless network site survey of the warehouses conducted by VisionID’s service engineers to establish the most effective coverage. A combination of Psion Teklogix Workabout Pro handheld devices, Zebra Technologies ZM600 printers, Printronix T5305r printers, ELO Touchscreens, Symbol AP300 access ports with RFS 6000 switch and a complete range of standard and custom labels and ribbons provided the total solution package that allowed for data capture, storage and printing within a busy pharmaceutical manufacturing facility.

The WORKABOUT PRO is relied on every day in mobile-intensive applications such as asset tracking, meter reading, and mobile ticketing across a variety of industries such as field service, courier, retail, warehousing and manufacturing – and the list continues to grow.

It’s more than a data capture device. It’s a cellphone and an intelligent workstation too, allowing your mobile workers to call customers, upload route maps, and send data back to office headquarters. It has integrated multi-mode wireless connectivity including wide area network (WAN), 802.11a/b/g wireless LAN (WLAN) and Bluetooth-enabled wireless personal area network (WPAN) for anytime, anywhere voice, video and data connectivity.

ZM600 printers bring added flexibility to the popular Z Series platform, which has always stood out from the competition in terms of both performance and price. With 10-inches-per-second print speed, industry-leading throughput, rugged reliability, and a wide selection of options, these full-sized metal printers enhance productivity in tough environments and demanding applications

Based on the 5r Multi-Technology Platform, the ThermaLine T5000r family is an industrial thermal bar code printer designed to operate in challenging environments. Through leadership by design, the T5000r combines reliability, utility, power and flexibility for demanding environments and provides the open migration to RFID for future requirements. The T5000r supports the widest range of connectivity and control without sacrificing performance and provides the ability to meet new application and compliance requirements. The T5000r integrates real world experience that readily adapts to emerging standards. The T5000r firmware can be upgraded to keep pace with new thermal bar code printing innovations and applications.

Touch simplifies the human/machine interface for industrial equipment by enabling the operator's reactions to be natural and intuitive. Elo Touch solutions also help reduce the complexity of operations by eliminating the often cumbersome traditional operator interfaces. They simplify the task and reduce training time for operators while adding more capabilities to the machine itself. The Elo reputation for forefront technologies, wide range of solutions, quality, and long-term reliability ensures it is a preferred touch solution vendor for all industrial users. Importantly, we provide a range of touch interfaces that will continue functioning efficiently throughout the lifetime of your machine or system.

From the clean room to food-processing or the dusty factory floor; from portable applications to complex IPCs, Elo offers the largest selection of touch technologies and touch-enabled monitors and displays to the industrial market

This plug-n-play zero-touch configuration access port is a key component of Motorola’s award-winning wireless switch system, the wireless LAN (WLAN) architecture that does more - yet costs less. Working in conjunction with Motorola’s wireless switches, the AP300 delivers robust and feature-rich IEEE 802.11a/b/g connectivity. It can also be used as a sensor in conjunction with Motorola’s Wireless Intrusion Protection System (IPS). Adoptable as either a Layer 2 or Layer 3 AP, the AP300 supports Layer 3 Mobility - substantially reducing the cost of deploying, implementing and managing a WLAN while significantly increasing features, functionality and the security of the WLAN infrastructure.

The RFS6000 provides a single platform capable of delivering carrier-grade wireless voice and data inside and outside the enterprise for medium to large organizations with 2,000-20,000 users. Improve operational efficiency and reduce the cost of mobility with a powerful comprehensive feature set including Adaptive AP, which delivers unmatched performance, security, reliability and scalability to enable networks for business mobility at a low TCO.

VisionID supplied custom and standard labels and ribbons as part of the project requirements. In addition VisionID holds buffer stock of all consumables ensuring no stock out issues and same day delivery of product.

The Outcome

The seamless SAP integration undertaken by both companies has streamlined operations and information flow allowing real time updates and improved visibility of stock movements.   The equipment commissioned and ongoing support for this facility will prove key to future growth as well as product integrity and VisionID are proud to be a part of this process.