The growing importance of turnkey supply in the pharma industry

The pharmaceutical industry is very fragmented, with numerous drug dosage forms for solid, liquid and semi-liquid applications.

This enormous diversity, the increasing cost pressure due to ongoing globalisation trends, and the increasing importance of product differentiation with primary and secondary packaging solutions result in a completely new dimension of required efficiency and flexibility in the packaging process.

In addition the packaging process has to be seen as an integrated element in the whole supply chain, with smart interfaces to the preceding drug manufacturing steps and the following warehouse and distribution concepts.

Furthermore the packaging has to guarantee product stabilities within specified time frames and has to ensure safe and secure storage and transport of the product until final use. The packaging must also justify its function as a marketing and communication instrument and, last but not least, important packaging features like child resistance, tamper evidence, protection against counterfeiting as well as increased patient convenience have to be realised.

New challenges

The changing role of pharmaceutical packaging requires innovative and economic design concepts for the machinery and system components used to fulfil customer needs and support the weakened patients at the end of the supply chain as much as possible.

The real challenge is to combine product and system flexibility with maximised efficiency of the packaging lines – the times are nearly gone when blockbuster products could be produced in high quantities over years without modifying a packaging line significantly and having huge security stocks in the warehouses to guarantee product supply at short notice.

As a further result of the logistical requirements, varying data (like region specific leaflets, country codes or language) have to be implemented in the packaging process as late as possible to reduce packaging variation and conversions in production. Technological innovations for online printing, labelling or process reengineering have to support these market needs.

With the increased importance of safe and secure supply chains in global markets, process analytical technologies (PAT) to ensure product and process quality, as well as new technologies like RFID to facilitate product traceability and to provide higher protection against counterfeiting, have to be further developed to allow economical and full integrated system concepts.

Added value

The sourcing of packaging solutions from a single supplier – rather than obtaining various system components which make up the packaging line from a variety of different sources – offers enormous potential for increasing packaging efficiencies and shortening return on investments. With the central responsibility for system engineering, project management and line installation, the time to market and the risk to fail defined user requirement specifications can be reduced. Moreover, the time exposures for line qualification and validation at customer side can be shortened significantly. This is an important added value in times where processes of qualification and validation are becoming ever more stringent, a development which has the potential for creating costly delays in the implementation and commissioning of new packaging systems.

With turnkey supply you should also not underrate the benefits of common control and quality assurance concepts, as well as increased effectiveness and efficiency of training programs for the operators. In the end, there are long-term customer benefits as well, like sustainable system reliability and simplification of further life cycle management including after sales services for spare parts, service level agreements, modernisation upgrades and field services.

Customised packaging solutions

With one of the biggest product portfolios in the packaging industry and an excellent know-how in system engineering, Sigpack Systems provides customised packaging solutions on a global basis. The modular concepts of flow wrapping machines, secondary packaging equipment and system components for product handling, feeding and buffering demonstrate a unique flexibility for system engineering.

Furthermore, the primary packaging of powders and granulates with high performance vertical form fill seal machinery – as well as the production lines for blister packaging and liquid filling processes within the BOSCH packaging group – complete the broad product portfolio.

In addition, the global industry network of the BOSCH group can be used to provide turnkey projects that are not in the scope of its own product portfolio.

Last but not least, the established qualification process of Sigpack Systems constitutes an excellent base to facilitate validation programs by supporting customers with application-specific qualification documents.

Your partnership with BOSCH Sigpack systems implies an optimised efficiency of your packaging lines, highest system reliability and maximised yields by using many years of system experience and competence, as well as leading technologies for the used system components. The global service network of the BOSCH packaging group provides you with the latest technologies and concepts for life cycle management and our innovative training programs help your operators to run the packaging lines with highest productivity rates within shortest time frames. With our additional validation services and the global industry network we complete our product and service portfolio and you have a strategic partner to strengthen and enlarge your competitiveness.

Sigpack Systems will continue to play a leading role to support our clients in the pharmaceutical industry with unique and economical system solutions and, as we did with important market players, help keep their finished goods supply chain safe and secure in a fast changing market environment.

With over 50 pharmaceutical packaging solutions in the last 3-4 years and increased market shares Sigpack Systems extends its system competence to the role as turnkey supplier in the pharmaceutical and medical industry. A clear strategic focus on this high sophisticated market segment and the leverage of existing synergy effects within the BOSCH packaging group will lead to a future positioning as key