CASE: World-leading pharma company

Inline label printing cuts batch changeover time and reduces label waste

When introducing a new drug for rare diseases to the market, our customer – a world-leading pharma manufacturer – wanted to make small-batch production more efficient and cost effective.

That led to the development of a new solution for digital inline label printing.

The challenge

The company’s pen assembly line for the new high-value product will run batches of up to 200 items.

The customer knew from other lines that batch changeovers take 1-2 hours, so with multiple small batches every day, reducing batch changeover time would be crucial for productivity and for the new product’s business case.

In addition to this, the number of label variants needed would lead to high production costs and excessive label waste.

The CIM solution

Inline digital printing on blank labels

Software for digital print automation

The solution handles batch data, artwork, inspection and communication with the printer. No operator intervention needed.

100% inspection and verification

The system handles inspection of static data in any language, including character-based, and verifies each and every label.

Standardized software

The solution is built on the CIM products SPECTS, TRACKS, S3 and CATCH.AI, all tried and tested in pharma manufacturing.

The outcome

Short batch changeover time.
Only carrying one blank label type in stock will lead to less label waste and a significant cost reduction.
Product quality improvement: The system checks and verifies both static and dynamic content on every single label. Higher degree of accuracy.
A much more flexible production setup makes format changes easier.