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CaseStudy
12
Januar y 2019
Supply Meets Demand
with Continuous Powder
Processing System
W supplied to the market,” said Damien O’Rourke,
With global focus on health, the aging population,
and overall worldwide population increases, the
vice president & chief operating officer at A&C. “We
needed a material handling system that would keep
pharmaceutical industry focuses not only on results
up with our demand, ensure worker safety, and limit
but also on production utilizing the most advanced
manual manipulation of material. The Vac-U-Max
process technologies. Over the past century the
team designed and manufactured a material han-
industry has realized unprecedented advances in
human health yet is struggling to keep up with de-
dling system capable of conveying over four and half
mands. Increased demand results in the need for
us to continually meet our growing business.”
increased production which poses a complete set of
A&C promotes a leadership position in providing
new challenges for compa- million pounds of powders per year that now allows
nies in the supply chain. full transparency in the supply chain, as demon-
Such production challenges strated through EXCiPACT, GMP, & GDP certifica-
were realized by A&C. A&C tions. EXCiPACT is a non-profit organization that
is a service-driven organiza- owns and manages oversight of an independent,
tion finding unique solu- high-quality, third-party certification available to
tions to its customer’s GMP pharmaceutical excipient manufacturers and distribu-
challenges. It is a custom tors worldwide. [2]
manufacturer and supplier “A&C’s quality management system is based on
of excipients, process solu- providing the highest quality product to companies
tions, buffers, and APIs. It worldwide, while safeguarding public health,” said
is audited by both FDA and O’Rourke. “We place strong focus on plant and per-
Health Canada, affirming its sonnel safety, product lead times, minimizing prod-
constant and stringent efforts uct contact, and manual manipulation of product in
to meet regulatory require- support of GMP initiatives.”
ments for pharmaceutical and Andy Pizans, Canadian sales manager for Vac-U-
biopharmaceutical raw mate- Max, confirms this. “This was a coordinated effort
rial suppliers. between A&C and Vac-U-Max,” said Pizans. “Without
With two GMP facilities this level of cooperation, the project would never
located in Montreal, Canada, have achieved the objectives of supplying a system
A&C manufactures, packs, that was easy to operate, safe, GMP compliant, and
and distributes bioprocess- efficient. All this was accomplished within a tight
ing liquid and bulk materials delivery schedule. A tremendous effort by both com-
under Good Manufacturing panies.”
Practices (GMP) with full Among A&C’s service offerings, the powders pro-
compliance to all interna- cessed are supplied in custom packaging meeting
tional regulatory require- customer specific requirements. Product must be
ments. GMP ensures that conveyed from different containers to the discharge
products are consistently point at a rate of 2200 lb/hr. Manual handling of
produced and controlled ac- product poses its own set of challenges including
cording to quality standards. slip and fall hazards, fugitive combustible dusts, and
It is designed to minimize the other sanitary issues that may result in decreased
Operator in safe location raises
risks involved in any pharmaceutical production that production and lengthy downtime. Employing vac-
bulk bag into position in ISO
cannot be eliminated through testing the final prod- uum conveying technology for dust containment, la-
Class 8 clean room.
uct. [1] bor savings, cleanliness, or safety and environmental
With product demand increasing A&C realized the reasons lies in the ability of vacuum conveying ex-
need for significant investment in bulk material han- perts to understand powder characteristics and how
dling capabilities to support expanding business and those characteristics interact with equipment design.
increased production, while focusing on minimal A&C also wanted the best ergonomics for their em-
downtime. As part of this initiative, A&C continually ployees, so they also selected a Vac-U-Max LoadLifter
focused not only on process, but also on end-product for the repetitive action of lifting bags from a pallet
quality, safety, and compliance. “A major challenge and depositing it on the bag-opening grate of the bag
our customers face is the way bulk materials are dump station.
