Industrial Automation Magazine India

Atos and Siemens introduce Digital Twin solution for pharmaceutical industry

Published on : Tuesday 19-05-2020

The solution is designed to provide improved efficiency and flexibility in the manufacturing of pharmaceutical products.

May 2020 – Atos, a global leader in digital transformation and Siemens, a global engineering leader, are working together with the pharmaceutical industry to improve production with an innovative solution based on a digital replica of the pharma production process. Currently being tested in the pharmaceutical industry, this innovative “Process Digital Twin” for pharma manufacturing – powered by IoT, AI and Advanced Analytics – is designed to provide improved efficiency and flexibility in the manufacturing of pharmaceutical products. Based on the pilot study, this potentially disruptive solution opens up new opportunities, such as a sustainable process development – reducing overall experimentation time and waste, ensuring constant quality and moving to new “quality by design” models to get the product right the first time. The solution also offers optimised measures for process quality and reliability.

The production and release of pharmaceutical products are complex and lengthy processes. To meet these challenges, one of Atos and Siemens’ global pharmaceutical partners has decided to test a new innovative solution, built and developed through a joint investment and business collaboration from the Atos-Siemens strategic global alliance. The “Process Digital Twin” is a complete virtual replica of a specific step in the manufacturing process, connected with IoT sensors installed on the actual plant.

It generates volumes of complex data and gives an instant view of all details of the operations. By pairing virtual and physical representations of the process, and using predictive models and real-time analytics, Atos and Siemens are helping the pharmaceutical industry to reinvent key elements of the manufacturing environment.

“We are delighted to bring digital technologies to the heart of the global pharmaceutical industry, helping it meet the multiple health challenges of today and tomorrow.” says Paul Albada Jelgersma, SVP, Global Head of Codex services for IoT & Siemens MindSphere at Atos. “With the Process Digital Twin developed by Atos and Siemens, a solid digital footprint of pharmaceutical products is created throughout the process development cycle, starting from the design phase, all the way to production.”

“Digitalisation at every point along the value chain will likely help the pharma industry get pharmaceuticals from the lab to the patient more swiftly.” says Rebecca Vangenechten, Head of business Pharmaceutical Industry at Siemens. “This was a challenging journey where the partners created the basis for future process development & manufacturing, based on science, technology and innovation”.