The Pharmaceutical Industry's Digital Transformation Story | Sanovel Succeeded
About the Company
Founded in 1983, Sanovel, is a well-established pharmaceutical company operating in the Turkish pharmaceutical sector with a strong R&D structure, high-quality standards, and an innovative approach. With a broad production infrastructure in both sterile and non-sterile manufacturing areas, the company maintains a strong presence in both the Turkish and global markets through processes that comply with GMP standards and the requirements of international health authorities. Driven by a focus on quality, sustainability, and continuous improvement, Sanovel has implemented the ProManage MES solution as part of its digital transformation journey, transforming its production operations into a more traceable, data-driven, and efficient structure.
Hilmi Gündoğdu
Reasons for Need
Sanovel’s digitalization journey emerged from the need to monitor production processes more easily and access accurate data more quickly. Since numerous machines and processes operate simultaneously across different areas of pharmaceutical manufacturing, monitoring the entire system using manual methods was time-consuming and increased the risk of errors.
The key needs that stood out during this process were:
- Real-Time Monitoring: To instantly view the status, downtime, speed, and efficiency of every machine on a single screen.
- Reducing Manual Workload: To minimize time loss and the risk of errors caused by tracking processes based on paper records, Excel spreadsheets, and phone communication.
- Easy Access to Historical Data: To quickly review historical downtime, waiting time, speed, and efficiency data in order to identify the root causes of problems more clearly.
- Taking Faster Action: To access reports quickly, detect production disruptions earlier, and initiate the necessary improvements without delay.
By making production data more visible with ProManage, Sanovel aimed to simplify daily operations while establishing a solid data foundation for future continuous improvement initiatives.
Motivation for Choosing and Important Details
Sanovel aimed to reduce the time loss and risk of errors caused by manual tracking through digitalization. The ability to monitor production data in real time, easily analyze historical data, and generate reports quickly clearly highlighted the need for a digital solution.
Accordingly, the following factors stood out in the solution selection process:
- Previous Positive Experience: The Sanovel team had previously used ProManage in different production environments and experienced its benefits firsthand.
- Real-Time Data Monitoring: The ability to monitor machine status, downtime, speed, and performance data in real time.
- Easy Analysis and Reporting: The ability to quickly review historical data through graphs and reports, making it easier to identify weak points.
- ERP Integration: Compatibility with the existing ERP system, allowing information such as work orders to be transferred into the digital system.
- User-Friendly Structure: Enabling operators and managers to use the system easily and access reports quickly.
- Adaptability to the Production Environment: The belief that ProManage could be adapted to Sanovel’s production structure and that its usage culture could be successfully established on the shop floor.
Personal Experiences
Sanovel’s experiences during its digital transformation process and the key highlights of its transformation journey are as follows:
- Phased Transition Strategy: The system was implemented in two phases rather than being rolled out across the entire factory at once. This enabled a more controlled transition process.
- Cultural Transformation: Moving work orders, break records, and downtime records to a digital environment initially required a change in habits; the process was supported through regular monitoring and reminders.
- Technical Collaboration: Technical issues such as ERP integration, sensor communication, and Wi-Fi connectivity were resolved through the collaboration of the Sanovel teams and ProManage support.
- Employee Engagement: Making production data visible on screens encouraged operators to take ownership of the process and contribute with improvement suggestions.
- Visibility of Losses: Losses that were difficult to detect through manual monitoring, such as short-duration stoppages, became much more visible through digital data.
- Ease of Remote Monitoring: The ability to monitor production from outside the factory enabled managers to oversee operations more easily.
- Efficient Use of Time: The time spent on manual reporting was reduced, allowing teams to focus more on analysis and continuous improvement efforts.
What Has ProManage Brought?
ProManage has delivered multidimensional benefits to Sanovel:
- Real-Time Traceability and Remote Management: Production operations running 24/7 can now be monitored in real time from a single screen, even from outside the factory.
- Faster Reporting and Decision-Making: Weekly or monthly manually prepared reports have been replaced by digital data that can be accessed in as little as 15–30 seconds, enabling senior management to leverage their experience more quickly.
- Identification of “Hidden” Losses: Concrete data has revealed that seemingly insignificant 5-minute stoppages during daily operations can lead to substantial financial and productivity losses over the course of a year.
- Effective Use of Time: The time previously spent collecting data and preparing charts using paper and Excel is now devoted to value-added analysis and continuous improvement initiatives.
- Corporate Culture and Ownership: With greater data transparency, operators have begun monitoring their own performance in real time, encouraging them to provide active feedback for improving the system and take greater ownership of the process.
- Operational Efficiency Through ERP Integration: Thanks to ProManage’s full integration with the ERP system, work orders and recipes are automatically transferred to the system without the need for manual data entry.
- Energy and Cost Efficiency: By optimizing production processes, energy consumption per unit has been reduced, creating a foundation that supports sustainability and profitability goals.
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