3 ways pharmaceutical manufacturing plants can eliminate downtime

In pharmaceuticals, stakes are high when continuity is on the line. From vaccines to antibiotics to prescriptions, people depend on your products for their health and well-being.

And pharmaceutical production is more vulnerable than most sectors when a maintenance emergency hits. Pharmaceuticals require two things above all: safety and sterility. But in the case of an unplanned emergency, sudden shifts in temperature and humidity can compromise both — and put your production at risk.

Unplanned downtime for pharmaceutical manufacturing plants could have a severe negative impact. So, what can you do?

Below, you’ll learn three things you can do to eliminate downtime, solve maintenance issues and protect your products from contamination in case of a utility loss emergency.

1. Immediately mobilize outside help to reduce downtime

Downtime is more than an inconvenience. It’s more than an obstacle. In pharmaceutical manufacturing, it’s an urgent and direct risk against your products.

Unfortunately, emergency outages and unplanned maintenance are unpredictable — and can trigger downtime in an instant. And as pharmaceutical manufacturing plants age, so does their equipment, increasing the chance for equipment failure and out-of-compliance production conditions.

It isn’t just about what you’re manufacturing, it’s also about what you’ve already manufactured.

When power goes, so does your temperature and humidity control equipment. Putting temperature-sensitive pharmaceuticals and research and development at risk of inefficacy.

So, what should you do?

How pharmaceutical manufacturing plants can reduce downtime:

• After making sure your employees and working conditions are safe, your cold storage products are your first priority. Secure all products that are sensitive to temperature and humidity. Take all necessary precautions for keeping your products sterile.
• Take stock of your circumstances. Find the root of your problem, and make an initial hypothesis of its cause.
• Contact a temporary HVAC and power generation provider immediately. The best can help you diagnose, strategize and implement a solution quickly. We recommend you already have a provider on hand in your contingency plan. 

Your contingency plan should be more than a list of reactions. The most effective contingency plans have proactive protocols in place and, if necessary, backup equipment on standby.

For example, we developed a contingency plan for a global pharmaceutical company requiring complete recovery of their chilled water supply within 24 hours of utility failure. We engineered a turn-key solution with equipment allocated on standby in case of an emergency.

Emergencies all feel insurmountable in the moment. And downtime is indiscriminate. But after securing your product and gaining a better feel for your circumstances, you can quickly take control of your situation and significantly reduce downtime — even within an hour.

2. Rent temporary equipment during maintenance emergencies

Equipment will eventually fail even when properly maintained and serviced throughout the year. Without a procedure in place, even the most minor equipment malfunction could put your production behind schedule.

Consider all the factors at play. The time it takes for your maintenance team to diagnose and troubleshoot the problem. Or get in touch with a rep and fight for your warranty’s rights. Or even receive and install a replacement. Or schedule a shutdown. Time is decidedly not on your side.

The solution? Rent temporary equipment. It provides a whole host of advantages:

• Rentals stop shutdowns in their tracks. And shutdowns can lead to downtime, festering small issues into huge problems.
• Replacing individual equipment is a cost-effective and easy short-term solution while you work on a more permanent one.
• Turnaround can be rapid with the right service
• Equipment rentals are the best solution available on-demand
• The best services can solve multiple problems, from power to humidity to cooling, in case of larger or more widespread emergencies 

Preparedness is the key to keeping your production running seamlessly in the heat of the moment.

3. Supplement utilities for temperature-controlled and sterile production

Your product helps people: it can drastically improve one’s health and wellbeing. It can even save their life. But if it’s not perfectly maintained in every circumstance — even in the chaos and confusion of a production emergency — it can hurt your customers, your business and your operational efficiency in one fell swoop.

Unfortunately, emergencies don’t discriminate. And power and temperature problems negatively — and quickly — impact the integrity of your pharmaceuticals.

Temporarily installing supplemental utilities, like HVAC, dehumidification and power, can avert your crisis. For example, we helped one organization keep their antibiotics at a consistent 6℃ temperature to prevent downtime during a service interruption.

When should you supplement utilities?

• When you need to keep your products sterile or at a specified temperature or humidity level
• while moving to a new facility.
• To temporarily replace or support utilities and equipment during a scheduled shutdown
• To keep processes in your manufacturing live during planned maintenance
• If production and storage demands increase and permanent utilities cannot maintain critical temperature or humidity setpoints

Final thoughts

When an emergency invariably strikes your production, you risk more than lost revenue and delayed shipments. You also make it hard for the people you serve to receive the life-saving products they need most. An emergency can come with lengthy downtime, out-of-control costs and wasted product.

These three tips help you get back to business virtually immediately and de-escalate setbacks into minor, manageable situations. But most of all? They help you safely deliver critical pharmaceuticals to people in need with significantly less — or zero — downtime.

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