Life sciences automation – A New Breakthrough in Life Sciences Sector
The life sciences automation market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.35% between 2021 and 2025. The key factors driving the growth of this market include the growing demand for automation in medical devices, healthcare accessories, and pharmaceutical industries.
Hence, life sciences automation has become an essential tool in the production of biopharmaceuticals. Automation provides significant advantages over manual processes including reduced labor cost, increased ability to innovate and develop new products, minimal human error or mistakes compared with manual processes, dimensional accuracy, repeatable product, etc.
The concept of life science automation-
Life Sciences Automation is similar to any other assembly automation in terms of equipment and machinery used for manufacturing. In simple words, it uses automotive equipment and machinery to manufacture medical tools and accessories used by healthcare professionals in their day-to-day practice. It’s a very common process wherein workers are replaced by robotic systems that carry out the same task flawlessly and in less time, with total accuracy, less cost, and almost no mistakes.
7 ways Life Science automation shaping the industry:
- Optimized Workforce & Improved productivity at Reduced Cost
- Increased possibility for innovation (development of new products)
- Reduced cost of safety and technical training for employees
- Improved and flexible process
- Increased efficiency, accuracy, and productivity
- Dimensional accuracy and repeatability of product
- Improved growth in asset utilization
Optimized Workforce & Improved productivity at Reduced Cost:
- Reduce total labor cost in the long run: In the long term, automation in life science medical devices can help reduce total labour costs. Manufacturing medical devices such as inhalers, IV cannulas, Safety masks, blood bags, needles, insulin pens, etc. involve a mass number of people and consumes time to perform the assembly, packaging, and other repetitive tasks. Automation involves fewer people in your processes, the less time they take and therefore lower your operating costs. In addition to this cost reduction, you can also benefit from reduced training costs and error rates as well as better quality control and safety procedures.
- Reduces the overall consumption of resources: There are multiple ways that automation in medical and healthcare manufacturing reduces the overall consumption of resources – by reducing the waste produced during processing; reducing inventory levels required between production runs; preventing the accumulation of outdated materials or equipment, and so on.
Increased possibility for innovation (development of new products):
- New product development: Automation allows for increased productivity and efficiency in the laboratory, which means more time and money can be spent on the development of new products. With automation, you can increase the number of tests you can run in a day, as well as improve equipment performance by increasing throughput and decreasing downtime. This leads to faster results that allow you to get products out sooner than before.
- Improved quality control measures: The ability to run more tests simultaneously means that it is easier for people running these experiments to keep tabs on all the sensors needed for monitoring purposes. Having better control over these sensors will help reduce errors in data collection or analysis because there are fewer false positives or negatives due to human error during testing procedures (which could lead to wasted materials). This frees up resources so they can spend more time doing what they need to do: innovating.
Reduced cost of safety and technical training for employees:
- Reduces the dependency on specific employees: One major advantage of life sciences automation is that it reduces the dependency on specific employees to run the machine. It does this by reducing the need to hire and train new employees, as well as retrain existing ones. This can be huge cost savings for companies that have been struggling with getting rid of employees who aren’t cost-effective or efficient enough at their jobs.
- Reduces the need to hire and train new employees: Another advantage is that it reduces the need to hire new employees. Hiring a new employee costs often costs much more than maintaining them in their role while they are less efficient than before (assuming there isn’t another position available where they would perform better).
This is because most of the tasks are done by machines and some companies do provide end-to-end automation solutions where your team just needs to monitor the progress.
Improved and flexible process:
When it comes to life sciences automation, your processes will be easier to change than they would be if you were using conventional methodologies. This is beneficial because you can make changes in processing without having to change the equipment or shut down the process completely in order to make alterations. Changes can also be made during production without stopping production lines from running, which helps save time and money.
Increased efficiency, accuracy, and productivity:
The automation of life sciences processes can reduce human error and improve accuracy, consistency, and repeatability compared to manual processes. This means that there are fewer mistakes made in the manufacturing process and therefore a reduced chance of human error.
Automation also increases efficiency by producing more batches per day, reducing costs for utilities such as electricity and water consumption.
Life sciences automation helps your manufacturing process just perfectly fit for this rapidly changing and growing industry with:
- High speed: Automation allows you to produce more products faster than manual labor can. This means that you can reduce the time needed to get your product to market, and increase your profit margin.
- Flexibility: An automated system is not as easily affected by human error or fatigue, which gives you an advantage over competitors who still rely on manual labor. It also allows your team members to focus on other tasks while robots handle repetitive processes such as sorting and packaging.
- Productivity: In addition to being faster and more flexible than manual labor, life science automation can also be used in conjunction with other technologies like artificial intelligence (AI). By integrating AI into systems like those above, they become even more efficient at detecting errors before they occur while simultaneously maximizing the efficiency and productivity of all involved workers
Dimensional accuracy and repeatability of product:
Let’s look at the dimensional accuracy and repeatability of the product. This is one of the biggest advantages of using automation in life sciences manufacturing. When you are trying to manufacture a specific dosage or concentration of a drug or other product, it’s important that each unit you produce is as close to identical as possible. For this to happen, you need an automated system that can move your products through the same process each time.
Automated machines allow manufacturers to maintain consistency in their processes by controlling all aspects of production from start to finish—ensuring that each unit comes out exactly as its predecessors did. Automatic machines also help reduce waste because they don’t make mistakes like human-operated equipment does (as we’ve already discussed).
Improved growth in asset utilization:
Automation can help increase your company’s asset utilization by automating manual processes that take up a large portion of labor time. For example, the amount of time required to assemble parts through manual assembly methods is often many hours longer than the same operation performed with robotics automation. This allows for additional resources (e.g., equipment) to be allocated elsewhere on the line without sacrificing output or quality due to limited capacity.
Conclusion:
It is only a matter of time and effort before automation makes its way into any field. Life sciences automation can significantly increase the possibility for innovation and new product development while reducing the dependency on specific employees to run the machine. The majority of plants today are using some form of automation in production and processing operations. The main benefit is that it offers both high speed and flexibility while minimizing human error or mistakes compared with manual processes.
As an automated life science assembly line is a highly technical unit, it needs to be handled only by experts who have hands-on experience in automated medical equipment manufacturing. Any risk of life sciences products getting damaged or malfunctioning due to mishandling could cost health and lives. Handling this kind of crucial equipment requires extensive experience as well as proper training/certification/licensing for safeguarding patients’ health and well-being.
Titan Engineering & Automation Limited (TEAL) has become the industry leader for its unparalleled history of delivering superior quality products with unmatched efficiency and speed. TEAL’s investment in life sciences automation has enabled them to revolutionize the industrial setup in the sector. With automated end-of-line testing, the assembly process is far more efficient than other options in the industry. Their expertise in medical devices and healthcare accessories manufacturing ensures each product is created with utmost precision as that is what their customers expect from them.