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of consistency across printed labelling content. Once this challenge is addressed, repurposing structured approved content to be able to present this electronically becomes much simpler. To bridge the gap between consumer packaging groups and converters, the pharma industry will require an evolution of traditional manufacturing infrastructures. The obvious and ultimate solution is electronic packaging and smart labels to enhance the consumer experience and strengthen brand loyalty. New smart devices will inevitably become the new normal and manufacturers will then search for new functionalities to continuously achieve the best possible packaging and labelling. SIMPLIFY CONTENT COLLATION Making it easier to capture multilingual labelling and embracing linguistic minorities will better position manufacturers to exploit growth in emerging markets. Tailoring content collation to meet localised regulatory and product labelling requirements through expanded use of business logic will lead to less errors and lower the risk of non-compliance. Graham Francis, product marketing manager, Kallik sees labelling and supply chain executives achieving measurable benefits delivered by embedding business logic into labelling content collation processes as they begin to eliminate reliance on tribal knowledge. “They will also be better positioned to satisfy market-specific labelling variants and quickly adapt to ever-changing market and regulatory needs. Organisational decision making will also improve.”
It goes without saying, that all internal and external stakeholders need to be connected to eliminate dependency on uncontrolled processes (e.g. email). This makes it easier for labelling execs to capture and report on performance against key performance indicators (KPIs) and to target and implement process improvements that will have a measurable impact on performance. DIGITAL LABELLING Digital labels can also help solve the issue of adapting and are quicker and easier to update compared to print, as well as making it easier to present content in a coherent and attractive format. This will aid patient transparency and see manufacturers more easily adapting to localised language needs, leading to better informed patients and improved outcomes. “Organisations must also move from processes that are impossible to measure, to ones that are fully transparent as part of the migration towards digital labelling,” adds Francis. “This will sharpen focus on inefficiencies in areas of the business that are true bottlenecks, rather than risk assigning valuable resources to projects that might have limited impact on productivity.” SMART PACKAGING Smart packaging will empower manufacturers to rapidly make changes to label content without enduring the costs associated with reprinting and
repackaging. Smart packaging will enable manufacturers to be more responsive and adaptable, without facing the normal constraints imposed by physical printed labels. With this more dynamic approach, patients could have instant access to all information in the language of their choice, and as we move closer to patient-centric treatments we could envisage tailored personalised labelling becoming more prevalent. LOGISTICS AND DISTRIBUTION The move towards a more agile, connected community through embracing digital supply chain concepts is never going to be an easy transition, but the benefits are clear to see. Despite all the challenges of migrating from a vertical to a horizontally integrated business, increased use of manufacturing and distribution partners spanning a global market means that industry has to change if it is to remain competitive. But it’s not just external partners that need better integration, each internal function right from R&D to customer fulfilment needs an end to end transparency to support real-time collaboration and informed decision making. The only way to do this is to have all stakeholders fully connected and empowered at all times.
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With the evolving pharmaceutical market, the industry has had to shift and adapt to the changing times.