1. Final MI Feb Main Doc 30/1/12 3:04 pm Page 7
Pharmaceuticals
Rottapharm Management Category winner for MEETA Maintenance and Asset Management Awards 2011 Paperless Maintenance
Project - Pictured (l-r) are Noel O’Regan, PMI; Darren O’Shea, Rottapharm; Wesley Horan, Rottapharm; Brian Dunne, Rottapharm
and John Coleman, MEETA
Rottapharm Madaus
Starts as it Means to Go On
In just over a decade Rottapharm has made a huge impact on the pharmaceutical
manufacturing landscape in Ireland, and now its methods of production is
gaining industry recognition also.
he company employs ification for the production choice to be administered
T 150 people at the
Mulhuddart facility, of
which about 60 work in
“These
successful
of medical devices.
Manufactured
as early as possible in the
treatment of osteoarthritis.
Bromelain tablets, an anti-
production. Currently the initiatives are Products inflammatory product, a
plant produces 350 million The operation in west sustained release capsule
sachets and over 450 mill- attributable to Dublin manufactures a formulation of Aspirin and
ion capsules/tablets, which range of capsule, sachet the laxative Plantago Ovata
is over four times the amount a growing and tablet formulations in sachets are also manufac-
produced when the com- addition to the API Cryst- tured on site.
pany set up in Ireland in team of alline Glucosamine Sulph-
1999. ate. The company’s leading Successful
The plant obtained auth- dedicated, product DONA (the original Investment
orisation to produce phar- Glucosamine Sulphate) is In 2009 Rottapharm ann-
maceutical specialities of
talented and manufactured in sachet ounced that it was under-
the Irish Medicines Board flexible and capsule forms for mar- taking a €7 million invest-
in January of the following kets in Europe, Asia and ment project. This was
year. That same year, it personnel” South America. completed in 2010 and the
obtained the ISO 9002 cert- DONA is the drug of first investment involved the
Manufacturing Ireland Feb 2012 7

2. Final MI Feb Main Doc 30/1/12 3:04 pm Page 9
Pharmaceuticals
transfer of a number of
new processes from anoth-
er facility within the group.
The project resulted in an
additional four packaging
lines, two coating systems
and an encapsulation mach-
ine.
The volumes of finished
product packaged doubled
as a result and an addition-
al 35 new jobs were creat-
ed. Rottapharm now has
five sachet lines, two blis-
ter lines and two bottling
lines in the packaging area.
Factory costs have risen by
only 12 per cent - with this
increase in packaging vol-
ume.
Standing Alone
Rottapharm are currently Rottapharm Certificate of Excellence winner for MEETA Maintenance and Asset Management
processing 46,000kg of Awards 2011 Sachet line 6 TPM Project - Pictured (l-r) are Noel O’Regan, PMI; Ray Burtenshaw,
material per week within Rottapharm; Bella Busko, Rottapharm; Aleksandra Wietrzyk, Rottapharm; Richard Hayes,
their manufacturing areas Rottapharm; John Coleman, MEETA; Conor Campion, Rottapharm and Cormac Quaid, Rottapharm
which encompasses API
and bulk solid dosage inter- been completed. from each area of the fac-
mediates. This represents
“We have The plant dehumidifica- tory. The use of net presen-
a 50 per cent increase on tion system was re-engin- ter on personnel comput-
manufacturing volumes had great eered to supply dehumidi- ers and bulletin boards in
since 2008. fied air to process equip- various locations on site
Rottapharm Madaus dis- success with ment rather than to pro- ensures employees are
covers, develops and com- cess rooms. As result there aware of the on-going
mercialises a range of is now one dehumidifier energy projects.
products for the treatment the Irish supplying four sachets
of anti-inflammatory, anti- lines where previously Industry Recognition
rheumatic, bone metabo- operation there was two dehumidi- “All companies like to
lism, menopausal and gas- fiers supplying two sachet win awards and be recog-
tro-intestinal disorders. To lines. Electricity usage in nised for projects that they
date research activity has
over the last 2011 was reduced by 20 per completed. It’s important
generated about 300 pat- cent compared to 2010. for the team members to
ents and 19 new drugs. 13 years and Planned projects for 2012 feel that they are part of a
include the installation of growing and reputable
Energy Efficiency we are very control software on two company that can compete
In terms of operations chillers units along with a and win awards against
Rottapharm is very dedi- site wide installation of LED stiff opposition.”
cated to energy efficiency pleased with lighting. In addition, it is “We consistently look for
and green energy cost cut- planned to use the heat new ways to reduce ener-
ting programmes. Energy the initiatives generated from a Regen- gy costs, not just with gas
efficiency projects became erative Thermal Oxidiser to and electricity but with
a major part of Rotta- heat water in a heat water and waste saving
pharm’s focus in recent
undertaken in exchanger and pump the projects too. Recently a
times in a drive to improve water back to the boiler project was initiated inv-
cost competitiveness. In the pursuit of room to pre-heat the return olving the EPA Green
the past few years major MPHW to the boilers. A Business Programme where
projects on the HVAC sys- operational cross-departmental envi- we are looking at recycling
tem, lighting arrangements, ronmental and energy team water from the effluent
boilers and the building is in place, which helps tank where the process
management system have excellence” gather energy saving ideas water is treated and also
Manufacturing Ireland Feb 2012 9

3. Final MI Feb Main Doc 30/1/12 3:04 pm Page 11
Pharmaceuticals
ines a range of KPIs were
formulated for perform-
ance reviews.
“We have seen a sub-
stantial reduction in equip-
ment failure rates plant
wide since the system
went live. The linking of
Barco and PEMAC will also
facilitate the introduction
of meter based mainte-
nance with actual running
times determining routine
maintenance requirements,”
said Wesley Horan, Project
A view of the Rottapharm facility in Mulhuddart, Dublin Manager CMMS.
“The paperless mainte-
the retentate from the puri- to support timely and accu- nance system compliments
fied water loop. We will
“We have rate information about the MES system installed in
make a submission in res- seen a maintenance activities. The production and the ware-
pect of the SEAI energy system was installed and house last year. We now
awards next June. The obj- substantial validated to CFR 21 stan- have electronic batch
ective is not to waste energy dards within six months records instead of paper
- if we get recognition for reduction in with data access and input batch files on all of our
our endeavours through via military standard lap- packaging lines and 90 per
national awards that’s an equipment tops at the machines. cent of our manufacturing
added bonus,” said Conor failure rates areas. The Werum MES
Campion, Facilities Manager. Maintaining system, which took two
Since the commencement plant wide Performance years to roll out plant wide,
of manufacturing opera- This system enabled has delivered significant
tions in 1999 the plant has since the maintenance activities to efficiency gains in produc-
received many awards be logged as they happen. tion and quality assurance.
including the Sustainable system went In conjunction with a Barco Paper has all but disap-
Building Award, NISO Occ- OEE system which is uniq- peared within the engi-
upational Safety Award,
live” uely integrated into mach- neering and production
Excellence Through People
Gold Standard and now the
MEETA awards.
“We were delighted to
win two awards for mainte-
nance excellence at the
annual MEETA awards run
by Engineers Ireland last
November. It was the first
time we had entered for the
awards. Our Paperless
Maintenance project won
first prize in the Mainten-
ance Management category
whilst we were awarded a
Certificate of Excellence
for our TPM project,” said
Pat Garrahy, Managing
Director.
The Paperless mainte-
nance project involved the
installation of a comput-
erised maintenance man-
agement system called
PEMAC from PMI Software An encapsulation machine in operation
Manufacturing Ireland Feb 2012 11

4. Final MI Feb Main Doc 30/1/12 3:04 pm Page 13
Pharmaceuticals
The sustained engagement
of our personnel with con-
tinuous improvement is
directly linked to business
performance. The involve-
ment of employees at all
levels has brought about
cost reductions, improved
productivity and increased
compliance. We have plac-
ed great emphasis on
employee empowerment,
leadership behaviours and
clear communication under-
pinned by a common vision
to drive all our CI activities”.
Rottapharm Madaus is
an Italian multinational
group headquartered in
Monza, Italy. It employs
more than 2,000 people
worldwide. It is active in
about 85 countries world-
wide and has manufactur-
ing sites in Ireland, Italy,
India, Germany and Spain.
Looking to
A sachet line in operation in the new facility the Future
The company aims to
environment because of lines in the plant with OEE grow its contract manufac-
the MES and CMMS pro-
“All averaging 68 per cent. turing business for sachets
jects,” said Paul Ludorf, companies The project created a in the coming years. Comp-
Technical Manager. sense of equipment owner- letion of a new process
like to win ship between production development laboratory
Performance and maintenance person- later this year will support
Standards awards nel by working together to this aspect of the Rotta-
The strategy for operat- establish the correct pro- pharm Ireland business.
ional excellence was rolled
and be cesses and practices. We Rottapharm aims to inno-
out when the new 2,000 sq recognised have now incorporated vate continuously, combin-
metre facility was opened TPM into our continuous ing CI programmes with a
for production and since for projects improvement programme. strong technology platform,
then, the processes put in This year we plan to have to position the company for
place by management, and that they 70 per cent of all employ- future growth.
adhered and added to by ees participating in CI “We have had great suc-
staff, has garnered the
completed. It’s teams rising to 100 per cent cess with the Irish opera-
praise of Rottapharm’s peers. important for in 2013,” said Richard tion over the last 13 years
“Our TPM project was Hayes, Continuous Improve- and we are very pleased
initiated in July 2010 on a the team ment Manager. with the initiatives under-
fully automated sachet fill- taken in the pursuit of oper-
ing and packaging line. The members to United Team ational excellence. It is
project team of production Pat Garrahy explained, planned to replicate the
and maintenance personnel
feel that they “These successful initia- continuous improvement
followed a nine-step imp- are part of a tives are attributable to a model deployed in Dublin to
rovement plan, which inv- growing team of dedicated, other production plants
olved significant capital growing and talented and flexible per- within the Rottapharm
investment in refurbish- sonnel who have demon- Madaus Group,” Dr Enzo
ment. At the end of the pro- reputable strated great commitment Lacchini, Corporate Tech-
ject the line was one of the to working together for nical Director, Rottapharm
best performing packaging
company” improved site performance. Madaus.
Manufacturing Ireland Feb 2012 13