What is required of setting up a Serialization/Track and Trace system? For the serialization portion the pharmaceutical manufacturer will need to determine how they want to set up the Serial ID numbers based partly on required formats and standards and incorporating their own customization. They will then need to acquire the software capable of generating and tracking the serial codes. The software will need to interface with printers, vision systems and other equipment.
The next step will include creating and tracking the parent-child aggregation of the packaging. For example, when a single bottle of pills is boxed and placed in a carton with other single bottles of pills. Those individual serial codes must be included as the ‘children’ of the case/carton which will have a ‘parent’ code. The cases/cartons will then need to be included under the pallet’s ‘parent’ code.
As the product is fully coded and ready to leave the manufacturing plant, the product codes will need to be registered as to the date and time they left the facility and where and when they are delivered to their next stop. As the product travels through the supply chain, it must be ‘received’ at each stop and the data sent back to the originating facility. When it finally reaches the end user, (a consumer or hospital dispensary), the individual who is to consume or dispense the individual dose, should be able to scan the serial code and verify that this dose is traceable back to its inception at the original production plant.
What is the value of Serialization/Track and Trace? Read my next blog to find out.
The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading packaging machinery manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Monday, November 26, 2012
Changes for the Pharmaceutical Industry
Every company needs to keep current with their industry changes. No company can afford to be ‘looking the other way’ when a new trend, regulation or technology enters their industry. The regulation that will make a significant impact on the pharmaceutical industry is serialization and track and trace. California is placing a firm deadline on serialization and track and trace for all pharmaceuticals sold in that state starting in 2015 and requiring full implementation by 2017. There will be no time extensions. The FDA is currently at work on national requirements for serialization and track and trace.
These requirements have spawned a new industry of companies that specialize in the development of software that will allow pharmaceutical manufacturers to implement a system that works for them. One of the best results of all the requirements is the partnering of different companies offering software and hardware that will allow pharmaceutical manufacturers to easily implement a system.
New England Machinery (NEM) is one of the companies that is willing to partner with the software and hardware supplier of choice to implement serialization and track and trace on their packaging machines. NEM’s unscramblers, cappers and other equipment can be very simply integrated into a full “Serialization/Track and Trace” production line. The ability of NEM’s machinery to integrate with any vendor gives the pharmaceutical companies the freedom to choose the system and software that works best for their facility.
What is required of setting up a system? Read my next blog to learn more.
The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading packaging machinery manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.
These requirements have spawned a new industry of companies that specialize in the development of software that will allow pharmaceutical manufacturers to implement a system that works for them. One of the best results of all the requirements is the partnering of different companies offering software and hardware that will allow pharmaceutical manufacturers to easily implement a system.
New England Machinery (NEM) is one of the companies that is willing to partner with the software and hardware supplier of choice to implement serialization and track and trace on their packaging machines. NEM’s unscramblers, cappers and other equipment can be very simply integrated into a full “Serialization/Track and Trace” production line. The ability of NEM’s machinery to integrate with any vendor gives the pharmaceutical companies the freedom to choose the system and software that works best for their facility.
What is required of setting up a system? Read my next blog to learn more.
The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading packaging machinery manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Thank You from New England Machinery
On this eve of Thanksgiving Day in the US, everyone at New England Machinery wishes to say a heartfelt THANK YOU! Thank you to our hard-working vendors. They make great efforts to supply us on time with the materials we need to build our machines. Thank you to our local support agencies. They assist us in finding employees, offering educational opportunities, and keeping us informed on local topics of interest. Thank you to our banking and insurance partners. They keep our company and employees’ interests in finance and risk well covered. Thank you to the transportation companies that bring us our materials and safely deliver our machines. Thank you to the Sales Representatives, System Integrators, and OEM’s who assist us in promoting and selling our packaging machinery. Thank you to our wonderful customers, without who we would cease to exist. Thank you to our excellent owners who provide us a great opportunity to do what we enjoy most – building machines. And last, but not least, thank you to our employees who strive to give their best each day so that we can all succeed together.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!
The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading packaging machinery manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!
The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading packaging machinery manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.
Monday, November 19, 2012
Communication Changes
Less than 30 years ago there were a lot fewer options for promoting one’s business. The choices included, direct mail, newspaper and magazine advertising, radio and television advertising, trade shows and good old-fashioned door to door and telephone soliciting. For those who had a product to sell locally, you could print out flyers and place them on cars in parking lots. You could also promote your products through sponsorships of golf tournaments or banners at sporting events. Finally, there were promotional items you could imprint your company name on and give away, such as pens, mugs, etc.
Today the choices include all of the above plus, websites, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, QR Codes, E-Mail, Blogs, Wikis, RSS Feeds, White Papers, Linked In and more. To keep up with it all would require a large marketing department and an extremely large budget. So how do you promote your company with limited resources?
The key to getting it right is to first research which of the promotional opportunities is best for your company based on your target audience. If your customer base is senior citizens, then you can probably cross off Twitter, QR Codes and Linked In. But, unless you do the research, you won’t know for sure. Many seniors have the time to spend surfing the internet and may find you there. So start with basic customer research and find out what they are reading and where they are looking for new products. Once you know where your customers are, you know where to place those limited resources.
The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading packaging machinery manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.
Today the choices include all of the above plus, websites, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, QR Codes, E-Mail, Blogs, Wikis, RSS Feeds, White Papers, Linked In and more. To keep up with it all would require a large marketing department and an extremely large budget. So how do you promote your company with limited resources?
The key to getting it right is to first research which of the promotional opportunities is best for your company based on your target audience. If your customer base is senior citizens, then you can probably cross off Twitter, QR Codes and Linked In. But, unless you do the research, you won’t know for sure. Many seniors have the time to spend surfing the internet and may find you there. So start with basic customer research and find out what they are reading and where they are looking for new products. Once you know where your customers are, you know where to place those limited resources.
The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading packaging machinery manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Time to Plan for 2013
Although we still have more than a month left to 2012, it’s really the ideal time to start planning for 2013. The sooner you start, the better your plans will be as you will have more time to revise them, tweak them, and make them perfect. The best way to start planning is to put something down in writing. Start with generalities and you can later fill in more specifics.
If your job requires creating a budget for the new year, start by listing the things you know you must have, then add the things you would like to have in the budget. Give the ‘like to haves’ a number corresponding to how important they are to you. For example if you would like to have a new employee to assist in your department, but you would also like to have a new computer for two existing employees, determine which one means more to you and give them a number from 1 to 10 (10 meaning you really want that the most). Once you have completed your list and numbered them, put the cost to your budget down for each one. When you are done you can trim it down to where it needs to be by cutting out the ones with the lowest numbers first until your budget aligns with what you can get approved.
If you are planning projects, use the same numbering system as above. First list the projects that must be completed, then add the projects you would like to have completed. In this instance you can leave everything on the list, but you can put the more important projects up higher in the list and give them dates with the must do’s and most important should do’s highest on the list and with the earliest start dates. Keep in mind that you may not get to the items on the bottom of the list if the higher status items take longer than anticipated.
Planning is the easy part. Implementing is the harder part of the equation. But if you have a good solid plan with realistic dates and/or costs, you stand a much better chance of getting them done.
The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading packaging machinery manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.
If your job requires creating a budget for the new year, start by listing the things you know you must have, then add the things you would like to have in the budget. Give the ‘like to haves’ a number corresponding to how important they are to you. For example if you would like to have a new employee to assist in your department, but you would also like to have a new computer for two existing employees, determine which one means more to you and give them a number from 1 to 10 (10 meaning you really want that the most). Once you have completed your list and numbered them, put the cost to your budget down for each one. When you are done you can trim it down to where it needs to be by cutting out the ones with the lowest numbers first until your budget aligns with what you can get approved.
If you are planning projects, use the same numbering system as above. First list the projects that must be completed, then add the projects you would like to have completed. In this instance you can leave everything on the list, but you can put the more important projects up higher in the list and give them dates with the must do’s and most important should do’s highest on the list and with the earliest start dates. Keep in mind that you may not get to the items on the bottom of the list if the higher status items take longer than anticipated.
Planning is the easy part. Implementing is the harder part of the equation. But if you have a good solid plan with realistic dates and/or costs, you stand a much better chance of getting them done.
The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading packaging machinery manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.
Monday, November 12, 2012
The Best Way To Improve
What’s the best way to improve yourself and your company? Be critical. Give yourself an honest critique. Ask others for their input. Request that they be blatantly honest. We need brutal honesty to see what we may want to overlook. It is not an easy concept to accept. We all naturally want to think we are doing the very best we can, but we can’t improve if we refuse to see where we might make changes.
During our recent trade show I took notes on things that we could change and/or improve upon at the next show. After we returned home we had a meeting to not only discuss these items, but to discern if there were other items not on my list that we could change and/or improve upon to make ourselves better at the next show.
The time to look at this list and determine what we can and will do is right now while it is all still fresh in everyone’s mind. Also, this gives us the most time to utilize in implementing these changes. Don’t squash any new ideas just because they may sound too hard or too expensive to implement. Ask everyone to think harder about those ideas and see if they can come up with an easier and/or less expensive way to get the same end result. Great ideas usually start with a small concept that takes on a life of its own. Start one at your company today.
The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading packaging machinery manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.
During our recent trade show I took notes on things that we could change and/or improve upon at the next show. After we returned home we had a meeting to not only discuss these items, but to discern if there were other items not on my list that we could change and/or improve upon to make ourselves better at the next show.
The time to look at this list and determine what we can and will do is right now while it is all still fresh in everyone’s mind. Also, this gives us the most time to utilize in implementing these changes. Don’t squash any new ideas just because they may sound too hard or too expensive to implement. Ask everyone to think harder about those ideas and see if they can come up with an easier and/or less expensive way to get the same end result. Great ideas usually start with a small concept that takes on a life of its own. Start one at your company today.
The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading packaging machinery manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
It’s the Follow Through That Counts
Although I’m not a golfer, I’ve heard it said that it’s the follow through on your golf swing that makes a big difference in where your ball ultimately lands. If you immediately stop swinging when you hit the ball, it will fall short. The same is true for most things we endeavor to undertake. In business I see it a lot with meeting new people or attending a seminar filled with new information.
Our company just recently spent an enormous amount of time, energy and money to attend the Pack Expo International 2012 trade show. We were fortunate that all the pre-show hard work and marketing paid off in bringing in a great number of leads. Now, though, is where the follow through will make the difference in the real success of the show. Our team needs to re-contact every visitor (usually several times) to determine what and/or how we can help them improve (or start up) their packaging lines. If we fail to follow through, we have wasted a valuable opportunity and we will fall short.
The same goes for attending a seminar. When you go back to work after the seminar, if you put away all the material without attempting to implement something new you learned, you have fallen short. If you meet someone new at a networking event who has the potential to assist you in your work/business, make sure to contact them after the meeting. If not you may be missing the chance to work with another company in expanding yourself and your company. Don’t stop short, follow through.
The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading packaging machinery manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.
Our company just recently spent an enormous amount of time, energy and money to attend the Pack Expo International 2012 trade show. We were fortunate that all the pre-show hard work and marketing paid off in bringing in a great number of leads. Now, though, is where the follow through will make the difference in the real success of the show. Our team needs to re-contact every visitor (usually several times) to determine what and/or how we can help them improve (or start up) their packaging lines. If we fail to follow through, we have wasted a valuable opportunity and we will fall short.
The same goes for attending a seminar. When you go back to work after the seminar, if you put away all the material without attempting to implement something new you learned, you have fallen short. If you meet someone new at a networking event who has the potential to assist you in your work/business, make sure to contact them after the meeting. If not you may be missing the chance to work with another company in expanding yourself and your company. Don’t stop short, follow through.
The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading packaging machinery manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.
Monday, November 5, 2012
Thank You To All
I want to take this opportunity to say Thank You to everyone who assisted us in having a great Pack Expo International 2012 show. It was a complete team effort on everyone at our company. Many of our employees selflessly worked long hours to make sure that everything was done and ready in time to ship. There is not an individual or department within our company that does not assist in some way to make it all happen.
A successful trade show is the direct result of team effort. No one or two individuals could possibly pull off the incredible amount of work required to do it right. I’m fortunate that New England Machinery has a staff that is dedicated to making it all happen for the good of the company and more importantly, for the good of our customers.
It is definitely team effort that marks the difference between a good company and a great company. Thank You, Team New England Machinery!
The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading packaging machinery manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.
A successful trade show is the direct result of team effort. No one or two individuals could possibly pull off the incredible amount of work required to do it right. I’m fortunate that New England Machinery has a staff that is dedicated to making it all happen for the good of the company and more importantly, for the good of our customers.
It is definitely team effort that marks the difference between a good company and a great company. Thank You, Team New England Machinery!
The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading packaging machinery manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.
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